North Korea called the device the “H-bomb of justice”, but its state news agency also said it would act as a responsible nuclear state and would not use its nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was infringed. He said that China’s approach to North Korea had failed.
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Operations at the joint complex remain unaffected following North Korea’s claim of a successful hydrogen bomb test. But as a follow up measure Thursday, entry was limited to South Korean businessmen and those directly involved in the operations.
“While keeping up with the moves within the U.N. Security Council as well as the response made by North Korea, we will consider what determined response we can make”, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at his January 7 news conference. The aim of these talks was to convince North Korea to cease its development of a nuclear weapon and the long-range missile technologies that could deliver these weapons in return for the West’s removal of sanctions and provision of financial support. At the same time, it will be hard for Japan alone to take a different approach because of the abduction issue. The only way to control the further spread of nuclear weapons and future catastrophic nuclear disaster is for the United States and the other nuclear nations, Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan, to give up their nuclear weapons and negotiate a treaty for the total abolition of nuclear weapons under strict and effective worldwide monitoring and control.
The U.S. State Department confirmed North Korea had conducted a nuclear test but the Obama administration disputed the hydrogen bomb claim. Besides the U.N. Security Council, the topic of dealing with North Korea will likely be taken up with meetings related to the summit of industrialized nations in Mie Prefecture in May.
North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric against the United States and its Asian allies but its assertion that it had tested a hydrogen device, much more powerful than an atomic bomb, came as a surprise.
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.
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 defences against its bigger security worry, China. South Korea’s defense ministry says K-pop songs will pique interests of the listeners in the North.
Big Bang’s slightly raunchy dance hit with its “Like you’ve been shot/Bang Bang Bang” chorus, contrasted with the more plaintive tone of GFriend’s offering – sample lyric: “We’re both so shy/But I wanna go closer to you”. North Korea submarine-launched ballistic missiles also pose risks.
Hydrogen bombs use a two-step process of fission and fusion that releases substantially more energy than an atomic bomb.
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The presence of xenon would not indicate whether the blast was from a hydrogen device or not. Nuclear warheads can weigh between 1,500 and 2,200 pounds, but if North Korea is able to miniaturize the weapon to weigh between 1,300 and 1,500 pounds, the warhead can then be mounted on a Scud.
