Council members have frequently warned North Korea that further significant measures would be taken in response to additional nuclear tests.
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North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Friday that culminated with Pyongyang’s 68th anniversary.
New Zealand has taken a leading role in the response to what has been described at the United Nations as North Korea’s “insane” nuclear arms build-up and clear threat to worldwide peace and security.
Power described it as brazen defiance of the worldwide community.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon – “I count on the Security Council to remain united and take appropriate action”.
“It’s pretty incredible that we’ve come this far since the first nuclear crisis back in 1994”, says Hahm Chaibong, head of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a Seoul-based independent think tank.
During the talks, Wu mentioned that China’s foreign ministry earlier issued a statement in which it made clear that Beijing strongly objected to the North’s nuclear test. “Not a happy day”, Lewis told Reuters, using the North’s official title of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Clinton promised to work to end North Korea’s nuclear programme as secretary of state, yet the programme has only grown in strength and sophistication”, Miller added in his statement.
The South Korean minister emphasized that Friday’s nuclear test by Pyongyang is a crucial violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2270, calling the nuclear fiasco “a grave provocation”.
The UN Security Council agreed on Friday immediately to begin work on a new series of sanctions.
After Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test, the council in March adopted the toughest sanctions resolution to date targeting North Korea’s trade in minerals and tightening banking restrictions.
Initial estimates suggest the nuclear detonation, the country’s fifth, was its most destructive yet – with an explosive power that was the equivalent of between 10,000 and 30,000 tonnes of TNT. “North Korea is seeking to ideal its nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles so they can hold the region and the world hostage under threat of nuclear strikes”.
“We will take additional significant steps, including new sanctions to demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to its unlawful and risky actions”, she added. Its continued testing despite sanctions presents a severe challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the USA presidential election in November.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
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“So North Korea can now show off their nuclear capability proudly”, Suh said. It claimed it had successfully detonated a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on ballistic rockets.
