According to South Korea’s Defense Ministry, the broadcasts can reach the intended target about 20 kilometers away during the night.
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In August, Seoul signed a package of agreements with Pyongyang on easing the standoff, which included a stop to broadcasts unless an “abnormal” situation should occur again.
The North’s claim of a successful test drew extreme scepticism overseas.
North Korea considers such broadcasts to be an act of psychological warfare and likely will have a furious response.
China is North Korea’s only real ally in the Asia Pacific, and critics say it has failed to fully enforce worldwide sanctions levied against the smaller country – even though it voted for many of them – sustaining a government that could otherwise likely collapse. South Korean military banned foreign media from the border ahead of the broadcasts. North Korean military forces often compete to show their loyalty to the leader.
The resolution also requested that Japan strive to ensure security in collaboration with the United States, South Korea, China and Russian Federation as well as other members of the global community.
“We have to face the reality that sanctions alone will not leverage the North Korean policy in the absence of a fundamental change in Chinese policy”, DeThomas said.
The speakers have been used only once in the past decade, for part of August in retaliation for the maiming of two South Korean soldiers by DMZ mines.
It may take weeks or longer to confirm or contradict the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal. Nevertheless, this is the fourth nuclear test by North Korea.
U.S analysts tracking China-North Korea relations think China would not squeeze Kim Jong-un’s regime to the point where it may collapse and cause turmoil at its borders.
A South Korean military official told Reuters that Seoul and Washington had discussed the deployment of U.S. strategic assets on the divided Korean peninsula, but declined to give further details. B-2 and B-52 bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Although there is skepticism that North Korea carried out the test as claimed, its actions have been condemned internationally.
It is in response to Pyongyang’s claim to have detonated a hydrogen bomb.
South Korea, technically in a state of war against the North, said it was not considering a nuclear deterrent of its own, despite calls from ruling party leaders. The Yonhap report cited an unidentified defence official. China has been allied with North Korea since the Korean War and is the country’s biggest economic supporter.
Hydrogen bombs release about 1,000 times the energy of a standard atomic bomb, according to Tatsujiro Suzuki, a professor at Nagasaki University’s Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition. There are still many unanswered questions about the nuclear test.
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The legislation, sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce of California and Rep. Eliot Engel of NY, the top Democrat on the panel, would curtail North Korea’s access to US financial markets, targeting banks that may be supporting North Korea’s arms, money-laundering or smuggling operations.
