“North Korea keeps conducting nuclear tests, so it’s not like we can do anything about it right now”, said Chung Heyung-yoon, 60, in downtown Seoul, where people were shopping for the Chuseok autumn harvest festival that starts on Wednesday. And that’s not all.
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Kim Jong-un’s aggression and invective show no sign of abating. “China has no power to change Pyongyang’s behavior under such circumstances”. Some analysts said the country needed only a couple of more test explosions before acquiring such a warhead.
South Korea now believes North Korea conducted a nuclear test, an official with the South Korean Defense Ministry tells CNN.
North Korea said it has hit the button on its fifth and potentially most powerful nuclear test Friday morning, claiming to have successfully tested a nuclear warhead.
The two Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.
North Korean leaders say the test is in response to global sanctions and United States hostility in the region.
“North Korea appears to be on the cusp of significant advances towards longer range missiles, mobile and potentially sea launched missiles”. European and U.S. monitoring services also detected similar seismic activity, with the U.S. Geological Survey calling it an “explosion” on its website.
She said China would summon DPRK embassy representatives to make Beijing’s views known, but declined to say if it would support new tougher sanctions. And it hasn’t gotten a lot of traction.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter, on a visit to Norway, also reaffirmed an “iron-clad” commitment to defend South Korea and condemned the North Korean test on Friday as a direct challenge to the entire worldwide community.
South Korea, Japan, and US Top Diplomats agreed to seek “additional” action and “strong” measures against North Korea’s latest nuclear test. North Korea stands out as the only country to have tested nuclear weapons this century.
The Vienna-based IAEA was kicked out of North Korea in 2009. But some opposition lawmakers have opposed the plan, saying it could escalate regional tensions and bring South Korea into an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry.
So why does Pyongyang insist on stirring the pot?
“Kim Jong-un does not listen to any voice, and this leads us to view Kim Jong-un’s mental state as uncontrollable”.
There are indications it is, in reality, making progress on both fronts. Any move to impose new worldwide sanctions would require the approval of China, the North’s only ally. The announcement followed seismic activity near the country’s nuclear site picked up by foreign monitors. Or, at some point, Washington and its allies might give up and grudgingly accept the country into the nuclear club.
“This will have negative consequences primarily for North Korea itself”.
But Pyongyang also has reasons to be nervous.
The United Nations will discuss its next move at a meeting Friday.
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There have been reports that China has been lenient in enforcing the United Nations restrictions. -South Korea military exercises now include training for “decapitation strikes” on Kim and other leaders, and Washington’s decision in June to list Kim himself as a sanctioned individual.
