DPRK's fifth nuclear test draws rebuke

Beijing urges Pyongyang to keep promise on nonproliferation and abide by UN resolutions

The Chinese government expressed strong opposition on Friday to the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which also drew widespread global criticism.

"China strongly urges the DPRK to keep its promise on nonproliferation, abide by the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and stop taking any actions that will worsen the situation," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

At a regular news conference in Beijing, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, "Parties related to the Korean Peninsula should, and only, solve their security concerns in ways that are in line with all parties' interests, and any unilateral act that serves a certain party's own interest is only a ‘dead end'."

She also said the Foreign Ministry would lodge a protest with the DPRK's embassy in Beijing for conducting the test.

The China Earthquake Network Center said a magnitude-5 quake jolted the DPRK at 8:30 am Beijing time on Friday "at a depth of 0 km".

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said later that the DPRK had successfully conducted a nuclear test aimed at checking the power of its nuclear warheads.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection started emergency radiation monitoring along regions bordering the DPRK. The radiation data in those regions were in the safe range after the test, the ministry said.

The Republic of Korea regarded the test, the fifth by the DPRK, as the most powerful yet conducted by Pyongyang, as seen by the registered magnitude, which estimated its explosive yield at about 10 kilotons. The explosive yield from a nuclear test conducted by the DPRK on Jan 4 was estimated at about six kilotons.

ROK President Park Geun-hye strongly denounced the DPRK test, vowing to strengthen pressure on Pyongyang with all measures available to make it give up its nuclear program.

US President Barack Obama said any provocative actions by the DPRK would have "serious consequences".

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo has lodged protests with Pyongyang.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Geneva, said a message must be sent "very strongly" on implementing UN resolutions concerning the DPRK.

Yu Shaohua, a researcher of Korean Peninsula studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said the current situation on the peninsula is more complicated than before.

However, she said related parties should not only rely on the pressure of sanctions.

"The new way of dialogue, proposed by China, should also be considered in order to solve the issue," Yu said.

China proposed a parallel approach earlier this year under which the DPRK would abandon its nuclear weapons program and the US and the ROK would agree to sign a peace treaty with the DPRK to replace the 1953 armistice agreement.

Agencies contributed to this story.