South Korea to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts against Pyongyang

“North Korea has played the US time and time again”, said Kroenig.

Whatever the motivation, North Korea could present a real danger to the worldwide community and its actions need to be put a stop to.

A nuclear bomb test in the same area in 2013 triggered a 5.1-magnitude quake.

– U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tells reporters he spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the phone and urged Beijing to end “business as usual” with North Korea after its nuke test.

It added, he also emphasized the importance of trilateral cooperation with Seoul.

South Korea and Japan are cooperating closely on North Korea provocations, following Pyongyang’s announcement.

North Korea’s latest bomb test is seen by some as one other act – political purges of scores of political figures is yet another – by a leader wishing to assert his supremacy to his people and the world.

The tremor was felt by seismic monitoring equipment overseas, and in China some residents were evacuated from buildings.

The Security Council was holding an emergency meeting to weigh the steps it could take. In a hydrogen bomb, a nuclear fission explosion sets off a fusion reaction responsible for a powerful blast and radioactivity. It is also a grave contravention of the global norm against nuclear testing. US President Barack Obama, confirming discussions with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-Hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said both Tokyo and Seoul were ready to work together.

South Korean officials said they were considering a variety of punitive measures.

The claims by North Korea that it conducted a hydrogen bomb test are the top priority for talks during Mr Hammond’s visit. And in line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on such measures in a new Security Council resolution.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said earlier that it was not yet considering shutting down the Kaesong industrial complex run jointly with the North, located north of the heavily militarised border.

The United States is limited in its military response for fear of provoking an unpredictable regime in Pyongyang, said Anthony Cordesman, a defense policy expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

But Mr. Kerry also acknowledged that the administration’s approach has failed.