The Director General of IAEA, Yukiya Amano, described North Korea’s latest nuclear launch as “an extremely regrettable act that completely disregarded the international community’s repeated demands.

“Today’s nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is an extremely regrettable act.

“This new test, which follows the two tests last year and is the sixth since 2006, is in complete disregard of the repeated demands of the international community.”

In its resolutions, most recently in 2371, the UN Security Council reaffirmed its decisions that the DPRK should not conduct any further nuclear tests and should abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

“Once again, I strongly urge the DPRK to fully implement all relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the IAEA,” Amano said.

The head of the UN atomic agency noted that the agency would continue to closely follow developments in the DPRK nuclear programme and was ready to contribute to its peaceful resolution.