U.S., Japan, S. Korea Warn of 'Unparalleled' Response if N. Korea Holds Nuclear Test

On Wednesday, the United States, Japan, and South Korea warned that if North Korea conducted a seventh nuclear bomb test, a level of response that would be "unparalleled" would be required.

For the first time since 2017, Washington and its allies fear that North Korea is about to resume nuclear bomb testing.

Cho Hyun-dong, the first vice foreign minister of South Korea, said at a news conference in Tokyo that "we agreed that if North Korea pushes forward with a seventh nuclear test, an unprecedented scale of response would be necessary."

Cho spoke alongside his counterparts from Japan and the United States, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori.

Observers claim that the United States and its allies have few viable options for stopping a new test because they have not provided many details about the potential new measures they might take.

China and Russia this year blocked a U.S.-led effort for additional UN Security Council sanctions for the first time since North Korea started testing nuclear weapons in 2006, and increased allied military drills have only been met by more North Korean tests and exercises.

Sherman urged North Korea to stop its provocations, calling them "reckless and profoundly destabilizing for the region."

She sent a barely veiled message to Pyongyang's supporters in the UN Security Council, China and Russia, when she said, "Anything that happens here, such as a North Korean nuclear test... has implications for the security of the entire world."

We sincerely hope that everyone on the Security Council will recognize how drastically the world will change if a nuclear weapon is used.

When questioned about the remarks coming out of Tokyo, Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, urged all the nations to acknowledge "the root causes of the long-standing impasse" and take action to build mutual trust and fairly address everyone's concerns.

This year, North Korea has conducted an unprecedented number of weapons tests, launching over twenty ballistic missiles, one of which passed over Japan.

Pyongyang fired hundreds of artillery shells off its coasts last week in what it described as a dire warning to its neighbor to the south after becoming enraged by South Korea's military exercises.

In response to a North Korean ballistic missile test, the USS Ronald Reagan and accompanying ships engaged in joint military training with South Korean forces in September. This was the first such exercise involving a US aircraft carrier since 2017.

Japan, South Korea, and the United States have pledged to intensify their cooperation in response, according to Mori.

We decided to promote even more security cooperation between the US, South Korea, and Japan, as well as to further strengthen the alliances' deterrence and response capacities.

Sherman reaffirmed the United States' position on the escalating hostilities between China and Taiwan, saying that while Washington does not support Taiwan's independence, this does not prevent it from collaborating with Japan and South Korea to assist Taiwan in defending itself.

Although the United States has stated repeatedly that it opposes Taiwan's independence, Sherman said, "We will do everything we can to support Taiwan and to work with Japan and with Republic of Korea to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself."

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for speeding up China's plans to develop a military of the highest caliber at a Communist Party meeting this month and pledged that his nation would never give up the use of force to settle the Taiwan dispute.

Taiwan's government vigorously rejects China's claims of sovereignty and maintains that only the 23 million residents of the island can decide the future of the democratically-governed island.