United States, Japan and South Korea Agree to Respond Firmly to North Korea's Nuclear Test

North Korea's ICBM Hwasong-17 missile test. (Source: KCNA)

JAKARTA - The United States, Japan, and South Korea warned on Wednesday that they would respond decisively if North Korea conducted a nuclear bomb test.

Washington and its allies believe North Korea will resume testing a nuclear bomb for the first time since 2017, or its seventh.

"We agreed a firm response would be needed if North Korea proceeded with its seventh nuclear test", South Korea's First Deputy Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong told a news conference in Tokyo.

Cho spoke with his Japanese and US counterparts, Deputy Foreign Minister Takeo Mori and Deputy Foreign Minister Wendy Sherman.

The United States and its allies have provided little detail about what new steps they might take, and observers say they have few good options for preventing new tests.

For the first time since North Korea began testing nuclear weapons in 2006, China and Russia this year vetoed a US-led resolution initiative to increase sanctions against Pyongyang by the UN Security Council.

"We urge (North Korea) to refrain from further provocations", Sherman said, calling them reckless and deeply destabilizing for the region.

"Anything that happens here, such as North Korea's nuclear test, has implications for the security of the whole world", he said, sending a veiled message to Pyongyang's backers, China and Russia, at the UN Security Council.

"We really hope that everyone on the Security Council will understand that any use of nuclear weapons will extraordinarily change the world", he said.

When asked about comments from Tokyo, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called on all countries to acknowledge the "root cause of the long-standing stalemate", take steps to promote mutual trust, and address all parties' concerns in a balanced way.

North Korea has previously conducted weapons tests at an unprecedented pace this year, firing more than two dozen ballistic missiles, including one that flew over Japan recently.

In addition to ballistic missiles, Pyongyang last week fired hundreds of artillery shells off its coast as a serious warning to South Korea.

In response, the United States, South Korea, and Japan have committed to deepening cooperation, Mori said.

"We agreed to further strengthen deterrence capabilities with the response of the Japan-US alliance and the US-South Korea alliance, as well as to promote further security cooperation between the three countries", Mori said.