It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal.
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Above all, there is a marked difference in tone between the comments that the minister made before the meeting with the National Defense Committee and the announcement on Thursday afternoon from Cho Tae-yong, 1st Deputy Director of the Office of National Security, that “North Korea’s fourth nuclear test was a serious violation of the August 25 agreement between the two Koreas, qualifying as an abnormal case as stipulated in the agreement”.
A male announcer could be heard from South Korea telling North Koreans that Kim Jong Un, the leader of their impoverished country, and his wife wear clothes costing thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, pressure was mounting in Washington for congressional action to punish North Korea.
“Resuming the broadcasts will pose a threat to the North, but also pose a security threat to the South since the North will certainly promise retaliation”, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University.
“North Korea has never been left unattended to”. As “Armenpress” reports, citing BBC, the move is expected to anger North Korea, which has reportedly moved more troops to the border region.
The propaganda broadcasts “are certain to infuriate authoritarian Pyongyang because they are meant to raise questions in North Korean minds about the infallibility of the ruling Kim family”, The Associated Press reports.
Kerry decisively denied a journalist’s allegation that the new North Korean nuclear test was a result of lack of oversight by Washington.
The broadcasts include criticism about the North’s systemic human rights abuses, its struggling economy and latest nuclear test. Korean pop songs, world news and weather forecasts are also in the broadcasts.
South Korea said it was not considering a nuclear deterrent of its own, despite calls from ruling party leaders.
Experts say it looks like South Korea has decided the propaganda broadcasts are the best way to get Kim’s attention.
North Korea, which first tested a nuclear weapon in May 2009, has been under USA sanction over its nuclear program since at least 1992.
The majority of North Korea’s business is done with China, which bought 90 percent of its exports in 2013, according to data from South Korea’s International Trade Association.
“The initial analysis is not consistent with the claim the regime has made of a successful hydrogen bomb test”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
The U.S.is doubtful that the test was actually a hydrogen bomb.
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“People are basing their assessments on the seismic readings which seem to suggest it was not a hydrogen bomb”.
