Tokyo: North Korea on Sunday claimed a “perfect success” for its most powerful nuclear test so far, a further step in the development of weapons capable of striking anywhere in the US. President Donald Trump, asked if he would attack the North, said, “We’ll see.”
The latest provocation from the isolated communist country reinforces the danger facing America, Trump had said earlier in a series of tweets, adding that “talk of appeasement” is pointless.
“They only understand one thing!” Trump wrote, without elaboration, as he prepared to meet later with his national security team. It was the first nuclear test since Trump took office in January.
Hours later, after attending church in Washington, the president made his “We’ll see” comment in response to a question from reporters.
President Donald Trump warned Sunday that the US was considering cutting economic ties with any countries that do business with North Korea.
“The US is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea,” he said in a tweet.
Trump’s threat came after Pyongyang detonated what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb able to fit atop a missile.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was calling counterparts in Asia, and Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said he was putting together proposed new sanctions for Trump to consider that would seek to cut off trade with North Korea. It’s unclear what kind of penalties might make a difference. Lassina Zerbo, head of the U.N. test ban treaty organization, said sanctions already imposed against North Korea aren’t working.
Trump warned last month that the US military was “locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely” and that the US would unleash “fire and fury” on the North if it continued to threaten America. The bellicose words followed threats from North Korea to launch ballistic missiles toward the US Pacific territory of Guam, intending to create “enveloping fire” near the military hub that’s home to US bombers.
The North’s latest test was carried out at 12:29pm local time at the Punggye-ri site where it has conducted past nuclear tests. Officials in Seoul put the magnitude at 5.7; the US Geological Survey said it was a magnitude 6.3. The strongest artificial quake from previous tests was a magnitude 5.3.
“North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States,” Trump said in the first of a series of tweets.
He branded North Korea “a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.”
China is by far the North’s biggest trading partner, but Trump appeared to be more critical of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has attempted to reach out to the North.
“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!” Trump said.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, meeting on the sidelines of a Beijing-led economic summit, agreed “to adhere to the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, have close communication and coordination and properly respond” to the test.
North Korea’s state-run television broadcast a special bulletin to announce the test and said leader Kim Jong Un attended a meeting of the ruling party’s presidium and signed the go-ahead order. Earlier, the party’s newspaper ran a front-page story showing photos of Kim examining what it said was a nuclear warhead being fitted onto the nose of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Sunday’s detonation builds on recent North Korean advances that include test launches in July of two ICBMs that are believed to be capable of reaching the mainland U.S. The North says its missile development is part of a defensive effort to build a viable nuclear deterrent that can target U.S.
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