“North Korea’s reckless leader, Kim Jong Un, continues to test nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, which poses a major threat to the United States and our allies around the world”. But he told reporters that South Korea and USA intelligence authorities believe North Korea has the ability to detonate another atomic device anytime.
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North Korea has been testing different types of missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, and the capability to mount a nuclear warhead would be especially worrisome for its neighbors South Korea and Japan.
Experts say that the test marks a significant yet incremental step for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Yonhap said Sunday that the plan would turn areas in Pyongyang, where the North’s war commanders were likely to hide, into ashes and “eliminate those places from the map permanently”.
The United States and South Korea are pushing for more sanctions against Pyongyang to close loopholes left in a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted in March.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had repeatedly offered talks to North Korea, but Pyongyang had to accept de-nuclearization, which it had refused to do.
“North Korea is an enormous challenge and we will do everything we can to keep the pressure on them”.
“China shares important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it”, he said.
“We estimate that North Korea has an inventory of 15 or 20 nuclear weapons and that they could be put on a truck or a short-range missile”.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Inoki gave Ri an unspecified gift intended for Kim, but provided no other details.
South Korea has previously avoided harsh rhetoric against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un but after Friday’s nuclear test, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Kim’s “mental state is spiraling out of control” and that his government has “fanatic recklessness”.
North Korea says its tests are meant to build a nuclear deterrent to defend the country against the United States.
China said it was resolutely opposed to the test but Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying would not be drawn on whether China would support tougher sanctions. Shock waves of magnitude 5.3 were detected near Punggye-ri about 9:30 a.m., according to an earlier statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a “creative” response was needed.
“We will be working very closely in the Security Council and beyond to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea’s latest actions”, said USA envoy Sung Kim on Sunday.
“The DPRK’s persisting nuclear weapon development and nuclear tests run counter to the expectations of the global community, escalate tension on the peninsula and is not conducive to the peace and stability there”, Zhang said. Russian Federation and China are the other veto powers on the Security Council. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a statement that a suspected nuclear test by North Korea “could not be tolerated”, according to Reuters.
But the North’s ruling party newspaper vowed Saturday not to submit to United States nuclear “blackmail”, and described the South’s President Park Geun-Hye as a “dirty prostitute” for working with U.S. forces.
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Pyongyang’s assertions that it is able to miniaturise a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.
