Washington is also working with Seoul to install a missile defense system known as THAAD in South Korea, though the move has infuriated Beijing, which says the hardware poses a significant threat to regional security.
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The council meeting was expected to produce a statement condemning the nuclear test. Putting together new sanctions could take weeks to complete as a new sanctions package should win endorsement from China, the North’s main benefactor and permanent council member with veto powers.
“If there’s evidence that they can do that – or they have done that – then this is a major concern for the region”, Alexander Neill, a North Korea expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia, said. South Korean authorities believe Friday’s detonation was the North’s biggest to date.
South Korea’s Park said Kim was showing “maniacal recklessness” in completely ignoring the world’s call to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The D.P.R.K.’s repeated and willful violations of its obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions, its belligerent and erratic threats, and web of illicit activities around the world indicate it has no interest in participating in global affairs as a responsible member of the worldwide community.
China said it was resolutely opposed to the test and urged Pyongyang to stop taking any actions that would worsen the situation. “North Korea is seeking to flawless its nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles so they can hold the region and the world hostage under threat of nuclear strike”.
“Today the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, despite universal opposition from the global community, conducted another nuclear test, to which the Chinese government is firmly opposed”, said the statement.
“And so it’s important that it (China) use its location, its history and its influence to further the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”, he said.
Its continued testing in defiance of sanctions presents a challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the USA presidential election in November, and a headache to be inherited by whoever wins.
The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to some estimates.
“Sanctions have already been imposed on nearly everything possible, so the policy is at an impasse”, said Tadashi Kimiya, a University of Tokyo professor specialising in Korean issues.
The test is another slap in the face to the North’s chief ally China which has been under pressure to rein in its behaviour, and diminishes any chance of a resumption of six-country talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme.
North Korea’s latest atomic test was its fifth, and the second in eight months. North Korea has been testing different types of missiles at an unprecedented rate this year, and the capability to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile is especially worrisome for South Korea and Japan.
The Pentagon did not have evidence that North Korea had been able to miniaturize a nuclear weapon, Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said.
ATLANTA – (CNN) Ten years, five nuclear tests, and they appear to be getting stronger. Senior officials from Pyongyang were in both capitals this week.
The test triggered a magnitude 5.3 quake, suggesting that the blast – with an energy of about 10 kilotons – could have been the largest ever conducted by the country.
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State media reported that a smaller, lighter device was used, but it had greater explosive force than previous tests – perhaps around 6 to 7 kilotons, according to South Korea.
