We call on the council to quickly adopt a resolution to impose effective sanctions on North Korea and demonstrate the worldwide community's resolve in responding to Pyongyang's behavior.

At a meeting of top security officials, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said: "We have to believe that Kim Jong-un's mental state is spiralling out of control because he is not listening to any words from the worldwide community or neighbouring countries in his attempt to cling to power".

The communist country's state media also claimed that with the nuclear test North Korea had realized its goal of being able to fit a miniaturized warhead on a rocket.

The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea's founding, was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to some estimates.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter called for ramping up pressure on North Korea and stressed the importance of China's role in reining in the provocative regime after Pyongyang carried out its fifth nuclear test.

"We will take additional significant steps, including new sanctions to demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences to its unlawful and risky actions", Power said.

North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006.

The United Nations Security Council denounced North Korea's decision to carry out the test and said it would begin work immediately on a resolution.

In Seoul, dozens of protesters burned an effigy of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-UN and called for pre-emptive strikes on the North's nuclear facilities.

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Many experts who have dealt with North Korea say the United States may have no choice but to do so. Japan's foreign minister lodged a protest and Tokyo also sent two military jets to begin measuring for radiation.

"Kim, the president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), said "(North Korea) will secure the world peace and safety and continue to expand and develop global relations in a way that fits its status as a nuclear powerhouse", the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported earlier in the day.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said such a nuclear test could not be tolerated.

What measures are included in a new resolution will largely depend on China, the North's major ally and neighbour which fears any instability on the Korean peninsula.

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French envoy to the Francois Delattre said the latest nuclear test by North Korea is more than a grave provocation.

Gardner said the USA should convene a meeting with South Korean and Japanese officials to develop a coordinated reaction.

During his stay in NY, the country's top diplomat will hold a meeting with his counterparts from the US and Japan to discuss how to impose stronger sanctions on Pyongyang, the ministry said.

USA officials hold on strongly to the opinion that China plays a crucial role in stopping North Korea's nuclear program, and Carter's comments reinforce that belief.