US envoy Nikki Haley urged the 15-member Security Council to adopt the "strongest possible measures" to deter North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. South Korea said Pyongyang was preparing for more ballistic missile launches.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Matthews
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The United States has called for tougher sanctions against North Korea at an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting. The emergency session was held after Pyongyang said it had detonated a hydrogen bomb.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the United States would circulate a new Security Council resolution on North Korea this week. It wants the member countries to vote next Monday.
Haley said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was "begging for war."
"War is never something the United States wants. We don't want it now. But our country's patience is not unlimited. We will defend our allies and our territory," Haley said.
Pyongyang ''begging for war": DW's Carsten von Nahmen
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Echoing the sentiments of her boss, President Donald Trump, Haley said the countries trading with North Korea were fanning the country's nuclear ambitions.
"The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions," she said.
China, North Korea's biggest trading partner, highlighted the need for a diplomatic solution.
"China will never allow chaos and war on the [Korean] Peninsula," said Liu Jieyi, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations. Russia also reiterated its stance, calling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. It said sanctions alone would not solve the issue.
The truth and myths of the Kim dynasty
The Kim family has ruled North Korea for the last seven decades, with state-run propaganda praising Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un as godlike figures. DW looks at the rulers behind the myths.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A young leader
Kim Il Sung, the first and "eternal" president of North Korea, took power in 1948 with the support of the Soviet Union. The official calendar in North Korea begins with his birth year, 1912, designating it "Juche 1" after the state's Juche ideology. He was 41 when, as shown here, he signed the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the Korean War.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hero worship
In the years and decades after the war, Pyongyang's propaganda machine worked hard to weave a mythical narrative around Kim Il Sung. His childhood and the time he spent fighting Japanese troops in the 1930s were embellished to portray him as an unrivaled military and political genius.
At the 1980 party congress, Kim announced he would be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Ruling to the end
In 1992, Kim Il Sung started writing and publishing his memoirs, entitled "Reminiscences: With the Century." Describing his childhood, the North Korean leader claims that he first joined an anti-Japanese rally at 6 years old and became involved with the independence struggle at 8.
The memoirs remained unfinished at Kim Il Sung's death in 1994.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/JIJI Press
In his father's footsteps
After spending years in the top tiers of the regime, Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death. Kim Jong Il's 16-year rule was marked by famine and economic crisis in an already impoverished country. However, the cult of personality surrounding him and his father, Kim Il Sung, grew even stronger.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/KCNA via Korean News Service
Rising star
Historians outside North Korea believe Kim Jong Il was born in a military camp in eastern Russia, most likely in 1941. However, the leader's official biography claims it happened on the sacred Korean mountain Paektu, exactly 30 years after his father, on April 15, 1942. A North Korean legend says the birth was blessed by a new star and a double rainbow.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Family trouble
Kim Jong Il had three sons and two daughters with three different women. This 1981 photo shows Kim Jong Il sitting besides his son Kim Jong Nam, with his sister-in-law and her two children in the background. Kim Jong Nam was eventually assassinated in 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Grooming a successor
In 2009, Western media reported that Kim Jong Il had picked his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to take over as the head of the regime. The two appeared together at a military parade on 2010, a year before Kim Jong Il passed away.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Yu
Together
According to Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Il in 2011 was marked by a series of mysterious events. State media reported that ice snapped loudly at a lake on the Paektu mountain during a sudden snowstorm, with a glowing message appearing on the rocks.
After Kim Jong Il's death, a 22-meter (72-foot) statue of him was erected next to the one of his father (l.) in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mysterious past
Kim Jong Un mostly stayed out of the spotlight before his ascent to power. His exact age is disputed, but he is believed to have been born between 1982 and 1984. He was reportedly educated in Switzerland. In 2013, he surprised the world by meeting with former NBA star Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A new cult
Like the leaders before him, Kim Jong Un is hallowed by the state's totalitarian regime. In 2015, South Korean media reported about a new teacher's manual in the North that claimed Kim Jong Un could drive at the age of 3. In 2017, state media said that a monument to the young leader would be build on Mount Paektu.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Kctv
A Kim with a hydrogen bomb
Altough Kim took power at a younger age and with less of a public profile than his father and grandfather, he has managed to maintain his grip on power. The assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong Nam in 2017 served to cement his reputation abroad as a merciless dictator. The North Korean leader has also vastly expanded the country's nuclear arsenal.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/A. Young-joon
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South Korea gets greater strike power
South Korea and the United States have decided to remove a limit on warhead weight on South Korean missiles in response to North Korea's sixth nuclear test.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke to President Trump on Monday. The two agreed the latest test was an "unprecedented" provocation.
The South Korean defense ministry said North Korea's nuclear test was measured at 50 kilotons, or 50,000 metric tons of TNT, marking its strongest to date.
Under a pact with the US, Seoul can not deploy warheads weighing more than 500 kilograms on its missiles. An unlimited warhead would give South Korea a much greater strike power, in the event of a military conflict.
'Stricter sanctions'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during a phone conversation with President Trump, condemned North Korea's nuclear test as an "unacceptable escalation."
Both urged the United Nations to adopt "further and stricter" sanctions against Pyongyang. Merkel told Trump that Germany would also pursue this at the European Union.
She also advocated more sanctions when speaking to South Korea's President Moon.
President Moon told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Security Council should seriously review cutting off oil supplies to North Korea. In a phone call with the Russian leader, Moon also called on the powerful group to review measures to cut off sources of North Korea's foreign currencies.
Boosting defense
South Korea's security forces carried out live-fire drills on Monday, staging a simulated attack on North Korea's main nuclear site.
The country's defense ministry said it would deploy the remaining four launchers of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
The controversial missile system has been opposed by China and Russia.
Seoul is also in talks with Washington about deploying other strategic assets, including aircraft carriers and strategic bombers in the region.
"We have continued to see signs of possibly more ballistic missile launches. We also forecast North Korea could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile," Chang Kyung-soo, a defense ministry official, told South Korea's parliament in a special hearing.
