SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea on Friday conducted its fifth nuclear test, producing its biggest-ever explosive yield, South Korean officials said, with the South’s president calling the atomic detonation an act of “fanatic recklessness.”
The North’s test, which comes eight months after its previous such detonation, defies both tough international sanctions and long-standing diplomatic pressure to curb its nuclear ambitions. It will raise serious worries in many world capitals that Pyongyang has moved another step closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that could one day strike the U.S. mainland.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye strongly condemned the test, saying in a statement that it showed the “fanatic recklessness of the Kim Jong Un government as it clings to nuclear development.” Kim is the North Korean leader.
Park’s office said she spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama about the test Friday morning, during a regional summit in Laos. Park said South Korea will employ all available measures to put more pressure on North Korea, which has previously conducted nuclear tests every three to four years.
The explosion put the region on edge.