Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the North “was forced to develop its nuclear arsenal” for defence against “the ever-growing nuclear threat and blackmail by the US-led hostile forces” but that North Korea would not strike first.
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The United States and its two main military allies in Asia, South Korea and Japan, pledged a combined push to secure a comprehensive, hard-hitting global response to North Korea’s latest nuclear test.
The UN has already issued four rounds of sanctions against North Korea, created to halt its nuclear development regime.
However, the phone call had been delayed due to China’s “internal scheduling”, the report said.
Their teleconference comes in the wake of a North Korean nuclear test earlier this week that has increased tensions between the two Koreas.
Wednesday’s nuclear test by the DPRK has jolted the global community.
“It is beyond our intelligence whether North Korea has developed a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, but it is still believed to have achieved much of the miniaturization technology itself, given the time the country has taken in its nuclear development so far”, an intelligence official said, according to Yonhap, referring to Pyongyang’s high-explosive detonation tests as key evidence of the assessment.
Obama and Park “condemned the test and agreed that North Korea’s actions constitute yet another violation of its obligations and commitments under global law, including several U.N. Security Council Resolutions”, the White House said.
The telephone conversation came a day after North Korea claimed it has succeeded in conducting a hydrogen bomb test.
Officials in South Korea also questioned the seismic wave data and its correlation with the expected size of a hydrogen blast.
Where atomic bombs rely on fission, or atom-splitting, just as nuclear power plants do, the hydrogen bomb uses fusion, or atomic nuclei coming together, to produce a “huge” amount of explosive energy.
Meanwhile, protests began in Seoul Thursday over Pyongyang’s announcement that it successfully carried out the nuclear test, the Associated Press reported.
South Koreans watch a TV news program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on January 1.
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The government will take necessary steps to ensure the safety of South Koreans who move in and out of the complex, he added.
