South Korea unleashed a high-decibel propaganda barrage across the border on Friday in retaliation for North Korea’s nuclear bomb test this week, while the United States called on China to end “business as usual” with its ally Pyongyang.
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US, Japan and South Korea agree to launch “strong united response” to Pyongyang’s nuclear bomb test; UN also pledges to slap more sanctions against reclusive nationSEOUL The United States, South Korea and Japan have agreed to launch a united and strong global response to North Korea’s apparent fourth nuclear test, even as experts scrambled to find more details about the detonation.
Chinese officials are also shifting the blame to Obama, condemning North Korea’s nuclear provocations and telling CNN they believe the USA could be exerting more influence on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if it wanted to, since Kim has long sought direct communication with Washington.
In August 2015, South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts after accusing North Korea of planting land mines that exploded and maimed two South Korean soldiers.
The rhetorical battle eased after historic summit talks in 2000 between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, but it didn’t stop.
North Korea’s state media called the test a self-defence measure against a potential U.S. attack. B-2 and B-52 bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Thermonuclear weapons, far more powerful than the atomic kind, are nearly certainly beyond the North’s know-how. China does not approve of North Korea’s nuclear program, and has taken punitive action, including canceling fuel deliveries, that have resulted in it having been branded a “turncoat and an enemy” by the Kim regime. These missiles could strike neighboring countries including Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, and USA military bases in the Asia-Pacific region.
Obama also reaffirmed the “unshakeable U.S. commitment” to the security of South Korea and Japan, according to the statements.
The nuclear test carried out by North Korea on Wednesday drew angry reactions from the United States and China, who had not been given prior notice about the test.
Still, even some former Obama administration officials say the administration’s insistence that it would not talk to North Korea unless the North agreed the ultimate outcome was complete nuclear disarmament was a prescription for diplomatic failure. The world is not exactly banging on North Korea’s door to do business the way it is with Iran: The North has no oil, no striving middle class, and little strategic value in the modern world.
“That path is one that includes them ceasing their provocative activities, that includes ceasing missile tests and ending nuclear tests like this one”, Earnest said.
Li Zhonglin, an ethnic Korean Chinese academic from Yanbian University, said he believed the latest nuclear test would provoke a stronger response from China than did North Korea’s previous three tests, but stressed there were limits.
Remarking that the two incidents happened in quick succession, he pointed out that documents publicly released by North Korea show that Kim Jong-un’s official order to conduct the tests was issued on December 15, immediately after these events.
Washington and nuclear experts have been sceptical of past North Korean claims about hydrogen bombs, which are much more powerful and much more hard to make than atomic bombs.
With its secrecy and seclusion, us-against-the-world perspective and the fact it doesn’t play by traditional rules, North Korea was already unpredictable before it began experimenting with nuclear weapons and missile technology. If so, it would mark a next step in the North’s nuclear programme-and a serious one.
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Claiming to have overseen the development of a hydrogen bomb – and North Korea’s closeted populace will not hear the skepticism about this claim that now abounds outside – will help him further stake his claim.
