S-Korea vows measures to make North pay price for fourth nuclear test

South Korea said on Wednesday it would take all possible measures, including possible United Nations sanctions, to ensure Pyongyang pays the price after its fourth nuclear test.

South Korea said on Wednesday it would take all possible measures, including possible United Nations sanctions, to ensure Pyongyang pays the price after its fourth nuclear test.

People watch a TV screen showing the news reporting about an earthquake near North Korea's nuclear facility at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday. (AP)

“Our government strongly condemns North Korea ignoring repeated warnings from us and the international community and pushing ahead with the fourth nuclear test, which clearly violated the U.N. resolutions,” Cho Tae-yong, a senior security official at the South Korean presidential office said.

The secretive North, already under heavy U.N., EU and U.S. sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests, said earlier that it had successfully tested a hydrogen nuclear bomb.

North Korea, under U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes, has so far conducted three nuclear tests - in 2006, 2009 and 2013 - all at Punggye-ri, near the location of Wednesday’s earthquake of 5.1 magnitude.