Speaking at an upper house plenary session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he will strongly demand that Pyongyang abandon “all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs” in line with U.N. Security Council resolutions on the country.
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If confirmed, this would be North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. It came days before Kim Jong-un’s 33rd birthday, which falls on Friday and is expected to be marked by celebrations.
The sound from the speakers can carry for 10 km (6 miles) into North Korea during the day and more than twice that at night, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported.
According to reports, the propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers could likely draw an angry response from North Korea, which is extremely sensitive to outside criticisms.
In the past, South Korea has particularly irritated North Korea by also broadcasting K-pop – Korean pop music that has gained a worldwide following for its distinctive sound – over the border, puncturing the isolated Communist state’s media blackout.
North Korea’s latest test of an alleged hydrogen bomb apparently aims to send a diplomatic and military message to the United States.
When South Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, the two Koreas ended up threatening each other with attacks that brought them to the brink of war.
“A hydrogen bomb would be far more powerful, and more fearsome, than the type of nuclear weapon the North has tested three times since 2006…” According to him, “with friction persisting on a number of issues, including cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property and Chinese island building and militarisation of the South China Sea the Chinese will capitalise on North Korea’s nuclear test to engage in limited cooperation with Washington”.
Seismic waves created by the blast were nearly identical to those generated in North Korea’s last nuclear test in 2013, Jeffrey Park, a seismologist at Yale University, wrote in a post on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists website, adding to scepticism about the hydrogen bomb claim.
“Let me make it clear: North Korea has never been left unattended to”.
But China’s leverage over Pyongyang is mitigated, analysts say, by its overriding fear of a North Korean collapse and the prospect of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.
The United Nations has already promised to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang.
There is still widespread speculation over what device the North actually did test, but global experts mostly concur that it could not have been a full-scale thermonuclear device as claimed.
“They’ve definitely got our attention, and we’re watching it closely”, 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin said.
China said after the call with Kerry that it was willing to communicate with all parties, including the United States. China has a pivotal position as it is a permanent council member and the North’s main trading partner.
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Richard Bitzinger, a security analyst at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said North Korea’s actions potentially provided a “fig leaf” rationale for Japan to buttress its defenses against its bigger security worry, China.
