North Korea preparing more missile launches, says South

South Korea says it has seen indications that the
North is preparing more missile launches, possibly an
intercontinental ballistic missile.
Defence officials have been briefing parliament in Seoul
after the North's test of a nuclear bomb at the
weekend.
The South has responded to the test with live-fire
exercises, with both ground- and air-launched rockets.
The US has warned that any threat to itself or its allies
would be met with a "massive military response".
The North says it tested a hydrogen bomb that can fit
on to a long-range missile.
Pyongyang has repeatedly defied UN sanctions and
international pressure by developing nuclear weapons
and testing missiles, and the provocations have only
intensified.
In the past two months it has conducted
intercontinental ballistic missile tests, sending one over
mainland Japan into the Pacific Ocean. It has also
threatened to fire missiles towards the US Pacific
territory of Guam.
The United Nations Security Council is to hold an
emergency meeting later on Monday to discuss its
response.
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Ahead of that meeting, South Korea and Japan's
leaders had agreed to push for a stronger UN resolution
on North Korea, said a South Korean presidential
palace spokesman.
The Security Council last imposed sanctions in August,
targeting North Korean exports.
What has the South said?
Chang Kyung-soo, a defence ministry official, told
parliament: "We have continued to see signs of
possibly more ballistic missile launches. We also
forecast North Korea could fire an intercontinental
ballistic missile."
The ministry also told parliament the US would seek to
deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to seas off
the peninsula.
It also said there would be more live-fire drills this
month, involving Taurus air-to-surface missiles
mounted on F-15 jets.
Monday's drills by the South simulated the targeting of
the Punggye-ri nuclear site in Kilju County, where North
Korea carried out its bomb test.
"The training demonstrates the South Korean military's
resolve to destroy not only the origin of provocation
but also the enemy's leadership and supporting forces
if they threaten the security of our people," army
spokesman Col Roh Jae-cheon is quoted as saying by
South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
South Korea and the US had also agreed "in principle"
to revise current guidelines so that the South could
double the maximum payload of its ballistic missiles,
Yonhap also reported.
How did the nuclear test unfold?
On Sunday, seismologists started picking up readings of
an earth tremor in the area where North Korea had
conducted nuclear tests before.
The US Geological Survey put the tremor at 6.3
magnitude.
North Korean state media later confirmed it was no
earthquake, claiming it was in fact its sixth and most
powerful nuclear test, detonating what it said was a
hydrogen bomb that could be loaded on to a long-range
missile.
Stages of an underground nuclear test
Pyongyang then released pictures of leader Kim Jong-
un with what state media said was a new type of
hydrogen bomb.
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Officials in China, where the blast was felt as a tremor,
said they were carrying out emergency radiation
testing along the border with North Korea.
Although experts have urged caution, Sunday's event
appears to be the biggest and most successful nuclear
test by North Korea to date - and the messaging is
clear: North Korea wants to demonstrate it knows what
makes a credible nuclear warhead.
More on the way
Robin Brant, BBC News, Seoul
It's become a war of photographs, for a few hours at
least. After Sunday's underground nuclear test in the
North, the government in the South released images of
its own missiles launched at dawn.
It's the second time in a week that Seoul has
responded with a test bombing run. That's in addition
to the show of military might that was on display in its
annual exercise with US forces at the end of last
month.
That enraged Pyongyang, as it does every year, and
there are more missiles on the way. South Korea is
expected to approve the deployment of the US missile
defence system known as Thaad (Terminal High-
Altitude Area Defense) - an environmental impact
report is the final hurdle.
But that involves a fourth party. China has criticised
the system, claiming it threatens its security.
What has the reaction been?
The nuclear test prompted an angry response from US
President Donald Trump who denounced the test as
"hostile" and "dangerous" , and called the North a
"rogue nation".
He added that the US was considering stopping all
trade with any country doing business with North
Korea, which relies on China for about 90% of its
foreign trade.
US Defence Secretary James Mattis later told reporters
that while the US would respond to any threat "with a
massive military response, a response both effective
and overwhelming", although they were "not looking to
the total annihilation of a country, namely North
Korea".
A White House statement also said that Washington
would defend itself and its allies "using the full range
of diplomatic, conventional, and nuclear capabilities at
our disposal".
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called the test an
"absurd strategic mistake" and urged for the "strongest
possible" response, including new UN Security Council
sanctions to "completely isolate" the country.
China, meanwhile, also expressed "strong
condemnation" and said North Korea "had ignored the
international community's widespread opposition".
What does the test tell us?
Estimations of the power of the tested device have
varied widely, from 50 kilotons to 120 kilotons. A 50kt
device would be about three times the size of the
bomb that struck Hiroshima in 1945.
Hydrogen bombs are many times more powerful than
an atomic bomb. They use fusion - the merging of
atoms - to unleash huge amounts of energy, whereas
atomic bombs use nuclear fission, or the splitting of
atoms.
Analysts say the North's claims should be treated with
caution, but that its nuclear capability is clearly
advancing.
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North Korea's nuclear tests
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