“It is entirely fair to say that they have continued to engage in the development of their nuclear program and these ballistic missile tests. We must strongly protest against it”, Abe said, adding that Japan would liaise closely on the matter with the US and South Korea.
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It conducted its second nuclear test of the year Friday, this time to indicate it can arm those ballistic missiles it’s been testing with nuclear-tipped warheads.
According to the ministry, the two sides also agreed to induce cooperation from Russian Federation and China in putting pressure on North Korea.
“It’s China’s responsibility”, he told a news conference.
China still values that strategic element more than it fears a nuclear-armed North Korea, according to Euan Graham, who served as Charge d’Affaires at the British Embassy in Pyongyang and is now a director at Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy.
The meteorological agency detected a magnitude 5.3 shaking in North Korea, near the country’s nulear test facility.
“The 10-kiloton blast was almost twice the fourth nuclear test and slightly less than the Hiroshima bombing, which was measured about 15 kilotons”, said Kim Nam-Wook from the South’s meteorological agency.
State TV said the test “examined and confirmed” specific features of a nuclear warhead created to be mounted on a medium-range ballistic missile, which it most recently tested on Monday when President Barack Obama and other world leaders were gathered in China for the G-20 summit.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff estimates the yield was 10 kilotons, which is nearly twice that of the January test and would be the country’s largest blast yet.
To counter that threat, the US has struck an agreement with South Korea to install a missile defense system called Thaad on its soil.
Kim Jong-Un appears to be unfazed by worldwide criticism of North Korea’s testing program and by global sanctions that ban testing.
Secretary of State John Kerry addressed the test from Geneva, where he’s trying to focus on the Syria crisis, saying he was confident that North Korea’s key ally China, and Russian Federation, shared the “concerns”, of the United States, but added that “we’re trying still to monitor to see precisely what took place”. It also barred North Korean ships from entering its ports and imposed a total ban on North Korean nationals entering the country, among other measures. Furthermore, the two countries remain on the same page when it comes to their opposition against Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test.
“I strongly condemn these consistent provocations and violations of binding U.N. Security Council resolutions which undermine regional and worldwide security”, he said.
The 5.0 magnitude natural disaster Friday is the largest of the four past quakes associated with North Korean nuclear tests, according to South Korea’s weather agency. By comparison, the atomic bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima in 1945 was 15 kilotons. Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program in exchange for aid were last held in late 2008 and fell apart in early 2009. North Korea is incorporating lessons learned from its launch failures as was indicated by the string of Musudan missile tests.
Singapore also expressed its concern, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying the provocative act “seriously jeopardises the peace and stability of the region”.
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North Korea was hit with a whole list of sanctions in March which included the prohibition of supplying aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, and the sale of small arms, to Pyongyang.
