Kim Jong-Un Pulls The Trigger On ANOTHER Nuclear Test

“We estimate the North has carried out the biggest-ever test”, a statement by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff cited by Yonhap news agency said, adding that the yield was thought to have been 10 kilotons.

But what happens next?

He noted that 90 percent of North Korea’s trade is with China. -China rivalry threatens to weaken efforts to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear programs, experts here said.

What are the neighbors saying?

Seismic activity, with a magnitude of 5.3, was detected around 9 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET) near Punggye-ri, Kilju County – the same location as four other tests, the most recent of which was in January. “Such provocation will eventually hasten its path to self-destruction”, she said in a statement.

One might also conclude that Pyongyang is making progress on the nuclear front, reflected in the increasing frequency of the tests.

North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006, but has insisted it will continue, come what may.

China will lodge representation with the DPRK over the nuclear test, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press conference Friday.

The Council again condemned Pyongyang on Tuesday, a day after it fired three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, coinciding with a G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Last month, a missile fired from a submarine also landed in the same zone.

Ri said the “nuclear test improved the status of [North Korea] as a nuclear power state and demonstrated our utmost strength, to provide, should they provoke us, a realistic countermeasure to the United States and hostile countries who are viciously falling over themselves in a show of power”.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is calling the move “fantantic recklessness”.

Meanwhile, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization is holding a meeting in Vienna today to discuss the event.

While most of the world has singled Pyongyang’s nuclear program out as a unsafe source of instability on the peninsula, North Korea has consistently said it needs a nuclear deterrent to what it believes is a very real threat from the United States. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also denounced the test, terming it a “clear violation” of UN Security Council resolutions and a “troubling and regrettable” action. Israel’s Foreign Ministry also called for worldwide action against Pyongyang.

China is always concerned about stability on its borders and has shown itself to prioritize keeping North Korea afloat over punishing Kim and his cronies.

That is despite the North’s steady arms buildup, and South Korea’s requirement that every male serve in the military for a term that is now 21 months.

Over the past few years, its anxieties have been heightened by attacks on its human rights record in the United Nations and suggestions Kim should be brought before an worldwide tribunal for crimes against humanity.

If Pyongyang can make a nuclear device small enough to fit on a rocket – and bolster the range and accuracy of its missiles – it might achieve its oft-stated aim of hitting U.S. targets.

“North Korea has done very thorough work in insulating itself from intrusive global systems generally, and the people are well accustomed to outside sanctions”.

Ordinary North Koreans usually express only officially-sanctioned views when questioned by foreign news organisations. “Nor should they expect China to solve this problem for the United States”, said the institute’s Joel Wit.