iStock/Thinkstock(PYONGYANG) — After North Korea announced on Sunday that it successfully conducted a test of a powerful hydrogen bomb meant to be loaded onto an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), President Donald Trump said “we’ll see” in regards to a possible attack on the country.

A newsreader for North Korean state-run television announced the test, saying it was ordered by Kim Jong Un. The broadcaster called it a “complete success,” adding that the “two-stage thermonuclear weapon” had “unprecedented” strength.

This latest test was the most powerful of North Korea’s six nuclear tests.

U.S., Trump respond to reports of test

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced Sunday morning that he’ll be drafting a new sanctions package against North Korea that could go so far as to cut off all U.S. trade with any country that chooses to do business with North Korea.

“It’s clear that this behavior is completely unacceptable,” Mnuchin said of the test on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ve already started with sanctions against North Korea, but I’m going to start a sanctions package to send to the president, for his strong consideration, that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them would be prevented from doing trade or business with us.”

Mnuchin added that the U.S. will work with allies and China as it takes steps to more forcefully cut off North Korea from the global economy.

Mnuchin also mentioned that he’s spoken to Trump since the test took place.

Trump first responded to the reported test on Twitter prior to Mnuchin’s warning, commenting on North Korea’s continuing “hostile and dangerous” actions toward the U.S. and it being a “great threat and embarrassment to China.” The president also said South Korea’s “talk of appeasement” with its northern neighbor won’t work.

North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

..North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

Later in the day, Trump, who was attending a church service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, responded to a question about whether the U.S. would “attack” North Korea by saying, “We’ll see.”

Asked if he would attack North Korea following its apparent nuclear test, Pres. Trump says, “We’ll see.” https://t.co/lV1Kg888QQ pic.twitter.com/VUkdzmW6pJ

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 3, 2017

The president returned to the subject of North Korea on Twitter later in the day, promising that he would meet with Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House chief of staff John Kelly and “other military leaders” to discuss America’s policy toward North Korea.

I will be meeting General Kelly, General Mattis and other military leaders at the White House to discuss North Korea. Thank you.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017

Reports of seismic activity

North Korea’s announcement of the test came a few hours after a 6.3-magnitude “explosion” was detected at 12:29 p.m. local time in North Korea, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

According to the USGS, the seismic activity occurred 24 kilometers east-northeast of Sungjibaegam, North Korea, on Sunday. “Possible explosion, located near the site where North Korea has detonated nuclear explosions in the past,” read a statement on the USGS website, before confirmation that it was indeed a nuclear test.

The USGS said a second, 4.1-magnitude seismic event occurred 22 kilometers northeast of Sungjibaegam. “Seismic event collocated with the larger possible explosion eight minutes and 32 seconds earlier,” read a statement on USGS’s website. “This significantly smaller event is likely a secondary feature — possibly a structural collapse — associated with the larger event.”

U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong of the country’s National Security Office, for 20 minutes in an emergency phone call following the test, according to the South Korean presidential office.

Eui-yong said Sunday that President Moon Jae-in will seek every available diplomatic measure, including new sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. He said Moon will also discuss with the Trump administration ways to deploy the “strongest strategic assets” the U.S. has.

Speaking at a press conference Sunday at the South Korean Ministry of Defense, Cho Han-kyu, the director general of operations with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military “strongly condemns North Korea in conducting ICBM-level missile launches and nuclear tests, even stronger than those conducted in the past, regardless of our government’s suggestions to ease military tension and bring peace to the Korean peninsula.”

Han-kyu said “the South Korea-U.S. alliance, in closest cooperation ever, has all the capability to punish North Korea, and we will show our action demonstrating a strong response of the South Korea-U.S. combined forces.”

UN Secretary General, countries across the world weigh in

António Guterres, the United Nation’s Secretary-General, released a statement about the test through a spokesperson that singled out North Korea as the “only country that continues to break the norm against nuclear test explosions.”

“This act is yet another serious breach of the DPRK’s international obligations and undermines international non-proliferation and disarmament efforts,” the statement reads. “This act is also profoundly destabilizing for regional security.”

Condemnation of the test also came from China, Russia and France.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has once again conducted a nuclear test in spite of widespread opposition from the international community. The Chinese government resolutely opposes and strongly condemns it.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that North Korea’s nuclear test “deserves absolute condemnation,” adding that immediate dialogue and negotiations are necessary. It said that’s the only way to settle the Korean peninsula’s problems, “including the nuclear problem.”

The statement continued, “This yet-another example of Pyongyang’s outright disregard of the demands of respective UN Security Council resolutions and international law deserves absolute condemnation.”

The ministry said Russia is willing to participate in negotiations, “including in the context of the implementing of the Russian-Chinese roadmap.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement that he “calls on the members of the United Nations Security Council to quickly react to this new violation by North Korea of international law.”

“The international community must treat this new provocation with the utmost firmness, in order to bring North Korea to come back unconditionally to the path of dialogue and to proceed to the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear and ballistic program.”

South Korea’s weather agency, the Korea Meteorological Administration, said on Sunday that the apparent nuclear test appears to have been several times stronger than its previous test.

The agency estimated that the nuclear blast yield of the presumed test was between 50 to 60 kilotons, or five to six times stronger than the North Korea’s fifth test, conducted in September 2016.

Prior to North Korea’s announcement, Japan confirmed that the rogue nation conducted a nuclear test. “It is absolutely unacceptable if North Korea did force another nuclear test, and we must protest strongly,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

And South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had also “presumed” that North Korea did indeed conduct a sixth nuclear test, before its neighbor to the north made the announcement. When news first broke of the seismic activity, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the seismic activity was artificial.

South Korea’s presidential office said it will hold a National Security Council meeting chaired by President Moon Jae-in.

The North Korean government released photos earlier Sunday of Kim Jong Un talking with his lieutenants as he watched a silver, peanut-shaped device that was apparently the purported thermonuclear weapon destined for an ICBM. What appeared to be the nose cone of a missile could also be seen near the alleged bomb in one picture. The photo could not be independently verified. Another photo showed a diagram on the wall of a bomb mounted inside a cone.

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