North Korea has evolved from being a regional menace to a « global threat, » the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said.
« I think the North Korean threat is a global one now. In the past people believed it was a regional one, that’s no longer the case, » Amano, director general of the IAEA, told CNN.
« It is a global threat now and it combines nuclear weapons and missiles. »
The head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors and verifies seismic and nuclear activity around the globe, said North Korea’s test triggered « one of the biggest tremors ever recorded by our international monitoring system. »
« We’re talking about a magnitude of six, this is the highest we’ve ever recorded and this is a clear indication that the nuclear weapons program with North Korea is reaching a completely different level, » Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Vienna-based organization told CNN.
While the IAEA could not determine if the explosion came from a hydrogen bomb as North Korea claimed, Amano said the bigger yield of this latest test means « it is safe to assume North Korea is making significant progress.
