Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
North Korea new nuke threat
Fury at Kim Jong-un’s 6th nuclear test Trump: Talk will not solve the crisis
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has hit back at North Korea’s “hostile and dangerous” actions after despot Kim Jong-un carried out his sixth and most powerful nuclear test yet.
The rogue nation yesterday detonated a hydrogen bomb – which could be put on an intercontinental ballistic missile – causing a 6.3 magnitude earthquake.
Though the type and size of weapon used have not been independently verified, the pariah state is now a significant step closer to being able to fulfil its threat of firing a nuclear warhead to the US mainland if provoked.
US leader Trump responded: “North Korea has conducted a major nuclear test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.” And in a thinly veiled threat, he tweeted talks were no longer the answer as North Korea “only understand one thing”.
The test, which Pyongyang called a “perfect success,” easily surpassed the power of the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War.
Mr Trump criticised China,
North Korea’s major ally, for not doing more in the escalating crisis. He tweeted: “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.
“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.”
Asked if he will attack the country, the president replied: “We’ll see.” It is thought his tweets may refer to a trade war. On Saturday reports said he had asked aides to prepare to pull out of a 2012 trade deal with South Korea, having said in July he wanted to renegotiate due to a lopsided trade relationship. Meanwhile China insisted it “resolutely opposed” the nuclear test, urging North Korea to “stop taking wrong actions”. It came as South Korea’s leaders proposed holding military talks with the North, following a recent long-range missile test by Pyongyang. Theresa May, who met with Japan’s Premier Shinzo Abe last week, yesterday joined world leaders in condemning the nuclear test.
She said: “This latest action by North Korea... poses an unacceptable further threat to the international community.
I discussed the serious and grave threat these dangerous and illegal actions present with Mr Abe in Japan this week and reiterate the call we jointly made for tougher action, including increasing the pace of implementation of existing sanctions and looking urgently in the UN Security Council at new measures.”
While NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said: “NATO is concerned by Pyongyang’s destabilising pattern of behaviour. The regime must immediately cease all existing nuclear and ballistic missile activities in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and re-engage in dialogue with the international community.”
Last month, Mr Trump threatened to bring “fire and fury” to North Korea if it continued to threaten the States with nuclear missiles.
North Korea said yesterday’s was an advanced hydrogen bomb for a longrange missile. It shook buildings in China and Russia, more than 100 miles away from the Punggye-ri test site.
Eight minutes later a second, 4.1 magnitude quake was recorded at the site, apparently a tunnel collapsing. Broadcasts on the underground explosion were greeted by celebratory scenes in pictures released by state media.
State TV claimed the blast, 10 times more powerful than its fifth one last September, was a “meaningful step in completing the country’s nuclear weapons programme”.
NORSAR, a Norway-based nuclear test monitoring group, estimated it had an explosive yield of 120 kilotons, though South Korea gave an estimation of 50 kilotons. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had 15 kilotons.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis threatened a “massive military response” to an attack on the States or allies, though insisted they were not seeking “total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea”.
While US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was reported to be drafting a new sanctions package on North Korea to give to Mr Trump.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for UN Security Council sanctions to “completely isolate” the North. The council will meet today to discuss the test at the request of the US, Japan, Britain, France and South Korea.
The first of Kim Jong-un’s three children, born seven years ago to wife Ri Sol-ju, has finally been revealed as a male heir to his brutal regime.
This is a meaningful step in completing our nuclear programme
NORTH KOREA STATE TV CELEBRATES THE TEST