The United Nations Security Council accused Pyongyang of displaying “flagrant disregard” and “clear violation” of existing U.N. resolutions.
Advertisement
It is easy to dismiss North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, as a loony tunes villain in an isolated, far-flung country – as his cartoonish antics defy the boundaries of parody – but the latest display of military self-awareness through his fifth and most powerful atomic weapons test is creating waves far beyond Friday’s seismic activity on the Korean peninsula.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday expressed their serious concern over the latest nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
“The standardisation of the nuclear warhead will enable (North Korea) to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power”.
During his stay in NY, the country’s top diplomat will hold a meeting with his counterparts from the USA and Japan to discuss how to impose stronger sanctions on Pyongyang, the ministry said.
North Koreans watch a news report regarding a nuclear test on a large screen outside the Pyongyang Station in Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016.
There were further robust condemnations from Russian Federation, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain.
“As North Korea is saying publicly, they now have nuclear bombs mounted on missiles that can destroy our cities and they are proving it by all kinds of tests”.
“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.
I intend to do everything I can to take advantage of”, Clinton said, adding North Korea’s policy of developing weapons that could reach the continental United States is unacceptable.
“In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on appropriate measures” in a new United Nations resolution, the statement said.
The week began with North Korea test-launching three ballistic missiles and ended with the testing of a nuclear warhead and a statement announcing the technologies.
Pyongyang’s claims of being able to miniaturise a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified. Gardner said the USA should speed up that deployment. “It doesn’t take rocket science to understand we are not left with too many options”, the ambassador said. “We must urgently break this accelerating spiral of escalation”, he told reporters.
The phone call was made hours after a magnitude 5 natural disaster was detected at North Korea’s nuclear test site in its northeastern region at around 9:30 a.m. on Friday.
Advertisement
Even China, long North Korea’s economic benefactor and only major global ally, condemned the test, which may well be the one expression of outrage Kim isn’t relishing. In comparison, North Korea fired 16 ballistic missiles during the 17-year rule of Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.
