North Korea ready for another nuclear test: Yonhap
Pyongyang said the U.S. 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.
News of South Korea’s attack plan for the North is believed to have been revealed to parliament following Friday’s nuclear test.
The Friday test was North Korea’s fifth.
The U.N. Security Council denounced North Korea’s decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution.
Seoul said the 5.0 magnitude seismic event dwarfs the four past quakes associated with North Korean nuclear tests.
President Barack Obama condemned the test and said the United States would never accept the country as a nuclear power.
Under 32-year-old third-generation leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has sped up development of its nuclear and missile programmes, despite United Nations sanctions that were tightened in March and have further isolated the impoverished country.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, provided a similar assessment, saying that North Korea is either at or very close to the point where they can arm short-range ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead.
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 explosive yield of Friday’s North Korean blast would have been 10 to 12 kilotons, or 70 to 80 percent of the force of the 15-kiloton atomic bomb the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, according to South Korea’s weather agency.
“The United States condemns North Korea’s September 9 nuclear test in the strongest possible terms as a grave threat to regional security and to worldwide peace and stability”, he said.
North Korea protects its nuclear program as a closely guarded state secret, and the claims about advancements made in its testing could not be independently verified.
The relationship between North and South Korea is unsurprisingly tense, and this latest report indicates the South is fed up.
“As Commander in Chief, I have a responsibility to safeguard the American people and ensure that the United States is leading the global community in responding to this threat and North Korea’s other provocations with commensurate resolve and condemnation”, Obama said.
“North Korea continues to present growing threats to the region, to our allies and to ourselves”.