White House says it can’t confirm N. Korea nuclear test

“The initial analysis that’s been conducted of the events that were reported overnight is not consistent with North Korean claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting after North Korea announced its first hydrogen bomb test, which would mark a major advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal.

The United States will continue to work closely with the UN Security Council and countries that have engaged North Korea in nuclear talks “to take appropriate action”, Kerry added, without elaborating on what that might be.

It is a violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions, despite the united call by the global community to cease such activities.

Pyongyang has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions due to its nuclear weapons program since it first tested an atomic device in 2006.

With Japan now serving on the Security Council as one of its 10 nonpermanent members, Abe and Obama also discussed taking the lead in efforts to adopt a new resolution to toughen sanctions against North Korea, the official said. North Korea has made repeated claims about its nuclear capabilities that outside analysts have greeted with scepticism.

The North called the device the “H-bomb of justice” and said: “The US is a gang of cruel robbers which has worked hard to bring even a nuclear disaster to the DPRK”.

North Korea said it successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear bomb on Wednesday.

Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa said the Security Council will hurt its credibility if it fails to swiftly adopt a new resolution imposing “significant” new measures against Pyongyang.

However, Chang Yong Seok, a researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, tells Bloomberg Business that another nuclear test would be “totally unexpcected” at this time.

The U.S. will also intensify diplomacy with China to support action at the United Nations and urge that it use its influence on Pyongyang, as North Korea’s closest ally and biggest benefactor.