South Korea says North’s nuclear capability ‘speeding up,’ calls for action

The United Nations Security Council would discuss the test and whether the 15-member body should punish the reclusive state by imposing further sanctions at a closed-door meeting on Friday requested by the United States, Japan and South Korea, diplomats said.

Estimates vary, but North Korea may have about 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of weapons-grade plutonium, according to a 2014 South Korean report, which is enough for about seven atomic bombs.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned the latest nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) “in the strongest possible terms”.

They said the best hope is that China might better enforce or tighten United Nations sanctions by eliminating a loophole that allows Chinese imports of North Korean coal, cutting the remittances of North Korean workers or limiting the work of Chinese factories that process North Korean textiles.

China slammed it saying the country was “firmly opposed” to the test. “On the contrary, it is poison that is slowly suffocating the country”.

In recent months, it has vented its fury over the planned deployment of a new missile defense system in South Korea by the end of 2017 and has threatened to take “physical counter-action” in response to the plan.

President Barack Obama condemned the test and said the U.S. would never accept the country as a nuclear power. One key issue is whether China can be persuaded to play a stronger role in curbing its volatile neighbor, by tougher enforcement of the United Nations sanctions it has already endorsed and perhaps by enactment of new United Nations sanctions. But only one nation has the power to deflect North Korea from its unsafe course – China, which must realize that scolding the regime of Kim Jong Un is not enough. “It’s China’s responsibility”, he told a news conference during a visit to Norway. On Monday, it fired three medium-range missiles during a G20 summit in neighboring China that was attended by U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders.

The Security Council met on Friday after North Korea confirmed earlier in the day that it had carried out a nuclear test in the country’s northeast.

South Korea’s main spy agency told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing after the test that it does not think North Korea now has the ability to develop nuclear weapons that can be mounted on ballistic missiles, but intelligence officials expressed worries that the North’s efforts to do so are progressing more quickly than previously thought, said Kim Byungkee, a lawmaker from the opposition Minjoo Party.

Its continued testing despite sanctions presents a severe challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the USA presidential election in November.

“North Korea will have to bear the consequences of its acts and provocations”, he said, adding that more importantly, new sanctions are “indispensable”.

“It shows once more that North Korea continues to develop its nuclear program, alongside its ballistic missile program”.

“We should be able to defend ourselves against flying nuclear bombs or we should be able to make North Korea give up its nuclear program”. Pyongyang previously detonated a nuclear device in January. Senior officials from Pyongyang were in both capitals this week.

South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China all condemned the blast at the Punggye-ri nuclear site.

At an estimated 10 kilotons, it’s thought to be the most powerful explosion yet. The explosion, seen as its most powerful so far, coincided with the 68th anniversary the country’s founding on September 9 and was part of countermeasures against USA -led “hostile forces”.

“The important thing is that five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience”.