North Korean bomb prompts global condemnation
North Korea says it has tested a powerful hydrogen bomb that can be loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile, in a move that is expected to increase pressure on Donald Trump and other world leaders to defuse the growing nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
3 Sept 2017 10:07 PM IST
LONDON: North Korea's biggest nuclear test to date was condemned around the world on Sunday, with the UN nuclear watchdog expressing grave concern and Russia saying it could lead to serious consequences.
The explosion of what North Korea said was an advanced hydrogen bomb caused residents across the border in China to flee their homes, fearing an earthquake. Japan and South Korea said it was around 10 times more powerful than the tremor picked up after the last test a year ago.
An earthquake registering 6.3 was detected in the secretive state just before 7am BST on Sunday 75km (45 miles) north-northwest of Kimchaek, where previous tests have been carried out. The bomb was designed to be mounted on its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the North said.
It is the sixth time North Korea has exploded an atomic weapon, and represents a direct challenge to US President Donald Trump, who hours earlier spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the "escalating" nuclear crisis in the region.
President Trump sharply condemned North Korea's overnight nuclear test, saying Sunday morning that the action — which defied Trump's blunt warnings — was "very hostile and dangerous to the United States." Trump's response to North Korea's announcement that it had detonated a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States included an admonishment of South Korea for its handling of the crisis.
Trump is convening a meeting of his national security team later Sunday to discuss the US strategy, while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is drawing up tough new economic sanctions to further isolate North Korea.
In a pair of tweets issued Sunday morning, Trump wrote: "North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States. . .North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success."
Trump also scolded South Korea, a longtime US ally, stating, "South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!"
"The national security team is monitoring this closely," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Sunday morning. "The president and his national security team will have a meeting to discuss further later today. We will provide updates as necessary."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron urged tougher EU sanctions against North Korea after Pyongyang said it had tested a hydrogen bomb. "The international community must treat this new provocation with the utmost firmness,
in order to bring North Korea to come back unconditionally to the path of dialogue and to proceed to the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear and ballistic programme," he said in a statement.
China, the only North Korean ally that is a permanent member of the Security Council, urged its neighbour to stop "wrong" actions that worsen the situation. It said it would fully enforce UN resolutions on the country.
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