US warns of ‘forceful response’ to anticipated North Korea nuclear test

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman made the remarks on Tuesday as she travelled to Seoul to meet with South Korean and Japanese allies

Intelligence officials have warned North Korea is all but ready to conduct another detonation at the nuclear testing ground it last used in 2017

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A missile launch pictured near Pyongang in 2017, the year North Korea last claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its intercontinental ballistic missiles. Photo: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

Published: 2:50pm, 7 Jun 2022

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Tuesday warned of a “forceful response” if North Korea carries out its first nuclear test explosion in nearly five years as she travelled to Seoul to meet with South Korean and Japanese allies and discuss the escalating stand-off.

US and South Korean officials have said North Korea is all but ready to conduct another detonation at its nuclear testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri, which last hosted a test in September 2017, when it claimed to have detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

While the Biden administration has vowed to push for additional international sanctions if North Korea goes ahead with the nuclear test, the prospects for meaningful new punitive measures are unclear with the United Nations Security Council divided over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaks to the media in Seoul on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

“Any nuclear test would be in complete violation of UN Security Council resolutions. There would be a swift and forceful response to such a test,” Sherman said, following a meeting with South Korea’s Vice-Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong.

“We continue to urge Pyongyang to cease its destabilising and provocative activities and choose the path of diplomacy.”

Sherman and Cho are planning a trilateral meeting with Japanese-Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo on Wednesday over the North Korean nuclear issue. Sherman’s trip to Asia came after North Korea fired a salvo of eight ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday, possibly setting a new high in single-day launches, extending a provocative streak in weapons tests this year that also included the country’s first demonstrations of ICBMs since 2017.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could further escalate his brinkmanship by conducting what would be the country’s seventh nuclear test since 2006. Experts say North Korea could use a test to claim an ability to build small nuclear bombs that could be clustered on a multiwarhead ICBM or fit on Kim’s expanding range of short-range, solid-fuel missiles that pose an increasing threat to South Korea and Japan.