“While we can not confirm at this time that a test was carried out, we condemn any violation of UNSC (U.N. Security Council) Resolutions and again call on North Korea to abide by its worldwide obligations and commitments”, she added.
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Hwang said that a procedure is needed to assess the explosion based on numbers by calculating how powerful it was and how it can be gauged through further data analysis.
In another statement on North Korean TV, reported by The Guardian, the country claimed the bomb is a “miniaturised hydrogen bomb”, which they say is more powerful than an atomic bomb.
If good relations with China are so important to North Korea, then why did Pyongyang decide to test a hydrogen bomb, making Beijing angry? Even a failed H-bomb detonation typically yields tens of kilotons, the NIS told Lee, who sits on the parliament’s intelligence committee.
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Non-Proliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, said North Korea has paraded two versions of a ballistic missile that appeared to be of a type with a range sufficient to hit the USA west coast, but has never tested it.
The country declared it had nuclear weapons in 2003, and conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in an annual New Year’s speech last week that the country was ready for war if provoked by “invasive” outsiders, but did not repeat past threats to use the country’s nuclear weapons or long-range missiles.
Meanwhile, Officials in Japan reportedly were also holding discussions.
“Kim Jong Un made public statement a few weeks ago saying that (the country was) developing a hydrogen bomb”. Some outside analysts speculated Kim was anxious about deteriorating ties with China, the North’s last major ally, which has shown greater frustration at provocations and a possible willingness to allow stronger United Nations sanctions. This was stated by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.
All of the USA nuclear weapons are hydrogen bombs that are surprisingly small – think of the size of a metal trash can.
“The Republic (referring to North Korea), as a responsible nuclear weapon holder, will neither use nuclear weapons first nor transfer (nuclear) related means and technology under any circumstances as already declared unless aggressive, hostile forces infringe upon our autonomy”.
North Korea has long coveted diplomatic recognition from Washington but sees its nuclear deterrent as crucial to ensuring the survival of its third-generation dictatorship.
Many experts also doubt whether the North possesses missile technology capable of reliably delivering a warhead to the continental United States.
The six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean standoff have been stalled since late 2008.
The location on the map places the epicenter at North Korea’s Pyunggye-ri testing site in its northeastern mountains, where all of its nuclear tests have been conducted. But the debate is growing on just how far the North has advanced. It was first successfully tested in the 1950s by the USA, in bombs called Mike and Bravo.
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North Korea’s internationally isolated regime is a heavily militarized state with a huge standing army of 1.2 million active soldiers and 7.7 million reservists.
