The nuclear test “is the legitimate right of a sovereign state, which no one can refute”, the daily quoted Kim as reciting the regime’s standard line.
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The spokesman reiterated that China resolutely opposed North Korea’s nuclear tests.
The B-52 was joined by South Korean F-15 and US F-16 fighters and returned to its base in Guam after the flight, the USA military said.
Jeong said that Seoul believes North Korea will “respond to our loudspeaker broadcast”, but did not elaborate on what kind of response was expected. Seoul can’t stand down easily, some analysts say, and it’s highly unlikely that the North will express regret for its nuclear test, which is a source of intense national pride. “We know they will continue doing it, so the real question is what will we do about it”.
Amid rapidly-building tensions, the South Korean media reported the USA could send B-2 bombers, nuclear-powered submarines and F-22 stealth fighter jets.
Outside North Korea, Mr. Kim faces widespread condemnation and threats of heavy sanctions over the North’s disputed claim of a hydrogen bomb test.
If confirmed, Kim Dong Chul, who CNN said was 60 and formerly of Fairfax, Virginia, would be the second Western citizen known to be held now in North Korea.
The United States and other global powers condemned North Korea for testing another bomb, and the United Nations Security Council met in emergency session to consider increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang.
The Rodong Sinmun said Monday that the U.S.is now exerting its strategic bomber formations toward South Korea.
“A lot of North Korean military commanders find USA bombers especially threatening, given the destruction here in Pyongyang during the Korean War, when much of the city was flattened”, Ripley said.
As part fo the meetings, South Korea’s envoy to the long-stalled 6-party disarmament talks will meet with United States and Japanese officials in Seoul on Wednesday before travelling here to China on Thursday.
US officials called the 2013 crisis the most intense – and unsafe – period on the peninsula in decades, with the North threatening to turn Seoul and major USA cities, including Washington, into seas of fire.
Seoul has insisted on a strong response to Pyongyang, but China has said the issue needs to be resolved through dialogue – despite Beijing’s waning influence over the Kim Jong Un leadership.
The six-party talks were launched in 2003 to dismantle the DPRK nuclear program but stalled in December 2008.
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North Korea has reportedly set up some loudspeaker stations of its own in the border area to drown out the South’s broadcasts.
