U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the council must use “every tool at its disposal” including new sanctions “to demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences for its unlawful and unsafe actions”.
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Tokyo will consider expanding its existing independent sanctions on North Korea, including restrictions on remittances to the country and a freeze on assets held by North Korea-linked individuals, while seeking to increase worldwide pressure on Pyongyang.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Kim’s mental state is “spiralling out of control”. Islamabad calls upon Pyongyang to comply with all the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and refrain from actions which undermine peace and stability in the region.
Tensions in North Asia have also been running high over a plan to deploy a United States missile defence system known as Thaad in South Korea.
The Security Council denounced North Korea’s decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution.
Russian Federation does have high-level communication channels with North Korea. Experts on North Korea and nuclear non-proliferation said the latest nuclear test could change that. By comparison, the nuclear bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of about 15kt. But the yield suggests that this was not a hydrogen or a fusion bomb.
With the argument that practice makes flawless, North Korea could potentially become proficient in missile launching in less than six years.
“It is believed that the North’s nuclear capability is becoming more advanced to a considerable level, and at a faster pace”, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se said. United States military officials also suggest that Pyongyang may have managed to miniaturise the warhead though U.S. civilian officials appear to be more skeptical.
What motivates the North Korean regime is of course the key question.
South Korea’s military put the force of the blast at 10 kilo tonnes, which would still be the North’s most powerful nuclear blast to date. So how can the world respond to today’s test?
Mira Rapp-Hooper of the Center for a New American Security think tank said the worldwide community could crack down by limiting Chinese processing of North Korean textiles and by restricting the earnings that North Koreans overseas send home, perhaps by curtailing the number of visas given to such workers. China remains the only country that has offered political and economic support to the regime.
Speaking with some frustration, he said that when it comes to the Korean peninsula, the secretary-general has no mandate from either the U.N. Security Council or the General Assembly, and he has not been able to appoint a special envoy or a special adviser on Korean issues.
This test also affects Asian security dynamics. He expressed Washington’s intention to work closely with Japan and also with South Korea.
Japan particularly sees the SLBM and Rodong missiles as threats to its security. In 2013 it said it had created nuclear missiles capable of reaching the U.S., but produced little proof, drawing skepticism from arms experts.
“More countries with nuclear weapons in Northeast Asia would increase the chances of the unthinkable happening”, Clinton said.
North Korea, led by a third-generation dictatorship and wary of outsiders, protects its nuclear program as a closely guarded state secret, and the claims about advancements made in its testing could not be independently verified.
The second issue is about United States support. And we need that missile defense — that capability to prevent that. Japan has also anxious about a possible Iran-like solutions worked out sometime in the future between the U.S. and China, which leaves North Korean nuclear capability in place, leaving Tokyo to fend for itself.
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On Aug. 24, North Korea fired an SLBM that flew 500 km, reaching Japan’s air defense identification zone for the first time.
