Members of the United Nations Security Council gathered in NY on Friday to discuss imposing further sanctions on North Korea, which conducted its fifth and largest nuclear test earlier in the day.
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South Korea’s military says it is analyzing whether North Korea has conducted its fifth nuclear test after seismic activity was reported Friday morning.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned North Korea’s nuclear test on Friday as a “brazen breach” of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
After a closed-door meeting on this matter, the 15-nation council said in a press statement that the nuclear test is a flagrant disregard of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, and “therefore a clear threat to worldwide peace and security continues to exist”.
The statement came after North Korea announced earlier in the day that it had conducted a successful “nuclear warhead explosion” test, saying it was meant to counter USA hostility.
The White House said the leaders had agreed to work with the UN Security Council to implement the current sanctions against North Korea as well as to impose new ones in response to the test.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the test shows the USA needs to be tougher on North Korea, and blamed the Obama administration for failing to implement the sanctions options approved by Congress just this year.
“But I think it’s no secret to you, or the world, that there is only one country that really has influence on North Korea and that, of course, is China”.
So far, China has “firmly opposed” the test, Japan “protested adamantly” and the United States warned of “serious consequences” including “new sanctions”.
“North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, the fourth since Hillary Clinton became secretary of State, is yet one more example of Hillary Clinton’s catastrophic failures. They aren’t a backwards state any more”, he said.
“Our nuclear scientists staged a nuclear explosion test on a newly developed nuclear warhead at the country’s northern nuclear test site”, a North Korean TV presenter said.
Kerry also said the USA was open to “credible and authentic” talks to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
Pyongyang’s claims of being able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.
Obama said additional steps, including new sanctions, are being considered.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Friday issued a statement, conveying its “firm opposition” to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea over its latest nuclear test.
Carter had a phone call with his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Han Min Goo, earlier Friday.
North Korea’s first nuclear test came in 2006, during George W. Bush’s administration, and two have been conducted in the last eight months, long after Clinton left the State Department.
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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.
