North Korea conducted its fifth and the biggest nuclear test last week and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain. Under 32-year-old third-generation leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has sped up development of its nuclear and missile programs, despite U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March and have further isolated the impoverished country. According to experts, this was North Korea's most powerful nuclear test so far. They say the seismic magnitude and surface level indicated a blast with a 20- to 30-kilotonne yield or it’s the largest to date. Such a yield would make this test larger than the nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in World War Two, which exploded with energy of about 15 kilotons. South Korea's military put the force of the blast at 10 kilotons, which would still be the North's most powerful nuclear blast to date. The important thing is, that five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience. According to reports, The Pentagon will deploy the U.S. Air Force WC-135, a modified Boeing aircraft, to collect air particles and any debris in the atmosphere and confirm the nature of the test.
The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea's founding, drew a fresh wave of global condemnation. The United States said it would work with partners to impose new sanctions, and called on China to use its influence as North Korea's main ally to pressure Pyongyang to end its nuclear program. The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the test and said they would begin work immediately on a resolution. The United States, Britain and France pushed the 15-member body to impose new sanctions. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged the group to remain united and take action that would "urgently break this accelerating spiral of escalation."U.S. President Barack Obama said after speaking on telephone with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that they had agreed to work with the Security Council and other powers to vigorously enforce existing measures against North Korea and to take "additional significant steps, including new sanctions. While Sanctions have already been imposed on almost everything possible, so it seems that the policies are at an impasse. In fact, the means by which the United States, South Korea and Japan can put pressure on North Korea have reached their limits.
China said it was resolutely opposed to the test and urged Pyongyang to stop taking any actions that would worsen the situation. They said would lodge a protest with the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying would not be drawn, however, on whether China would support tougher sanctions against its neighbor. South Korea's Park said Kim was showing "maniacal recklessness" in completely ignoring the world's call to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons. Russia, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain also condemned the test. "U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter called for a redoubling of international pressure on North Korea and singled out the role he said China should play."It's China's responsibility," he told a news conference during a visit to Norway. "China has and shares an important responsibility for this development and has an important responsibility to reverse it."
North Korea, which labels the South and the United States as its main enemies, said its "scientists and technicians carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead," according to its official KCNA news agency. Pyongyang's claims of being able to miniaturize a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified. Its continued testing in defiance of sanctions presents a challenge to US president Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the U.S. presidential election in November, and a headache to be inherited by whoever wins."If the U.S. and other hostile forces persistently seek their reckless hostile policy towards the DPRK and behave mischievously, the DPRK is fully ready to cope with them with nuclear weapons any time," the director of the North Korean Atomic Energy Institute said, using an abbreviation of the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.