North Korea is also a major tool for Beijing “in the bigger chess game of U.S.-China relations in the Asia Pacific region”, said Yonsei’s Lee.
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“Once we get the full picture of worldwide sanctions on North Korea, the measure will need to be reviewed”, the official said.
Clinton condemned North Korea’s action as a “dangerous and provocative act” and said the United States should respond with more sanctions and stronger missile defences.
South Korean military officials also said that North Korea may conduct about two more nuclear tests to make smaller and tighter nuclear weapons.
“Detect” represents the allies’ procedures to track North Korea’s missile movements with various intelligence-gathering assets, while “defense” refers to a set of the allied defensive operations to minimize any damage from potential attacks.
North Koreans watch a news broadcast on a video screen outside Pyongyang Railway Station in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.
The United States first successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in 1952.
South Korea has also begun limiting entry to the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, which is jointly run by both countries. “They are trying to upgrade their capability”, said Choi Jin-wook, president of the Korea Institute of National Unification in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Japan’s President Shinzo Abe called the test “a serious threat to our nation’s security and absolutely can not be tolerated”.
“This test once again violates numerous Security Council resolutions”.
He would not go into detail on what kinds of punitive measures Japan would like to see, saying that must be discussed among the council’s 15 members.
South Korea said it was not considering a nuclear deterrent of its own, despite calls from ruling party leaders.
The UNSC is expected to consider strengthening the existing sanctions such as arms embargoes, interdiction of North Korea-related cargo, financial sanctions and sanctions on particular individuals or entities including North Korean enterprises.
What do we know about the latest test?
There were no obvious signs of disruption in the northeastern city of Dandong that sits on the Yalu River directly across from North Korea’s Sinuiju. Crucially, its main ally, China, has proved either unwilling or unable to help. The device is highly unlikely to have been a hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb, as announced by North Korean media outlets, but instead the use of the term “H bomb” may have been a reference to the hydrogen isotopes used in a boosted fission weapon, indicative of North Korea’s developing weapons capabilities.
Atomic bombs, like those that devastated two Japanese cities in World War Two, use fission, or the splitting of atoms.
When animosities sharply rose in the spring of 2013 following North Korea’s third nuclear test, the U.S. Took the unusual step of sending its most powerful warplanes B-2 stealth bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and B-52 bombers to drills with South Korea in a show of force.
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The explosion caused an quake that was measured by the United States Geological Survey. Although most analysts doubt the claim, and seismic data suggests it was more likely to have been a less powerful atomic bomb of the sort it has detonated three times before, the test provoked a wave of global condemnation.
