But they are certain to draw a furious response from North Korea, which considers them a declaration of war because it is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian leadership of Kim.
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While experts are sceptical about North Korea’s ability to test a sophisticated hydrogen bomb, based on the apparent yield of this latest detonation, countries around the world expressed condemnation of the blatant challenge Pyongyang poses to the worldwide community, all the more hard to understand when knowing that the country is under a crippling sanctions regime that takes a toll on its economy and people.
Observers expect North Korean officials to be angered by the decision.
US President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-Hye held a 20-minute phone conversation this morning, Ms Park’s presidential office said in a statement.
North Korean military forces often compete to show their loyalty to the leader.
A South Korean military official told the Reuters news agency that the leaders of two countries had discussed the deployment of U.S. strategic assets on the divided Korean peninsula, but declined to give further details. North Korea later responded with its own broadcasts.
From Pyongyang’s perspective, however, a viable nuclear program is its only guarantee of avoiding any future attempt by the United States to try to trigger a “color revolution” in North Korea, or even carry out military action against Pyongyang.
Mr 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.
“We are anxious about how things are developing”, the spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told a briefing.
In New York, the UN Security Council has threatened fresh punitive measures against North Korea in response to Wednesday’s test.
The broadcasts came as world powers sought to find other ways to punish the North for conducting what it said was its first hydrogen bomb test Wednesday.
The hydrogen bomb already is the global standard for the five nations with the greatest nuclear capabilities: the US, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “The initial analysis is not consistent with North Korean claims of a successful hydrogen bomb”.
The loudspeaker broadcasts – which will start today, thought to be the birthday of young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – are certain to infuriate Pyongyang because they are meant to raise questions in North Korean minds about the infallibility of the ruling Kim family.
That crisis escalated after Pyongyang had declared a “semi-state of war” and fired shots in the direction of the speakers and had threatened to hit them with artillery if Seoul did not halt the broadcasts.
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“The key to resolving the issue is also not on China”, she said.
