UN condemns North Korea nuclear test

The UN Security Council has "strongly condemned" North Korea's third nuclear test and vowed to take action against Pyongyang, the president of the Security Council said.

"The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this test, which is a grave violation of Security Council resolutions," South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, whose country is president of the council this month, told reporters on Tuesday.

He said the council would now consider "appropriate measures".

North Korea's third nuclear test drew wide condemnation from several countries and organisations, with the US calling it a threat to regional security and Pyongyang's ally China calling for calm.

State media said the country had successfully carried out the underground nuclear test, involving a new "miniaturised", device.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was "deplorable" that North Korea had defied international appeals to refrain from such provocative acts.

"The secretary-general condemns the underground nuclear weapon test conducted by [North Korea] today," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.

The magnitude of the "explosion-like event" was roughly twice as large as that of a 2009 nuclear test in North Korea, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organisation, a group monitoring nuclear tests, said.

NATO said the "irresponsible" nuclear test was a flagrant breach of UN resolutions and a grave threat to international security.