Abe says North Korea must give up its nuclear program

VLADIVOSTOK, September 7. /TASS/. North Korea has turned into an unprecedented threat and should be forced to give up all its programs on developing nuclear weapons, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Vladivostok.

"North Korea has posed a challenge to the international community, turning into an unprecedented, serious and urgent threat," Abe said, recalling that on August 29 Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile that flew over Japan’s territory.

On September 3, North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test "at a point at the distance just 300 km from here, Vladivostok," and the explosion yield "significantly increased the previous ones."

"North Korea is pursuing the line of escalation of open challenges to the world, prosperity and world order not only in the region, but in the whole world," Abe said.

He urged the international community to force North Korea to immediately comply with all resolutions of the UN Security Council in full and give up all its programs on creating nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

For containing Pyongyang, "the world community should unite and exert maximum pressure on North Korea," he said.

On September 3, North Korea officially announced a successful test of a hydrogen bomb that could be used as a warhead for an intercontinental ballistic missile. The news met tough reaction of the world community. South Korea and the United States said they did not rule out a possible military response to North Korea’s actions. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called on all concerned parties to immediately resume dialogue and talks, saying that this is the only way to solve the problems of the Korean Peninsula.