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North Korea accused of 'maniacal recklessness' after new nuclear test North Korea accused of 'maniacal recklessness' after new nuclear test
(about 1 hour later)
North Korea has carried out its 5th nuclear test its neighbours confirmed on Friday after an explosion caused an earthquake in the north east of the country. North Korea has confirmed it has conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date, marking the 68th anniversary of its founding with a reminder to the world that it may be edging closer to developing a warhead capable of striking the US mainland.
The US Geological Survey said it had recorded a 5.3 seismic event near the site of the North’s nuclear testing facility. Friday morning’s test, which triggered a magnitude 5.3 earthquake, drew immediate condemnation from North Korea’s neighbour. Several hours later, however, officials in Japan, South Korea and the US were still scrambling to determine what kind of bomb had been detonated.
The news sparked immediate concern in the region, with South Korea announcing that its prime minister would preside over an emergency national security council meeting. The test’s estimated yield of 10 kilotonnes is higher than any of the North’s previous four controlled nuclear detonations, according to experts, suggesting that the regime is enhancing its nuclear capability to mirror recent signs of progress in its ballistic missile programme.
President Park Geun-hye said that the North’s test showed the country’s leader Kim Jong-un was guilty of “maniacal recklessness” in completely ignoring the world’s call to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons. Together, those advances could one day give the secretive state a nuclear weapon compact enough to be mounted on a reliable long-range missile – a development that would pose a dramatically heightened threat to North Korea’s neighbours and the US.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council, pending confirmation that the earthquake was indeed a nuclear test. Friday’s test was confirmed by North Korea with state TV saying it had conducted a “nuclear warhead explosion” meant to counter what Pyongyang called US hostility.
Abe said evidence pointed to the possibility that the quake had not occurred naturally. “If it turns out that North Korea has carried out a nuclear test, that is something we cannot tolerate,” he told reporters. The test was conducted at a known testing site in Punggye-ri in the country’s northeast and produced a slightly yield higher than that recorded after its third nuclear test, in 2013, previously considered it most powerful to date.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said: “Given similar cases in the past, we think (the earthquake) may have been a nuclear test.” “The 10-kilotonne blast was nearly twice as much as produced in the fourth nuclear test, and slightly less than the Hiroshima bombing, which was measured at about 15 kilotons,” said Kim Nam-wook from South Korea’s meteorological agency said.
The two countries later confirmed that they had determined that the earthquake had been caused by the detonation of a nuclear device. The timing of the test to coincide with the anniversary of North Korea’s founding in 1948 came after the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, vowed to develop its nuclear capability, after three missile tests conducted as Barack Obama and other G20 leaders met in China earlier this week.
Japan’s defence ministry has reportedly dispatched aircraft to analyse air samples to see if any radiation could be detected. So far three, three T-4 aircraft, which are usually used to train fighter pilots, have been deployed, sources told Reuters. Japan called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council and its prime minister, Shinzo Abe, described North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme as a “grave threat” to Japan.
CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, reported that the country’s department of environmental protection had launched a level-two emergency response to the suspected test. Nuclear radiation monitoring was being carried out along China’s northeastern border with North Korea it said. The South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, denounced the test as a clear violation of security council resolutions banning the North from developing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Park accused Kim of “maniacal recklessness” in his pursuit of building a viable nuclear arsenal, according to her office.
Meanwhile the United States National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price said: “We are aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula in the vicinity of a known North Korean nuclear test site. We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners.” A spokesman for the US National Security Council, Ned Price, said Washington was aware of seismic activity on the Korean Peninsula. “We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners,” he said.
The seismic event took place at 9.30am local time and occurred at ground level. Naturally occurring earthquakes strike below ground. Its epicentre was 18km east-north-east of Sungjibaegam, the USGS said. Barack Obama had expressed concern on Thursday about North Korea’s nuclear activity. “We are going to make sure that we put our defensive measures in place so that America is protected, our allies are protected,” Obama said during a summit with South-east Asian leaders in Laos. “We will continue to put some of the toughest pressure that North Korea has ever been under as a consequence of this behavior.”
The magnitude of the seismic event would indicate a device with a 20 to 30 kilotonne yield, an analyst said, the largest yield estimate yet of a North Korean nuclear device. Some analysts suggested the bomb’s yield could be significantly higher than 10 kilotonnes. “That’s the largest DPRK test to date, 20-30kt, at least. Not a happy day,” Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies said, using the North’s official title of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “Yield estimates are always kind of approximate. The point is that it is the biggest one to date unless they revise the yield downward.”
“That’s the largest DPRK test to date, 20-30kt, at least. Not a happy day,” Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies told Reuters, using the North’s official title of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. China said its ministry of environmental protection had begun monitoring radiation levels in provinces near the North Korean border, but added that radiation levels were normal.
“Yield estimates are always kind of approximate. The point is that it is the biggest one to date unless they revise the yield downward.” Japan, meanwhile, sent two T-4 trainer aircraft to collect air samples for analysis of possible radioactive materials.
Three days ago the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said his military should continue nuclear weapons development after another round of test-firing of ballistic missiles. Confirmation from Japan and South Korea that North Korea had tested a nuclear weapon followed several hours of speculation over the cause of the seismic waves recorded on Friday morning, although the blast’s characteristics indicated immediately that the quake had not occurred naturally.
The North Korean KCNA news agency said on Tuesday: “He stressed the need to continue making miraculous achievements in bolstering up the nuclear force one after another in this historic year.” The South Korean meteorological agency said the tremor, which was picked up by monitors around the world, was “likely a nuclear test”. The US Geological Service reported an “explosion” in the area, adding that the tremor had been detected on the surface, lending weight to the theory that a nuclear explosion had taken place. Naturally occurring earthquakes strike below the ground or sea.
If confirmed, the timing of Friday’s test is significant as it would coincide with the 68th anniversary of the country’s founding by Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un. “The test caught many off guard, although Seoul officials have for months maintained that the North was maintaining a condition in which it was ready to stage a nuclear test any time,” said Kim Jin-moo, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.
Two months ago, U.S.-based 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project, said satellite images showed a high level of activity at North Korea’s nuclear test site, called Punggye-ri. The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said last month on its website, 38 North, that there had been “continued activity” at the site, particularly at the site of a nuclear test conducted in January.
Speculation had intensified that North Korea may conduct a fifth nuclear test after the United States blacklisted Kim on 6 July for human rights abuses. North Korea also conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013, drawing condemnation and rounds of UN sanctions banning trade and financing activities that help its weapon programme.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, resulting in tough new UN sanctions. It has conducted a series of missile tests this year, including a submarine-launched missile. The North said in January that it had detonated a hydrogen bomb for the first time, but that claim was met with skepticism by experts, who said the size of the seismic wave suggested the blast was created by a less powerful device.
More follows. Last week, Kim vowed to continue developing his country’s nuclear arsenal after overseeing the launch of three medium-range Rodong missiles, which flew about 1,000 km before landing in the Sea of Japan.
“He stressed the need to continue making miraculous achievements in bolstering up the nuclear force one after another in this historic year,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said in reference to the country’s anniversary.
Last month, the North successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine, a development that has caused concern in the US, Japan and South Korea, as missiles fired from below the surface of the sea are harder to detect in advance.
This year’s volley of missile launches, along with two nuclear tests, are bound to add to concern among other countries in the region that North Korea is moving closer to its goal of possessing an arsenal of nuclear weapons that can reach the US.
North Korea is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs, but it is now setting its sights on what would be a genuine geopolitical game-changer: a multistage, long-range missile able to carry miniaturised nuclear weapons.
Some analysts believe North is unlikely to have perfected the technology needed to make a miniaturised nuclear warhead that could fit on a long-range missile. But there is disagreement on just how far the North has advanced in its secretive nuclear and missile programmes.
Ahead of Friday’s test, the North Korean media called on the country’s people to demonstrate their allegiance to Kim, who became leader in late 2011 after the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong-il. “As the respected marshal lives, our republic will shed light brilliantly to all over the world as the fatherland of the sun forever,” the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ party, said in an editorial.