A defiant
North Korea Sunday restated its demand for recognition as a
"legitimate" nuclear-armed state, as world powers pondered ways to
punish Pyongyang for its latest and largest atomic test.
The North also
vowed to increase its nuclear strike force "in quality and in
quantity", two days after its fifth test in a decade sparked international
condemnation and moves for tougher UN sanctions.
In Japan, a
visiting senior US envoy said Washington and Tokyo were seeking "the
strongest possible" measures in response.
North Korea
insists that its missile and nuclear tests are necessary to counter what it
says is a US nuclear threat to its independence.
A statement
Sunday from a foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang mocked President Barack
Obama's "totally bankrupt" policy on the country.
"Obama is
trying hard to deny the DPRK's (North Korea's) strategic position as a
legitimate nuclear weapons state but it is as foolish an act as trying to
eclipse the sun with a palm," said the statement quoted by the official
KCNA news agency.
Friday's test
came only eight months after the previous one and was almost twice as powerful,
at an estimated 10 kilotons.
Most
worryingly for the international community, the North claimed it had been a
miniaturised warhead that could be mounted on a missile.
The UN
Security Council agreed Friday to start work on new measures -- even though
five sets of UN sanctions since the first nuclear test in 2006 have failed to
halt the North's nuclear drive.
Sung Kim, the
US State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, said
Washington and Tokyo would work closely in the Security Council and beyond
"to come up with the strongest possible measure against North Korea's
latest action".
He also suggested
the US may launch its own unilateral sanctions in response to "the
provocative and unacceptable behaviour by the North Koreans".
-- Retaliation
--
KCNA insisted
Sunday that North Koreans were delighted by Friday's detonation.
"The test
demonstrated the dignity of the country guided by the iron-willed commander as
well as the strength of the Korean people," scientist Choe Kwang-Ho was
quoted as saying.
The government
in Seoul will take "all diplomatic and military efforts to counter North
Korea's continued provocation", senior presidential secretary for foreign
affairs Kim Kyou-Hyun told reporters Sunday
Referring to
Friday's phone conversation between President Park Geun-Hye and Obama, he said
the United States had vowed to defend Seoul using "all means
available" -- including the nuclear umbrella and conventional forces.
The South's
military has said it would launch a retaliatory strike at Pyongyang's military
leadership if it deemed the country was under nuclear threat.
Dubbed the
Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation system, the countermeasure would
"directly target" key North Korean sites -- including its war command
post -- if any sign of a nuclear attack was detected.
"We will
deploy strike forces with precision-guided missiles and elite special
forces," Leem Ho-Young, chief director of strategic planning at Seoul's
Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Friday.
The South has
no atomic weapons of its own and shelters under the nuclear
"umbrella" of its US ally, which stations 28,500 troops in South
Korea.
But there are
growing voices calling for the South to have its own nuclear weapons, despite
government opposition.
A group of
ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers, whose membership is now 24 and growing, was
launched last month to push for the country to start preparations for its own
nuclear development.
AFP
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