North Korea nuclear test: 'warhead explosion' confirmed by Pyongyang – as it happened

9 Sept 201604.12 EDT

Closing summary

Jamie Grierson

We’re going to wrap up the blog. Here are some of the main points again:

• North Korea has carried out its fifth nuclear test.
  
• The regime can now mount a warhead to a strategic ballistic missile, state media said, making its attacking range much greater.
  
• South Korea said the explosion at 9am local time (1.30am BST) was the biggest of the North’s five tests so far with a yield of 10 kilotonnes.
  
• The explosion was recorded as a 5.3 magnitude seismic event by monitors in the US, Japan, China and Europe.
• World leaders and ministries including US president Barack Obama and China’s foreign ministry have condemned the test.

For more reading, there’s Justin McCurry’s news wrap here and an analysis of what this means for the standoff between Pyongyang and the west by world affairs editor Julian Borger here. Thanks for reading.

There has been further condemnation of the nuclear test from world leaders.

France called on the United Nations Security Council to quickly face the issue, AP reports. The French presidency says “the international community must unite against this new provocation.”

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says Friday’s test is a “serious act which infringes the world’s peace and security.”

He says “this escalation is unacceptable.”

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende also condemned Pyongyang’s nuclear test, saying in a tweet that “this unacceptable action causes deep concern & threatens peace.”

North Korea’s latest and fifth nuclear test, if confirmed, is “deeply troubling and regrettable”, the head of the UN atomic watchdog said.

“This is in clear violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions and in complete disregard of the repeated demands of the international community,” said Yukiya Amano, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“It is a deeply troubling and regrettable act,” Amano said in a statement.

“The Agency continues to closely follow the DPRK (North Korea) nuclear issue. We remain ready to contribute to its peaceful resolution by resuming our verification activities in the country once a political agreement is reached among countries concerned.”

South Korea’s intelligence agency is concerned that North Korea is advancing faster to miniaturize warheads on missiles, a lawmaker said after receiving an agency briefing on the North’s latest nuclear test.

Kim Byung-kee, a member of the South Korean parliament’s intelligence committee, cited the spy agency as saying the North’s nuclear test was intended to project a strong image of its leader, Kim Jong Un, on the anniversary of the country’s 1948 foundation as a republic, as well as defy international sanctions.

9 Sept 201602.44 EDT

Jamie Grierson

Hello Jamie Grierson in London here. First up, we have more from Reuters on the impact the nuclear test has had on Asian stock markets, and is likely to have on European markets.

Asian shares extended losses after North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test on Friday, heightening geopolitical tensions in the region at a time when investors are grappling with slowing global growth.

Stocks were already on the back foot when the North Korean news rattled markets, with uncertainty over the prospect of further easing from the European Central Bank pressuring global equities and bonds.

European shares look set to follow Asia lower, with financial spreadbetters expecting Britain’s FTSE 100, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 to all open down 0.1 percent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.5 percent after touching a 13-month high on Thursday. The decline shrank gains for the week to 2.5 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei closed flat after pulling back earlier on reports of the North Korean nuclear test. It up 0.2 percent for the week.

South Korea’s KOSPI also extended losses on its neighbour’s nuclear activity. After opening 0.7 percent lower, it was last trading down 1.3 percent from Thursday’s close.

China’s CSI 300 index was 0.25 percent lower, and the Shanghai Composite was down 0.2 percent. They are set for gains of 0.7 percent and 1 percent, respectively, for the week.

I’m about to hand over the blog to my colleagues in London but here are the main points so far:

• North Korea has carried out its fifth nuclear test
  
• The regime can now mount a warhead to a strategic ballistic missile, state media said, making its attacking range much greater.
  
• South Korea said the explosion at 9am local time (1.30am BST) was the biggest of the North’s five tests so far with a yield of 10 kilotonnes.
  
• The explosion was recorded as a 5.3 magnitude seismic event by monitors in the US, Japan, China and Europe.
• US president Barack Obama warns of “serious consequences”.
• China says it is “resolutely opposed” to the test.
• South Korean president Park Geun-hye says it shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s “maniacal recklessness”.
• Japan also condemned the test and said it could not be tolerated.
  
• Asian stock markets have mostly dipped on the news.
• Today is the 68th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka North Korea.

For more reading, there’s Justin McCurry’s news wrap here and an analysis of what this means for the standoff between Pyongyang and the west by world affairs editor Julian Borger here.

There’s also a timeline on the North’s nucler programme here.

Statements from the official KCNA news agency and the TV bulletin claimed a major breakthrough in the country’s missile and nuclear technology.

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The regime has conducted a lot more missile tests this year, the latest coming earlier this week as world leaders gathered in China for the G20. Combined with today’s nuclear warhead test, the statement claimed a technological advance enabling the explosive to be fitted to the missile.

The test had:

finally examined and confirmed the structure and specific features of movement of a nuclear warhead that has been standardized to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets.

The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable [North Korea] to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power with a firm hold on the production of various fissile materials and technology for their use. This has definitely put on a higher level [the North’s] technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets.

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Here is a clip from the state TV bulletin announcing the test. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Korean – there are subtitles.

9 Sept 201601.55 EDT

Tom Phillips

Adam Cathcart, a North Korea and China expert from Leeds University, says today’s test “arrives at a peculiar moment for the government in Beijing and presents both a political and propaganda challenge for how they respond”.

Cathcart adds:

Because Chinese state media has so heavily criticised South Korea’s plans for anti-missile deployment (THAAD), the temptation will be to say, ‘We told you so,’ arguing that South Korea effectively was the provocative actor that forced North Korea into a corner.

Of course this would be to ignore the orgy of actual missile launches from North Korea. But since – according to the Chinese Communist party – Seoul has ‘opened Pandora’s box’ with the help of the USA, there exists plenty of rhetorical space for blame-shifting.

Asked how China might respond, Cathcart added:

After the well-worn phrases comes the bargaining at the UN – but I don’t see much appetite for sanctions that bite deeper in terms of China’s flow of trade along the shared border.

US president Barack Obama says North Korea’s actions will have “serious consequences”, Reuters reports.

The president, who has returned to the White House after the G20 summit in China and the Asean meeting in Laos, had been briefed by National Security Adviser Susan Rice about the situation as he travelled back on Air Force One, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

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Obama repeated the “unbreakable” commitment of the US to the security of its allies in Asia and around the world, Earnest said.

China has stopped short of a full condemnation of North Korea’s nuclear upping of the ante in east Asia.

The foreign ministry in Beijing said on Friday that it was “resolutely opposed to North Korea’s latest nuclear test and strongly urges North Korea to stop taking any actions that will worsen the situation”.

China would stick to its aim of denuclearising the Korean peninsula and “uphold the six-party talks process to resolve the issue”, the ministry said.

Associated Press has reported more on the full statement put out on North Korean TV.

Here are the key points:

• The test “examined and confirmed” specific features of a nuclear warhead designed to be mounted on ballistic missiles
• There was no radioactive leakage or adverse environmental impact caused by the test.
  
• The test elevated the country’s nuclear arsenal and was part of its response to the international sanctions following its earlier nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in January and February.
• It showed the country was ready to hit back if provoked by enemies including the United States, and that it would continue its efforts to strengthen the quantity and quality of its nuclear weapons.
  

And a few pictures.

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View image in fullscreen

Justin McCurry in Tokyo has written a full news wrap of the day’s events so far.

Read it in full here:

• North Korea has confirmed that it has carried out its fifth nuclear test.
  
• State TV said the North was “now capable of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets”
• South Korea said the explosion at 9am local time (1.30am BST) was the biggest of the North’s five tests so far with a yield of 10 kilotonnes.
• The explosion was recorded as a 5.3 magnitude seismic event by monitors in the US, Japan, China and Europe.
• South Korean president Park Geun-hye says it shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s “maniacal recklessness”.
• Japan also condemned the test and said it could not be tolerated.
  
• Asian stock markets have mostly dipped on the news.
• Today is the 68th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka North Korea.

As promised, world affairs editor Julian Borger has filed his analysis of the situation. He says that today’s test could force the US back to the negotiating table with North Korea.

The game-changer seems to be that the increasing number of tests shows the North could put a small warhead on a ballistic missile and therefore in theory attack another country.

Here’s an excerpt from Julian’s piece:

Until two years ago the conventional wisdom on the North’s nuclear programme was that it was largely a political symbol of the country’s potency and a bargaining chip for economic and diplomatic benefits.

Since 2014 however the pace of nuclear and missile testing has accelerated, to the point where some experts now believe the country’s scientists have developed a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile.

“It is likely now that North Korea could at this point put a nuclear warhead on a short or medium range missile which could reach South Korea, Japan and US military installations in the region,” said Kelsey Davenport, the director for non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.

However she thought it would be up to another decade before Pyongyang developed a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US.

“All this activity is aimed at expanding the size of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and expanding its delivery options,” Davenport said. “It is taking steps to quality-improve its missiles, using solid fuel so they can be deployed more quickly, and extending their range. The trajectory points to a growing North Korean nuclear threat and the next US administration will have to prioritise that threat.”

Read the full article here:

More on North Korea’s confirmation.

State TV said the North was now capable of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets, Reuters reports. It said no leakage of nuclear material had occurred in the test and that there was no environmental impact.