VIENNA (Sputnik) – Pyongyang confirmed earlier in the day that 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.
"It is debatable how successful the sanctions regime is for stopping this adventurist policy. Even a serious sanctions package did not stop the North Korean leadership ahead of this test. An automatic introduction of any new sanctions or talks of sanctions could lead to an opposite result, " Voronkov told RIA Novosti.
According to the official, the US-South Korea military exercises could have been one factors that pushed the North Korean authorities to carry out the test.
