Trump leads international condemnation of North Korea nuclear test

President Donald Trump led international censure of North Korea’s announcement Sunday that it had tested a hydrogen bomb, saying its actions were “very hostile and dangerous to the United States”.   
Pyongyang’s key ally China expressed strong condemnation while South Korean President Moon Jae-In called for the “strongest punishment” against the North, including new UN sanctions to “completely 
isolate” it.   

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiralled in recent weeks, with North Korea testing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and threatening to fire missiles towards the US Pacific island of Guam and Trump warning he would rain “fire and fury” on the country.  After North Korea sent a missile over Japan last week, Trump said the time for talks was over and on Sunday he tweeted that “appeasement” would not work.   

Trump had previously pledged the North would not get an ICBM and has warned that Washington’s weapons are “locked and loaded”.   

China, which is hosting a summit of the five BRICS nations, said it “expresses resolute opposition and strong condemnation” over Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test, which was felt in Chinese cities hundreds of kilometres from North Korea’s borders.   

The North should “stop taking mistaken actions which worsen the situation and are also not in line with its own interests, and effectively return to the track of solving the problem through dialogue,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.   
 AFP, 3 September, 2017