United States

Obama, UN Head Condemn North Korea's Nuclear Test

The 5.0 magnitude earthquake Friday is the largest of the four past quakes associated with North Korean nuclear tests, according to South Korea's weather agency

North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in eight months on Friday, raising concerns that Pyongyang has moved a step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the U.S. mainland, NBC News reported.

President Barack Obama said the U.S. condemned the test "in the strongest possible terms as a grave threat to regional security and to international peace and stability." He said the U.S. "does not, and never will, accept North Korea as a nuclear state."  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used similar language in condemning the test. 

State TV said the atomic detonation — the fifth carried out by Kim Jong Un's isolated regime — "put on a higher level [the North's] technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets."

The test, which registered as a 5.0-magnitude tremor, raised concerns that Pyongyang has moved a step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the U.S. mainland.

A South Korean military official said the event appeared to have the "impact" of a 10-kiloton explosion.

"It would be smaller than both Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but it would still rip the heart out of a city," IHS Jane's analyst Karl Dewey said. 

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