Senior US Official Demands 'Strong and Swift Response' to Pyongyang's Nuke Test

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman called for slapping new sanctions on Pyongyang following the latter's fresh nuclear test.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States and its allies must impose new sanctions following North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Friday, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said in a statement.

"The North Korean regime’s continued belligerence demands a strong and swift response," Royce stated on Friday. "The United States cannot accept a nuclear North Korea that threatens America and our foreign partners with mass destruction."

Royce noted that the Obama administration has not imposed sanctions on Chinese companies and banks accused in a United Nations report of supporting the government in Pyongyang.

Additionally, Royce called for the United States and foreign partners to sanction North Korea's state-run airline Air Koryo for violating the ban on luxury goods to North Korean leaders.

Royce also noted that Air Koryo has been implicated in SCUD missile proliferation.

Earlier on Friday, Pyongyang confirmed it had tested a nuclear warhead at its northeastern nuclear test site. The experiment was its fifth nuclear test and the largest ever performed by North Korea.

Spain, which chairs the UN Security Council committee on North Korean sanctions, called for an emergency meeting of the committee following the nuclear test.