Pyongyang said the USA must recognise it as a “legitimate nuclear weapons state” and that it would continue to strengthen its nuclear power “in quality and quantity” despite the West’s condemnation of the programme.
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The pre-emptive planning coincides with South Korean lawmakers and nuclear scientists launching a think tank pushing to arm their country with nuclear weapons after North Korea fired off its fifth and biggest nuclear weapon test yet, Yonghap also reported.
The Korean Central News Agency said in a statement that the test shows North Korea’s “toughest will” to be prepared to retaliate against any “provocation” by “U.S. -led hostile forces who have gone desperate in their moves to find fault with the sovereign state’s exercise of the right to self-defense”.
South Korea’s top nuclear envoy also spoke to his Chinese counterpart late on Saturday by telephone and emphasized the need for fresh countermeasures including a new United Nations security council resolution during their call, the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.
The North would work to increase its nuclear force “in quality and in quantity”, the statement said.
Following the North’s latest test, the South Korean defense ministry had presented the “Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation” (KMPR) to the national assembly.
The Pentagon did not have evidence that North Korea had been able to miniaturises a nuclear weapon, Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross said.
“North Korea is taking this opportunity to demonstrate their nuclear capabilities with an eye to the next government”, said Shunji Hiraiwa, a professor of contemporary Korean studies in Japan.
The detonation, which triggered an natural disaster with a magnitude of 5, resulted in an emergency session of the UN’s Security Council as North Korea hit back that it would not submit to “nuclear blackmail”.
After its fourth test in March, sanctions were toughened to include North Korea’s mineral trade and stricter banking restrictions.
The worldwide community should not allow North Korea to make its self-centered possession of nuclear weapons a fait accompli.
North Korea had previously conducted four nuclear tests, all at Punggye-ri, and they had caused similar patterns in seismic activity. Clearly, on the first question, the indication that the rest of the world will not do much to control North Korean nuclear weapons is increasing support for a Japanese nuclear arsenal, though this is, as yet, by nowhere near the majority opinion.
In Beijing on Saturday, Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui told North Korea’s ambassador to China, Ji Jae Ryong, that the test was “not conducive to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula”, China’s Foreign Ministry said.
The North Korean threat is likely to expand into full-blown nuclear-weapons capability early in the term of the next president.
The isolated dictatorship set off its most powerful nuclear test explosion to date on Friday (9 September), saying it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, to the alarm of the global peacekeeping community.
Experts say that North Korea has developed a unified design for nuclear weapons that could be mounted on a variety of its missiles capable of reaching Seoul and Tokyo. China too called upon the North Korean’s regime to exercise restraint and avoid further action, though it appeared to justify Pyongyang’s action by suggesting that it was possibly a response to the deployment of the United States anti-missile defence system THAAD.
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The secretary-general was asked whether growing worldwide opposition to the North’s testing, which is improving its ability to deliver nuclear weapons, might generate enough support now in the 193-member General Assembly where there are no vetoes to do something on the Korean issue.
