North Korea said it had detonated a hydrogen bomb, a vastly more powerful weapon than the nuclear devices it has tested three times before, but experts were extremely skeptical of that claim.
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South Korean President Park Geun-hye spoke to US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday to build consensus on new United National Security Council sanctions against North Korea.
In one of the broadcasts, an announcer said: “The nuclear test is making North Korea more isolated and turning it into the land of death”, according to Reuters.
The broadcasts will draw a furious response from North Korea, which considers them an act of psychological warfare.
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.
Last August, the two countries traded artillery fire over the issue before striking a deal that ended the broadcasts and pledged other measures to ease tensions that had escalated sharply in the summer.
North Korea boosted troop deployments in front-line units on Friday, and South Korea heightened military readiness to its highest level at locations near the loudspeakers. South Korea has found a rather unique way of responding to the dictator.
Tours of the Demilitarised Zone, popular with visitors to South Korea, were also cancelled at the military’s request.
South Korean officials say there have been no disruptions so far at an industrial park jointly operated by the rivals in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
But South Korea sees K-pop and propaganda as quick ways to show its displeasure – and a guaranteed irritant to the North’s sensitive and proud leadership.
The tyrant’s celebration comes just days after he boasted that his country had successfully conducted a test of a its first hydrogen nuclear bomb yesterday.
The United States and China have both dangled the prospect of better ties, including the lifting of sanctions and eventually a likely peace treaty, if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons.
World powers are looking at ways to punish Pyongyang for the test of what it called a new and powerful hydrogen bomb.
North Korea also said it was capable of miniaturising the hydrogen bomb, in theory allowing it to be placed on a missile and threatening the US West Coast, South Korea and Japan. Despite their old friendship, China opposes the North’s nuclear programme and has supported sweeping United Nations sanctions on North Korea for its weapons development.
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He said that the 2005 blacklisting of Banco Delta Asia, a bank based in the Chinese territory of Macau that held North Korean government funds, had restricted then-leader Kim Jong Il s ability to pay his generals.
