In a White House statement Friday, Obama called the test “a grave threat” to regional and international security and noted Pyongyang’s claims to be developing nuclear warheads capable of hitting the United States and its allies.
“The United States does not, and never will, accept North Korea as a nuclear state,” Obama said. “Far from achieving its stated national security and economic development goals, North Korea’s provocative and destabilizing actions have instead served to isolate and impoverish its people through its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities.” He said the latest test shows that North Korea “has no interest in being a responsible member of the international community.”
After consulting by phone with the South Korean and Japanese leaders, Obama said they would work with the U.N. Security Council and international community to impose “significant” penalties, including new sanctions. He also vowed to push ahead with deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea and pledged to provide “extended deterrence, guaranteed by the full spectrum of U.S. defense capabilities.”
China, the closest thing North Korea has to an ally, issued a statement “resolutely” opposing the test, which it said took place “despite the widespread objection of the international community.”
“We strongly urge North Korea to keep its promise to denuclearize, to abide by relevant resolutions from the U.N. Security Council and to stop making any moves that worsen the situation,” the statement from China's Foreign Ministry said.
In its official announcement of what it said was a “nuclear warhead explosion test,” North Korea claimed that it had been able to make “smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power.”
“This has definitely put on a higher level the [country’s] technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets,” said the statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Kim has been ordering speedy progress on missile development — as evidenced by recent salvos of medium-range missiles — and has been making observable gains with nuclear devices. But there remains no clear evidence that North Korea's scientists have been able to put the two together to make a warhead that can be delivered to a target.
However, a growing number of analysts and American military chiefs believe it is just a matter of time until North Korea masters this technology.
This test seemed to have a dual purpose, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
“Domestically, Kim Jong Un wants to present himself as a strong leader standing strong against the U.S.,” he said. He suggested that this could be because Kim, at 32, is young but also perhaps because recent high-level defections have raised speculation of cracks in the regime.
“Internationally, this test is designed to show that sanctions imposed against North Korea and international pressure are not working. They’re urging the world to accept its failure and revise its North Korea policy,” Yang said.
Friday’s test highlights North Korea’s continued defiance, but also the ineffectiveness of even the most recent waves of tough sanctions imposed after the nuclear test in January, analysts said.
“The whole expectation eight or nine months ago was that sanctions were finally going to bring North Korea to heel, but clearly that is not the case,” said David Kang, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California. “Clearly they respond to pressure with pressure of their own.”
Still, the international community is expected to look for ways to inflict more pain on North Korea, which is already under sweeping sanctions.
“North Korea’s desperate dependence on nuclear development is testimony to Kim Jong Un’s fanatical recklessness,” said Park, the South Korean president, who cut short her visit to Laos to return to Seoul. North Korea’s provocations will do nothing but accelerate its self-destruction.”
In Tokyo, prime minister Abe also struck an angry tone."If North Korea conducted a nuclear test, I can’t absolutely tolerate it," he said. "We have to strongly protest."
After North Korea's nuclear test in January — which the regime claimed was of a hydrogen bomb — and a long-range ballistic missile test in February, the U.N. Security Council imposed tough new sanctions.
It ordered a ban on mineral exports from North Korea, a major source of income for the regime, and strict inspections of all cargo going in and out of the country. The United States followed with new financial sanctions and by designating Kim Jong Un by name for human rights abuses. South Korea has also taken a strident approach, closing an inter-Korean industrial park that had been a major source of revenue for the regime.
But
Kim has not wavered, testing a range of missiles this year and
apparently making some technological progress, including on a
submarine-launched ballistic missile.
“There’s now obvious
progress in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. They seem to be
making precisely the technical progress that people don’t want,” said
Euan Graham, a security expert at the Lowy Institute in Sydney who once
served as a British diplomat in Pyongyang. “North Korea is obviously
prepared to take the economic pain and is able to continue to materially
supply the two programs.”On Monday, North Korea launched three medium-range missiles as China was hosting a meeting of Group of 20 leaders, including Obama. The rockets flew 620 miles, falling inside Japan’s air defense identification zone.
A day after those launches, the Security Council issued its latest condemnation.
“The members of the Security Council deplore all the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s ballistic missile activities, including these launches, noting that such activities contribute to [its] development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and increase tension,” the council said in statement Tuesday, using North Korea’s official name.
Analysts expect another round of discussions on ways to put pressure on North Korea.
"Sanctions
and targeted financial measures may take time to have an impact on the
regime’s financial condition," said Bruce Klingner, a northeast Asia
specialist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based
think tank.The difficulty, Klingner said, would be in maintaining international resolve. Sanctions can not be effectively implemented without the support of China.
China's implementation of sanctions has been patchy in the past, and some analysts are concerned that Beijing, angered by South Korea's decision to host an American anti-missile battery, might lose its appetite for enforcement.
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Eight countries. 2,056 nuclear tests. 71 years.
In the name of national security, eight countries
have tested nuclear weapons all over the world since 1945, frequently
near populated places. Related: North Korea conducts fifth nuclear test, claims it has made warheads with ‘higher strike power’.
Map Key
Showing tests performed through 1975
United States
Tests by U.S.S.R.
Tests by the United States
United States
In 1954, the U.S. detonated “Castle Bravo” — the most powerful nuclear test in U.S. history.
The United Kingdom and the United States have performed joint tests in Nevada.
United Kingdom
France
France performed its first nuclear tests in occupied Algeria in the 1960s.
China
India
Unknown
Pakistan
North Korea
Eight countries have performed nuclear tests.
The United States and U.S.S.R. have performed the most explosive tests
in history.
“Yield,” a measure of how much energy an
explosion releases, is measured in kilotons — one equalling about the
power of 1,000 tons of TNT. Both nuclear superpowers have performed
nuclear tests with yields of at least 10,000 kilotons (at scale above:
).
The United States is the only country that has
used a nuclear weapon in war. Those destructive detonations — in Japan
at Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and at Nagasaki three days later — were
just 15 (
) and 21 (
) kilotons.
Nuclear tests throughout history, per country
Most nuclear powers have not performed a nuclear
test in decades. Only North Korea has tested in the 21st century.
The United States and Russia possess 93 percent of the global nuclear warheads arsenal, according to Federation of American Scientists estimates. Both countries each have several thousand “retired” warheads awaiting dismantlement.
Chart key
Number of nuclear tests that year
Estimated nuclear stockpile
The United States performed
96 nuclear tests in 1962.
“Castle Bravo,” the
most powerful test in
U.S. history, takes place.
The United States heavily reduced its nuclear stockpile in the early 1990s.
31,255 warheads
United States
1,032 total tests
1945
1992
The U.S.S.R.’s stockpile peaked
in 1986 at 40,159 warheads.
U.S.S.R.
715
1949
1990
U.S., U.S.S.R. and U.K. temporarily agreed
to stop all nuclear testing.
United Kingdom
45
1952
1991
France
198
1960
1996
China
45
1964
1996
India
3
1998
1974
Pakistan
2
1998
North Korea’s recent tests have been
heavily condemned.
North Korea
5
2006
2016
