Only days after earning universal condemnation, following a ballistic missile test that was fired over Japan’s Hokkaido Island, North Korea tested a powerful miniature hydrogen bomb over the weekend that can be loaded on an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The nuclear test, the sixth since 2006, was lauded by North Korea as a “complete success” and involved a “two-stage thermonuclear weapon” with “unprecedented” strength.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, on Monday confirmed that “North Korea continues to directly defy the authority of the UN Security Council, which has repeatedly banned these illegal tests, ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. We are dealing with a pariah state, with a cruel and ruthless leader who has no concern for the welfare of the impoverished people of North Korea, no concern for international law and no regard for the peace and security of our region”.
The test’s explosion was accompanied by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake about 10km from North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the north-east of the country. Satellite imagery also confirms landslides in the region.
The Defense Secretary of the United States, Mr Jim Mattis, said that “any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam or our allies, will be met with a massive military response.” Reacting to the threat posed to key allies in the region, the President of the United States, Mr Donald Trump, confirmed via Twitter that he was “allowing Japan & South Korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the United States”.
I am allowing Japan & South Korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the United States.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2017
The Prime Minister, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, used a Wednesday morning telephone call with the President to receive an up-to-date briefing on the situation, later confirming to the House of Representatives during Question Time on Wednesday that “the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula is, as we noted, greater than it has been for 60 years”.
According to the Prime Minister, he and the President agreed that “now is the time to exert the maximum diplomatic, and above all, economic pressure on North Korea, to bring this reckless and dangerous regime to its senses”.
