North Korea on Wednesday scoffed at the US Air Force’s show of force a day earlier, saying Washington was “bluffing” and “blustering” with the flyover of B-1 bombers.
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That amount, 330 pounds, is sufficient to produce six nuclear bombs, according to Hecker. It was also meant to help counter calls among nationalist politicians and scholars here who contend that the South must arm itself with nuclear weapons.
The United States and South Korea vowed on Tuesday to push for the “strongest possible” resolution at the U.N. Security Council, including new sanctions and the removal of existing loopholes, to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test.
On Tuesday, Sung Kim, Washington’s top official dealing with North Korea, and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Hong-kyun, reiterated that the South did not need to build its own nuclear bombs or to reintroduce USA tactical atomic bombs that were withdrawn in the early 1990s.
Such flyovers are common when always high animosity rises on the Korean Peninsula, which is technically in a state of war as there has never been a peace treaty to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War.
Last week’s nuclear test, the North’s fifth, was its most powerful to date.
” ‘Left unchecked, Pyongyang will likely develop the capability to reach the continental United States with a nuclear tipped missile in a decade or so, ‘ [Hecker] wrote on the North Korea-focused website 38 North”.
The United States is doing less and less for the public good in global affairs, “but its vigour for troublemaking has not diminished an iota”, the newspaper said in the commentary, published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, often used to give views on foreign policy.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday that South Korean and US intelligence authorities believe North Korea has the ability to detonate another atomic device at any time at one of its tunnels at its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where the five previous atomic explosions took place.
“At the start of the year after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test, the United States did not hesitate to increase irritations to the peninsula’s security situation, did not hesitate to harm regional countries strategic security interests, strongly pushing THAAD’s deployment in South Korea”, it said.
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North Korea’s military was prepared to stop any United States moves, it said, with a closing warning to Washington.
