Mr Sikorski strongly condemned North Korea's actions Courtesy of MSZ/FLICKR

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has condemned North Korea’s latest underground nuclear test, worrying publicly that the regime may have “wriggled itself out of the control of its protector- China.” 

Mr Sikorski made the comments on Polish Radio 1, adding that North Korea possessing and potentially trading nuclear technology is “dangerous for the whole world.”

The foreign minister pointed to China as the main player in the North Korea equation. “Without [China’s] support, without the border open for trade and the movement of people, the North Korean regime would not last longer than a few months,” he said.

But China did join other countries in “strongly condemning” the North Korean nuclear test after a UN Security Council emergency meeting held last week.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Pyongyang’s actions “deplorable” and the Security Council promised “significant action” if the North Korean regime carries out another nuclear test. However, it remains unclear as to how China would react.

North Korea announced that this latest test exhibited “greater explosive force” than those it conducted in 2006 and 2009. The earliest test is said to have yielded less than one kiloton of energy while the one conducted in three years later is thought to have released between two and seven kilotons. For reference, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 released 16 kilotons of energy.

After the latest test, Kim Min-seok, a spokesperson for South Korea’s defense ministry, said the magnitude of the “artificial tremor” suggested the size of the February blast could be between six and seven kilotons. The actual size of the blast remains unconfirmed, however.
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said it had used a “miniaturized” and lighter nuclear device this time around. It is believed that the communist regime’s aim is to build a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the US.

Remi Adekoya