Obama warns N. Korea of ‘serious consequences’ after N-tests

From Lalit K Jha Washington, Sep 9 (PTI) US President Barack Obama todaywarned North Korea of "serious consequences" as he consultedleaders of South Korea and Japan after Pyongyang conducted itsfifth nuclear test – believed to be its most powerful ever. "The president indicated he would continue to consult ourallies and partners in the days ahead to ensure provocativeactions from North Korea are met with serious consequences,"White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. He said President Obama was briefed on the situation ashe flew home from a visit to Asia aboard Air Force One. Obama consulted with South Korean President Park Geun-hyeand Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in separate phone callsfrom the presidential aircraft. "The president reiterated the unbreakable US commitmentto the security of our allies in Asia and around the world,"Earnest said. Earlier, National Security Council spokesman Ned Pricesaid the US was monitoring and continuing to assess thesituation in view of the seismic activity on the KoreanPeninsula in the vicinity of a known nuclear site. "We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situationin close coordination with our regional partners," Price said. His statement came after South Korean and internationalmonitoring agencies reported an earthquake near North Korea’snorth-eastern nuclear test site, indicating that Pyongyang mayhave detonated a new atomic test to mark the 68th anniversaryof the country’s founding. "Our monitoring stations picked up an unusual seismicevent in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)today at 00:30 (UTC). So far, 25 of our stations arecontributing to the analysis," CTBT Organisation’s executivesecretary Lassina Zerbo said in a statement. "The event seems to have been slightly larger than theone our system recorded on 6 January this year and thelocation is very similar to that event. Our initial locationestimate shows that the event took place in the area of theDPRK’s nuclear test site. "If confirmed as a nuclear test, this act constitutes yetanother breach of the universally accepted norm againstnuclear testing; a norm that has been respected by 183countries since 1996," she said. PTI LKJ AJR SAIZH