Kazakh Foreign Office strongly condemns nuclear weapon test in North Korea

ASTANA. KAZINFORM On September 9, 2016, all the seismic stations of the Republic Kazakhstan, which are members of the CTBT International Monitoring System, registered a seismic phenomenon with the epicenter close to Punggye-ri Test Site of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (nuclear tests were conducted on this site in 2006, 2009, 2013 and in January 2016). Data analysis proved it was a nuclear weapon test.

Kazakhstan strongly condemns such actions of North Korea and states their absolute unacceptability and contradiction with the appropriate resolutions of the UN Security Council.

Presiding in the 9^th CTBTO Article XIV Conference together with Japan, and chairing the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, Kazakhstan believes that irresponsible actions of North Korea negatively impact nuclear disarmament process and impose threat both at the regional and global levels and undercut the efforts of overwhelming majority of the countries of the world on ensuring nuclear-weapon-free future.

Kazakhstan which itself experienced the killing essence of the nuclear weapons, which voluntarily refused from possessing nuclear arsenal and which initiated to adopt the UN GA resolution to declare August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests, stands for full prohibition of nuclear tests around the world and calls North Korea to immediately  start negotiations in a six-lateral format with the participation of China, Russia, the U.S., Republic of Korea and Japan and fully renounce its nuclear ambitions.

Kazakhstan is confident that saving the world from nuclear weapons is a pledge of global security to which our country and President Nursultan Nazarbayev consistently call.