North Korea Nuclear Test Would Be Met With 'Unprecedented' Response, Warn US, Japan and South Korea

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the United States is prepared to respond to a potential nuclear test by North Korea or any other provocation.

On Wednesday, the United States, Japan and South Korea warned that North Korea’s seventh nuclear bomb test would be met with a strong response.

"We agreed to strengthen cooperation further ... so that North Korea can immediately stop its illegal activities and return to denuclearisation talks," South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong said.

And US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman urged North Korea to “refrain from further provocations".

"Anything that happens here, such as a North Korean nuclear test ... has implications for the security of the entire world," she said.

North Korea has ramped up missile tests this year, and tensions on the Korean Peninsula - together with the absence of diplomatic negotiations - have raised concerns that the country could carry out its first nuclear test since 2017.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006 and tested a thermonuclear warhead in 2017, before declaring a unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests.

In September, North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly adopted a decree on nuclear weapons policy that legitimizes the possession of nuclear weapons by the country's leader, who alone has the right to make any decision concerning how the nuclear arsenal is used. During the session, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un said no sanctions would make Pyongyang surrender its nuclear weapons.

North Korea has carried out eight ballistic test launches since 25 September and more than 25 since the beginning of 2022.

Pyongyang has emphasized that its test launches are being carried out in response to the refusal of the US and South Korea to stop joint military drills, which Pyongyang believes threaten regional stability.