Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has condemned North Korea's nuclear test today, saying it's further damaged its international reputation and exposed its people to serious risk.

"The North Korean regime has just exposed its people to radiation, seriously damaged its international standing, and has again confirmed the fact that civil nuclear reactors provide the pathway and capacity for nuclear weapons programmes," said the Greens Spokesperson for Nuclear Issues, Senator Scott Ludlam.

"North Korea accessed nuclear technology as a non-nuclear weapon state, as it is encouraged to do under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Then it withdrew from the treaty to build weapons with its supposedly 'civilian' nuclear technology."

"Any attempts to separate so called ‘peaceful uses' of nuclear technology and weapons proliferation is defeated as an illogical, unscientific and politically dishonest argument with examples like North Korea and India."

Senator Ludlam says a solution can only be found through international cooperation:

"The answer lies in decisive moves to de-legitimise, outlaw and dismantle these weapons through a Nuclear Weapons Convention. A first step along that path is the rapid passage of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into international Law. Australia has a valuable role to play in encouraging the Chinese Government to ratify the CTBT and take a stronger line with North Korea, and Australia's efforts toward global nuclear disarmament take on a greater urgency in the light of these tests."

"Nuclear weapon test explosions release radioactive fission products that harm human health and the environment for generations. Nuclear testing is unforgivable, just as it was unforgivable for the British to shower indigenous people with radiation, as did the French and the US in the Pacific, and the Russians in Kazakhstan.

"As the Canberra Commission said in 1996, ‘So long as any state has even one nuclear weapon, it is inevitable that other states -- or even non-state actors -- will try to get them.'

"While these weapons of terror figure so strongly as political symbols and are part of national security policies, as we saw shamefully reconfirmed in Australia's Defence White Paper, countries like North Korea will want them," concluded Senator Ludlam.