North Korea Nuclear Test: Pyongyang Warns of More to Come

Impact

North Korea said its controversial nuclear test is just its "first response" to what Pyongyang sees as American threats, and warned it will continue with "second and third measures of greater intensity" if the U.S. doesn't stop — reported the AP

The test was a defiant response to U.N. resolutions that forbid North Korea from executing atomic tests, because Pyongyang's regime is considered a "would-be proliferator of weapons of mass destruction." 

However, Kim Jong Un's regime sees the tests as patriotic and decisive moves to protect the country from Western aggression. "The test was conducted in a safe and perfect way on a high level, with the use of a smaller and light A-bomb, unlike the previous ones, yet with great explosive power," North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said.

According to the AP, the timing of the test is significant as it came hours before Obama's 2013 SOTU.