North Korea’s nuclear threat has grown significantly, following its latest and largest nuclear test and a series of missile launches, analysts say, with some South Korean newspapers even speculating about an atomic attack on Seoul.
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Preliminary data collected by the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), which monitors nuclear tests around the world, indicated the magnitude – around 5 – of the seismic event detected in North Korea on Friday was greater than a previous one in January. “The members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on appropriate measures under article 41 in a Security Council resolution”, New Zealand’s Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, who holds the council’s rotating presidency, told reporters after the urgent talks. “The council must use every tool at its disposal to change North Korea’s calculus”.
Earlier, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported South Korea’s military had a plan to use its missiles to “decimate” areas of Pyongyang if there were signs the North was about to launch a nuclear attack, quoting a source in the military.
North Korea has pledged to develop a robust nuclear arsenal to protect itself from the United States military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft capable of carrying atomic weapons in the region.
Specific details of the US unilateral sanctions have yet to be decided, Kim said, speaking to reporters in Tokyo after meeting Japanese foreign ministry officials.
In response, Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s ruling party newspaper said: “Gone are the days never to return when the USA could make a unilateral nuclear blackmail against the DPRK”.
Coal exports are an important foreign currency earner for North Korea, and halting them could be expected to deliver some pain.
It was not clear whether Pyongyang had notified Beijing or Moscow of its planned nuclear test.
South Korean military officials plan to raze North Korea’s capital if Kim Jong-Un (center) moves to bomb its Asian neighbors with nuclear weapons..
That includes the United States, which is considering its own sanctions against North Korea on top of any that might be imposed by the U.N. Security Council, South Korea and Japan.
“Still, North Korea has continued to press ahead”.
The nuclear test on Friday was so powerful, it based on the amount of energy released by the natural disaster it caused, say the experts.
At the UN Security Council meeting on Friday, US Ambassador Samantha Power vowed not to let North Korea hold the “world hostage under nuclear strike”.
Pyongyang responded on Sunday by calling the threats of “meaningless sanctions… highly laughable”.
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In this image made from video, Japanese wrestler-turned-parliamentarian Kanji “Antonio” Inoki, second from right, listens to Ri Su Yong, second from right, North Korea’s vice chairman of Central Committee of the Worker’s Party of Korea, during their meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea, Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016.
