“China’s leadership has concluded that they have to do something to build ties with North Korea, that they have sunk too low – what the North Koreans want to signal is that if we’re moving toward normal relations, its on our terms not yours”.
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Japan said three planes it sent up on Wednesday to try and collect traces of radioactive material that might help clarify the nature of the test, had returned empty-handed. The government will allow only South Korean businessmen and workers directly involved in the operation of the factories to cross the Korean border, according to the official.
Cho also said the South’s military was ready to respond if the North reacted to the renewed broadcasts with armed hostilities.
But U.S. officials have cast doubt on the claim the exploded device was a hydrogen bomb.
The recent up-beat K-pop hit “Bang, Bang, Bang” and a mournful ballad about a “death angel”, were on the playlist when South Korea restarted propaganda broadcasts into the North on Friday.
From Seoul to Washington, Beijing to the United Nations, world powers are looking at ways to punish Pyongyang for the test of what it called a new and powerful hydrogen bomb.
But even if the North exploded a boosted fission bomb, its explosive yield, estimated at six kilotons, showed the test was likely a failure, a South Korean defense official said Thursday.
“Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment”. South Korea had warned the broadcasts would resume.
Asked if he thinks it is time for China to get tough with North Korea, Kerry said, “It’s time for everybody to make sure that this does not continue as business as usual”.
“We are anxious about how things are developing”, the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told a briefing.
He said there had been constant consultations on North Korea, including on his first trip to China after he became the top USA diplomat in 2013.
Kerry and Wang agreed their countries would work closely in the UN Security Council, in which members are expected to discuss a fresh sanctions resolution against North Korea. If the underground test is confirmed, it would be the North’s fourth nuclear test and its first of the H-bomb, which is more powerful than an atomic bomb. Until they do that they’re not going to achieve prosperity, they’re not going to achieve the security they desire.
Jong-un’s North Korea is bragging about the bomb test while raising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The test took place two days ahead of what is believed to be North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s birthday.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that frontline troops, near 11 sites where propaganda loudspeakers started blaring messages at noon (0300 GMT), were on highest alert.
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Hydrogen bombs use a two-step process of fission and fusion that releases substantially more energy than an atomic bomb.
