North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seemed on Thursday to maintain his state has developed a hydrogen bomb, a step upward from the atomic bomb that was strong, but the Usa and external specialists were sceptical.
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Kim, who gave the news on the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site – in honor of his ascendants and former rulers of the nation – stated that the work of his father and grandfather had turned the country into “a powerful nuclear weapons state”.
The DPRK has conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
A South Korean intelligence official told Yonhap that he believed Kim was merely speaking rhetorically.
The U.N. Security Council held a meeting on North Korea’s human rights situation on Thursday, the second time the issue has been discussed at the top global security body after the first such meeting past year.
“At this point, the information that we have access to calls into serious question those claims, but we take very seriously the risk and the threat that is posed by the North Korean regime in their ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon”, said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. Analysts have said cash-strapped North Korea might seek the South’s commitment to restart joint tours to its scenic Diamond Mountain resort, which were suspended by Seoul in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist there by North Korean soldiers. Daniel Pinkston, an expert on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program based at a university in Romania, told the Washington Post that it’s “virtually impossible” for the country to have developed a hydrogen bomb.
The Koreas remain technically at war, because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
If true, the development would mark a significant advancement in North Korean nuclear capabilities.
It was possible the North was referring to the technology of boosting the yield of a nuclear device, possibly using fusion fuel, Lewis said.
Earlier in 2015, Jong-un claimed his country had developed the technology to launch rockets from a submarine and released photos of the launch.
“We believe it is critical for the council to continue to shine a light on the abuses in North Korea and speak regularly about the DPRK’s human rights situation – and what we can do to change it – for as long as the crimes committed there persist”, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said in a statement.
“I am skeptical that they could have succeeded by now”, he said.
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South Korea, meanwhile, wants the North to agree to regular reunions for families separated by the Korean War.
