The claim was made while Kim was visiting the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, a museum dedicated to his grandfather Kim Il Sung. It appears to be the first time that Kim has ever mentioned a hydrogen bomb. “But it is a part of the process in which North Korea tries to set a confrontational position against the global society”, said Professor Kim.
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Despite the underground tests, outside experts suspect the North is short of achieving the capability to put a nuclear warhead on a missile, although it has boasted it had succeeded in the miniaturization of a weapon.
Franz Klintsevich, deputy head of Russia’s upper house defense committee, said that in modern times it is next to impossible to produce hydrogen bombs in secret.
Meanwhile, the North’s young leader, who is ending his fourth year of ruling, called on the nation to step up efforts to promote the munitions industry.
Earlier this year, it said it had successfully minaturised a nuclear warhead to mount on a ballistic missile – a claim disputed by US and South Korean experts.
H-bombs are much more powerful-while nuclear bombs are often in the kilotons (one kiloton equals 1,000 tons of TNT) hydrogen bombs are usually in the megatons (one megaton equals 1,000,000 tons of TNT).
It’s possible that North Korea could use certain materials “to boost the yield of a nuclear weapon”, said Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. North Korea developed its first nuclear weapons in 2005, and tested them in 2006, 2009, and 2013.
Not long ago, Kim’s regime claimed that they had successfully developed a submarine missile launch system and released a laughably doctored photograph showing Kim waving to a missile climbing out of the sea (the front-page thumbnail to this post).
Samantha Power, the United States United Nations Ambassador and President of the UN Security Council for December, addresses the security council on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, at UN headquarters in NY.
The North Korean government made claims this week that it is allegedly in possession of a hydrogen bomb. “I think it seems to be developing it”, Lee said, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. A hydrogen bomb is both more complicated to produce technically and also results in a more powerful blast.
South Korean intelligence specialists were also skeptical and dismissed Kim’s words as rhetoric.
North and South Korea are holding high-level talks in the Kaesong joint industrial zone on the North Korean side of the border. This makes it “more likely that they will conduct a test in the coming year”, he said.
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Wang Junsheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Kim’s announcement is not helpful as it may lead to further isolation of the DPRK in the worldwide community.
