UNITED NATIONS _ The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations called Monday for punishing all countries that do business with North Korea after the largest nuclear test conducted by Pyongyang.
From the United States to Japan, ambassadors at a U.N. Security Council meeting expressed fear and anger and frustration about North Korea. The nuclear bomb tested Sunday was eight times as large as the device that destroyed Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
"His abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats shows that he is begging for war,'' U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. She called for expanded sanctions to punish not only North Korea, but also all of its trading partners.
"The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions,'' she said.
But sanctions targeting business partners are unlikely to be approved given that Security Council member China accounts for 80 percent of North Korea's trade.
The test Sunday was North Korea's sixth and most powerful to date and the first since President Trump took office. The device had an estimated explosive yield of 120 kilotons.
North Korean state media claimed that it was a hydrogen bomb and could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S. It called the test a "perfect success."
Russia and China have called for the United States to negotiate with North Korea. "The peninsula issue must be resolved peacefully. China will never allow chaos and war (on the peninsula),'' said Liu Jieyi, the Chinese ambassador to the U.N.
The United Nations has already imposed eight sets of sanctions on North Korea, the toughest just one month ago.
On Aug. 5, the Security Council unanimously approved sanctions that could cost North Korea $1 billion in export revenues. The U.N.'s additional tools for punishing North Korea are limited.
