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

China joined the rest of the worldwide community in approving tough new sanctions on North Korea in March. As yields rise, bonds become more competitive options for investors seeking income.

Prior to North Korea’s confirmation, both Japanese and South Korean authorities concluded that the explosion, which caused an artificial quake, was the result of a nuclear test.

“We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners”, Price said.

Scientists say the estimated yield of around six kilotons was similar to the North’s last nuclear test in 2013, and far too low for a powerful thermonuclear device.

Obama consulted with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in separate phone calls from the presidential aircraft.

Meanwhile, the latest security developments may put China’s North Korea policy to the test at the UNSC, experts predicted.

Friday is North Korea’s national day and the nuclear test also comes just after U.S. President Barack Obama left Asia after attending worldwide summits in China and Laos.

North Korea has launched its fifth nuclear test and this time, the bomb is reportedly capable of being mounted onto a ballistic missile. Russia, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain also condemned the test.

“We agreed to work with the UN Security Council, our other Six-Party partners, and the global community to vigorously implement existing measures imposed in previous resolutions, and to take additional significant steps, including new sanctions”, Obama said in a statement.

Pyongyang’s claims of being able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.

Nuclear tests are usually heralded by chatter among analysts about preparations at Punggye-ri, but this time observers were largely caught off guard, said Kim Jin-Moo from the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

The energy index .SPNY shares, down 2.3 percent, fell along with oil prices, as the market discounted an unexpected slump in USA crude inventories as a storm glitch.

Those sanctions prevented Chinese banks from operating in North Korea and cracking down on the export of military or dual use materials. Today’s detonation wasn’t just about testing nuclear technology. Pyongyang previously tested at Punggye-ri in 2006, 2009 and 2013. “The nuclear test and surface-to-surface missile tests that preceded it require the continued action of the worldwide community against North Korean proliferation in many areas to countries in the Middle East”.

If North Korea’s missile threats are proven imminent, the South Korean military’s Kill Chain system will preemptively identify and strike key enemy facilities before a missile is launched.

But Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo, also a voting member, was more cautious and said on Friday in an interview with CNBC he wanted to see more evidence of USA inflation rising back toward the Fed’s 2 percent target, although he would not discount the possibility of a hike this year.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg echoed those comments, telling Pyongyang it must drop all nuclear and ballistic missile activities. Not only has the range of the weapons successfully tested jumped significantly, but the country is working to ideal new platforms for launching them – submarines and mobile launchers.