North Korea carried out a nuclear test on Wednesday, although the USA government and weapons experts doubt Pyongyang’s assertion that the device it exploded was a powerful hydrogen bomb.
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In retaliation for the test, South Korea on Friday unleashed a ear-splitting propaganda barrage over its border with the North. The last time South Korea deployed the loudspeakers, in August 2015, it triggered an exchange of artillery fire.
South Korea has resumed propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers into North Korea, a step that has angered the reclusive country in the past.
Before the broadcasts began, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged China to end “business as usual” with North Korea.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Friday asked South Korea to refrain from the propaganda broadcasts.
Now former US Army psychological warfare officer Scott Bennett tells Press TV that the United States may have inflated North Korea’s claim of an H-bomb test for any future response on the part of Washington. South Korean President Park Geun-hye orders her military to bolster its combined defense posture with US forces.
Now North Korea wants those three sides and South Korea to sign a treaty.
Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler, reporting from Paju in South Korea on Friday, said the North viewed the resumption of the broadcasts as an act of war and a distinct violation.
It is in response to Pyongyang’s claim to have detonated a hydrogen bomb.
The cross-border broadcasts blare out an eclectic mix of everything from K-pop and weather forecasts to snippets of news and critiques of the North Korean regime. Yonhap also reported that North Korea had boosted troop deployments and raised its surveillance of the South.
Kerry rejected a reporter’s suggestion that the Obama administration had neglected the North Korean threat as it focused on curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
The reclusive state has now defied the global community by carrying out four nuclear tests since its first in 2006.
China “firmly opposes” the nuclear test, the Foreign Ministry has said, noting that it knew noting about the test beforehand.
The source said he had relayed the message from North Korea to China’s top leadership immediately after its latest test, urging China to support a push for a treaty.
However, he said Thursday that the approach was no longer welcomed by the United States.
“Continuing with words is not enough, we have to show we are prepared to take the actions to make the sanctions regime against North Korea effective”, he said. Media said those could include B-2 and B-52 bombers, and a nuclear-powered submarine. KINS official Lee Ki-hyeong also noted that other types of xenon isotopes used to confirm nuclear explosions weren’t detected.
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I imagine North Korea declared the success of its hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday because the country wanted to cement the solidarity of its people.
