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S Korea to hold multilateral talks over North’s n-programme

North Korea has expanded propaganda broadcasts in border areas in response to South Korea’s resumption of such broadcasts, a Seoul official said on Monday. Upon completion of the flight over South Korea, the B-52 returned to Guam.

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According to the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the United States is “is going insane with its military exercises in Korean waters using aircraft carriers and nuclear-armed submarines that are aimed at conquering Pyongyang”.

As I reported previously (See: “US B-52 Bomber to Get New Long-Range Cruise Missile”), the B-52 can perform strategic attack, close-air support, air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime operations, according to the U.S. Air Force website.

It’s pretty clear that the nuclear device detonated by North Korea last week was not a hydrogen bomb.

 The North also initiated propaganda broadcasts on Monday from loudspeakers situated on its border with the South, in a tit-for-tat response to the South’s decision on Friday to resume such broadcasts.

South Korea continued to remain vigilant as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Lee Sun-jin warned during an inspection that the North is likely to launch further sudden provocations.

The United States and other global powers condemned North Korea for testing another bomb, and the United Nations Security Council met in emergency session to consider increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang.

Kim had earlier called the explosion “a self-defensive step” meant to protect the region “from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists”, a separate KCNA dispatch said.

During a photo session with hundreds of participants at the headquarters of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, the young ruler lauded them for “glorifying the long-held missions of his predecessors” by successfully carrying out what he said was a hydrogen bomb test? a claim that has become the subject of dispute among outside observers.

North Korea has been roundly condemned for its nuclear tests, including this one.

“The United States and South Korea are continuously and closely having discussions on additional deployment of strategic assets on the Korean peninsula”. The North has previously shelled a South Korean island near their maritime border and sunk a South Korean naval ship.

But while the substance of the remarks is nothing new, pundits wonder what the circumstances say about the standing of the unruly military, which Kim had seemed at pains to rein in.

A standoff between the rival Koreas has deepened since last week’s test, the North’s fourth.

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Responding to the North’s bomb test, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China, the North’s only major ally and biggest aid provider, to end “business as usual” with North Korea.

President Barack Obama “is interested in building up forces for the attack on China” and Russia says Mike Billington