Paris Slams N Korea for Breaching UNSC Resolutions With Hydrogen Bomb Test

France called North Korea’s hydrogen bomb test an "unacceptable violation" of UN Security Council resolutions, urging the international community to react firmly, the Elysee Palace said Wednesday.

PARIS (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, an earthquake occurred in South Korea, prompting Seoul's suspicions that Pyongyang had performed a nuclear test. North Korea subsequently confirmed that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.

"Expecting confirmation of the characteristics of the nuclear test announced and observed this night in North Korea, France condemns this unacceptable violation of [UN] Security Council resolutions and calls for a strong reaction from the international community," the French president's office said in a statement.

North Korea proclaimed itself a nuclear state in 2005. Despite international outcry, in 2006, 2009 and 2013 the country ran underground nuclear tests. The UN Security Council has issued a series of sanctions against North Korea’s nuclear program.

The UN resolutions 1718 and 1814 urge Pyongyang to refrain from nuclear tests and go back to talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.