Seoul: North Korea’s 5th nuke test ‘fanatic recklessness’

South Korea has also put together a plan to annihilate Pyongyang if it shows any signs of mounting a nuclear attack.

“It’s clear that Kim Jong-un has absolutely no interest whatsoever in changing”, said Yun.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the council must use “every tool at its disposal” including new sanctions “to demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences for its unlawful and unsafe actions”.

He said: “The members of the Security Council further regretted that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is diverting resources to the pursuit of ballistic missiles while Democratic People’s Republic of Korea citizens have great unmet needs”.

The government in Seoul will take “all diplomatic and military efforts to counter North Korea’s continued provocation”, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs Kim Kyou-Hyun told reporters Sunday.

“In addition to action in the Security Council, both the US and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation”, he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

“North Korea continues to present a growing threat to the region, to our allies, to ourselves, and we will do everything possible to defend against that growing threat”, Sung Kim said.

U.S. President Barack Obama lashed out on the nuclear test last Friday in a statement issued by the White House, calling it a “grave threat” to regional security and to worldwide peace and stability.

In a separate KCNA report on Sunday, Jong Won Sop, a teacher at the University of National Economy, was cited as saying North Koreans were “delighted” by the nuclear test. They later concurred Obama’s statement by announcing that the United States may launch unilateral sanctions against North Korea.

US President Barack Obama said after speaking by phone with the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on Friday that they had agreed to work with the security council and other powers to vigorously enforce existing measures and to take “additional significant steps, including new sanctions”.

“As Commander in Chief, I have a responsibility to safeguard the American people and ensure that the United States is leading the worldwide community in responding to this threat and North Korea’s other provocations with commensurate resolve and condemnation”, said Obama.

The South’s plans to attack the North are believed to have been revealed in parliament.

The recent nuclear tests have also tested the patience of worldwide authorities.

“In line with this commitment and the gravity of this violation, the members of the Security Council will begin to work immediately on appropriate measures” in a new United Nations resolution, the statement said.

The North’s fifth atomic test and the second in eight months brought the U.N.’s most powerful body into emergency session, just three days after it strongly condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launches.

A South Korean military source said the country would attack North Korea in the case of a nuclear threat. Asked what his take on Pyongyang’s intention behind the repeated provocations is, “It is trying to make the worldwide community feel increasingly insensitive” to its erratic behavior, he said.

“In addition to action in the Security Council, both the US and Japan, together with the Republic of Korea, will be looking at unilateral measures, as well as bilateral measures, as well as possible trilateral cooperation”.