WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said the international community must act after North Korea's "reckless" nuclear and missile tests on Monday, as calls grew for tougher action against Pyongyang.
"North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile programs pose a great threat to the peace and security of the world and I strongly condemn their reckless action," Obama said ahead of a Memorial Day ceremony to honor war dead.
"The United States and the international community must take action in response."
North Korea faced a swirl of condemnation from world capitals after it said it had detonated a nuclear bomb early Monday.
The test, the second following a October 2006 experiment, came despite international pressure on Pyongyang to rein in its nuclear program after years of stuttering disarmament talks.
United Nations Security Council members are expected to meet in an emergency session later Monday as countries ponder how to respond.
The political fallout from the detonation is already being felt in Washington, with one prominent nuclear hawk pressing the Obama administration to take a tougher line on the Stalinist state.
Former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, an outspoken advocate of sanctions against North Korea, said the country should now be expelled from the world body.
He told Fox News the test proved Pyongyang was not serious about disarmament talks, dubbing it a "moment of truth" for the Obama administration -- which has backed engagement with the regime.
While Obama sounded a less strident tone, he said: "North Korea is not only deepening its own isolation, it's also inviting stronger international pressure.
"Russia, China, as well as our traditional allies of South Korea an Japan have all come to the same conclusion: North Korea will not find security and respect through its threats and illegal weapons."
China is likely to be key in deciding how the international community responds to the test, with Beijing normally reticent to take a tough line on its neighbor for fear of critically destabilizing the regime.
But Nancy Pelosi, the top US lawmaker, currently visiting China, called on the world's most populous nation to bring its weight to bear.
"The Chinese must use their influence to help bring North Korea to the table for the six-party talks," Pelosi said from Shanghai, alluding to disarmament talks including the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.
"Today's announcement makes that need all the more urgent," she said.
Negotiations have been underway since 2003 to persuade the North to abandon nuclear weapons in exchange for energy and security guarantees.
They led to a 2007 agreement under which the North said it would dismantle its nuclear facilities. The deal bogged down last December over verification.
After the UN Security Council condemned the April launch and tightened sanctions, the North vowed to conduct a second nuclear test as well as ballistic missile tests unless the world body apologized.
It also abandoned the six-way talks, which are hosted by its closest ally China, and would restart its plutonium-making program.
News of Monday's nuclear test came soon after the US Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.7 seismic event in the proximity of the site of North Korea's first nuclear test.
The top US military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said there was no reason to disbelieve the Asian nation's claim it carried out the test.
"While it will take us a couple of days to verify this test, certainly there's no indication that it wasn't as they say," Mullen told CNN.
Initial reports indicated the bomb may have had the same power are those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North also appeared to have test-fired a short-range missile Monday.
The impact of the test was felt on world money markets, despite light trading thanks to holidays in the United States and Britain, with the dollar firming against the yen and the euro as traders rushed to the safe-haven US currency.
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