North Korea Conducts Third Nuclear Test, Drawing New Sanctions Threat
North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in defiance of U.N. resolutions, angering the United States and Japan and likely to infuriate its only major ally, China, and increase penalties against Pyongyang.
The North said the test had “greater explosive force” than the 2006 and 2009 tests that were widely seen as small-scale. Its KCNA news agency said it had used a “miniaturized” and lighter nuclear device, indicating that it had again used plutonium which is more suitable for use as a missile warhead.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the third of his line to rule the country, has now presided over two long-range rocket launches and a nuclear test during his first a year in power, pushing policies that have propelled his impoverished and malnourished country ever closer to becoming a nuclear weapons power.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the test was a “highly provocative act” that hurt stability in the region and called its nuclear program a threat to U.S. and international security.
“The danger posed by North Korea’s threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community. The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies,” Obama said in a statement.
Read more from this story HERE.
A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” — and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic.