Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Edmund Bartlett says Jamaica should keep a close watch on activities in North Korea after President Kim Jong Un reported a successful testing of a hydrogen nuclear bomb.
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North Korean claims of its first hydrogen bomb test are indeed the stuff of nuclear nightmares.
China is a traditional ally of North Korea and is believed to have significant leverage over North Korea, but Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test showed that Beijing’s influence is limited.
US Republicans have gleefully painted the latest test as another foreign policy failure for President Barack Obama’s outgoing administration, and it would be a fearless presidential candidate who suggested dialogue with Pyongyang as a way forward.
While also noting the quake was likely too small for an H-bomb test, Jaiki Lee, a professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said the North could have experimented with a “boosted” hybrid bomb that uses some nuclear fusion fuel along with more conventional uranium or plutonium fuel.
Although officials and experts were highly sceptical of the claim it was a sophisticated H-bomb, the latest test provided unnerving proof – if proof were still needed – of North Korea’s commitment to developing an advanced nuclear weapons capability.
Han Min-koo, the South Korean defence minister, separately told lawmakers that the military was exploring possible options including the resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts along the inter-Korean border.
Cho said South Korean troops maintain combat readiness and will sternly retaliate against North Korea if Pyongyang stages a provocation.
Fusion is the main principle behind the hydrogen bomb, which can be hundreds of times more powerful than atomic bombs that use fission.
The move could further escalate tensions with North Korea, which had threatened to launch “strong military action” against loudspeakers blaring messages critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
But another pariah regime, North Korea, has pushed on with its own program and on Wednesday claimed to have carried out a test of its most powerful nuclear weapon yet.
Mr Abe told reporters: “We agreed that the provocative act by North Korea is unacceptable”.
The resumption of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts coincides with Kim’s birthday, which falls on Friday.
About 150 people from a conservative civic group gathered near Gwanghwamun Square and called for the South Korean government to take stern measures against North Korea.
Condemnation of the North’s claim on Wednesday to have tested its first hydrogen bomb has been swift and universal, but the real battle will be converting the indignation into concrete action that has the same across-the-board backing.
“China really has to decide whether North Korea as it stands now is a liability or an asset”, said Roberta Cohen of the US Brookings think tank.
The censure and sanctions threats had a familiar ring, given similar outrage that greeted the North’s previous tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and some voices stressed the need to find a strategy that combined coercion with negotiation.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon holds a media briefing before attending a Security Council meeting, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, at U.N. headquarters. Other nations may either have it or are working on it, despite a worldwide effort to contain such proliferation.
There is room to increase pressure by imposing the sort of extensive economic sanctions that helped bring Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme.
To build its nuclear program, the North must explode new and more advanced devices so scientists can improve their designs and technology.
It could be weeks before the true nature of the test is confirmed by outside experts, if they are able to do so at all.
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North Korea tries to hide its tests by conducting them underground and sealing off tunnels or other vents through which radioactive residue could escape.
