South Korea launched a ballistic missile exercise late Sunday in response to Pyongyang’s provocative detonation of what it claimed was a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, state news agency Yonhap reported.
The South’s military conducted a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on the North’s nuclear site, hitting ‘designated targets in the East Sea’, the report added, quoting the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The military training involved long-range air-to-surface missiles and ballistic missiles, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement.
South Korea’s military conducted a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on the North’s nuclear site, hitting ‘designated targets in the East Sea’, according to the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pictured above, South Korean President Moon Jae-in
President Moon said on Sunday that claims of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test should be met with the ‘strongest possible’ response, including new sanctions.
The tests came after North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday – in violation of UN resolutions – which it said was an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile
‘The training came in response to the North’s sixth nuclear test… and involved the country’s Hyunmoo ballistic missile and the F-15K fighter jets,’ it said.
The South’s military said the range to the simulated targets were equivalent to the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in its northeastern province.
The tests came after North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday – in violation of UN resolutions – which it said was an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in said on Sunday that claims of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test should be met with the ‘strongest possible’ response, including new sanctions.
Moon requested foreign and defense ministries ‘to seek all diplomatic ways to make North Korea abandon its nuclear and missile development through complete, verifiable and irrevocable ways’.
He said that the South’s ‘military must thoroughly prepare aggressive response’, according to a statement issued at the start of a National Security Council meeting.
US President Donald Trump, however, still criticized Seoul on Sunday, saying ‘their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work’
‘We will establish a firm defense posture based on the South Korea-U.S. alliance to suppress North Korea’s additional provocation and consistently pursue building permanent peace on the Korean peninsula,’ Moon said.
US President Donald Trump, however, still criticized Seoul on Sunday.
South Korea, Trump said, ‘is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!’
The United States warned it could launch a ‘massive military response’ to threats from North Korea.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will meat on Monday on North Korea’s nuclear test at the request of the United States, Japan, Britain, France and South Korea, the US mission to the United Nations said in a statement.
The 15-member Security Council will meet at 10am (1400 GMT) on Monday, the US mission said.
North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
Typically, China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible UN sanctions.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday that the members of the Security Council ‘remain unanimous in their commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’
Japan urged Washington last week to propose new sanctions after Pyongyang fired a medium-range missile over North Japan on Tuesday Pictured above, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday that the members of the Security Council ‘remain unanimous in their commitment to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’.
He said any threat to United States, its territories, or allies would be met ‘with a massive military response.’
The council last month unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea over its two long-range missile launches in July.
The resolution aimed to slash by a third the Asian state’s $3billion annual export revenue by banning exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood.
Diplomats have said the council could now consider banning Pyongyang’s textile exports and the country’s national airline, stop supplies of oil to the government and military, prevent North Koreans from working abroad and add top officials to a blacklist to subject them to an asset freeze and travel ban.
Japan urged Washington last week to propose new sanctions after Pyongyang fired a medium-range missile over North Japan on Tuesday.
The United States traditionally drafts resolutions to impose sanctions on North Korea, first negotiating with China before formally involving the remaining 13 council members.
People gather and look at the news of their country’s latest nuclear test seen on the screen, in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday
North Korea’s border county of Kaepoong is seen from a South Korean observation post in Paju near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing two Koreas
Following the nuclear test on Sunday, Britain, Japan and South Korea pushed for new UN sanctions, while China and Russia said they would ‘appropriately deal’ with North Korea.
Daniel Russel, until April the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and now a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told Reuters: ‘We should expect an uptick in Chinese and Russian pressure on both North Korea and on the United States.’
‘We should also expect ‘more of the same’ from China (and Russia) in claiming that the US is also to blame and calling on Washington to appease Pyongyang with front-loaded concessions and placate it with dialogue, despite the fact that North Korea is clearly only interested in dictating terms, not in negotiating,’ he said.
Any new sanctions would build on eight resolutions ratcheting up action against Pyongyang over five nuclear tests, four long-range ballistic missile tests and dozens of medium-range rocket launches.
The past three substantial resolutions have taken between one and three months to negotiate.
A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, Russia or China to pass.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned North Korea’s nuclear test on Sunday as ‘profoundly destabilizing for regional security’ and called on the country’s leadership to cease such acts