In a statement hailing the “success” of its test on Friday, September 9, the North vowed to take “further measures” to increase its nuclear strike force “in quality and in quantity”.
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It did not elaborate on what activities had been detected at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site near the North’s northeastern shore, the location of its five nuclear explosions.
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 is ready to conduct another nuclear test at any moment, the South Korean defence ministry said on Monday.
Despite its earlier introduction of a series of bold inter-Korean initiatives, the Park Geun-hye government has turned hard line, in particular after the North detonated a fission bomb for the fourth time last January, followed by another successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile a month later.
After the test, the North’s nuclear weapons institute said it will take unspecified measures to further boost its nuclear capability, which analysts said hinted at a possible sixth nuclear test.
The worldwide community is said to be considering its response, with the U.S. saying it is considering imposing sanctions alongside those imposed by the UN Security Council, Japan and South Korea.
North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.
The US has been left scrambling to cope with the North’s surprising – and worrying – leaps forward in nuclear technology.
North Korea has dismissed as “laughable” moves by the United States to impose fresh sanctions following its fifth nuclear test.
Since Pyongyang’s maiden atomic experiment 10 years ago, each and every administration in South Korea has seen a gush of skepticism and calls for a revamp of its policy.
Obama, who has pleaded since first taking office in 2009 for a world without nuclear weapons, denounced North Korea’s actions as “unlawful and dangerous”.
The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), the flagship of the Yokosuka, Japan-based Carrier Strike Group Five of the U.S. Navy, will sail to South Korea’s Yellow and South Seas to participate in a joint naval exercise with South Korea, slated for October 10-15, the official said.
“The U.S. stands resolutely with the Republic of Korea and continues its ironclad support”, Christopher Bush, a spokesman at the U.S. military command in South Korea. Regional disarmament-for-aid talks on the North’s nuclear ambitions have not been held since late 2008.
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The US military delayed a planned B-1B bomber flight to the Korean peninsula, a show of strength and solidarity with ally Seoul, scheduled for Monday, Yonhap reported.
