North Korea said Wednesday it had successfully tested a “miniaturized” hydrogen bomb that elevated the country’s “nuclear might to the next level“.
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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”.
“Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment”, said Senior Presidential National Security official Cho Tae-yong, according to the Associated Press.
The US, Japan and South Korea have made a decision to launch a united and strong worldwide response to North Korea’s claim of a successful hydrogen bomb test. After North Korea’s last nuclear test in 2013, the US sent B-2 stealth bombers, B-52 bombers and F-22 Raptor fighters for drills in South Korea in a show of force.
The source with contacts in Pyongyang said North Korea was already largely cut off from the world after decades of sanctions, and more would not work.
Included in the high-decibel propaganda is a mix of everything from K-pop and weather forecasts to snippets of news and critiques of the North Korean regime.
Washington and nuclear experts have been sceptical of past North Korean claims about hydrogen bombs, which are much more powerful and much more hard to make than atomic bombs.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 5.1 magnitude quake that South Korea said was 49 kilometers (30 miles) from the Punggye-ri site where the north has conducted nuclear tests in the past.
Crowds dressed in thick winter coats have gathered outside a large video screen near a Pyongyang train station to cheer and take video and photos on their mobile phones of the state TV anchor announcing the country had carried out a nuclear test.
The U.N. Security Council that has pledged new sanctions against North Korea after its purported hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday.
China is North Korea’s only real ally in the Asia Pacific, and critics say it has failed to fully enforce global sanctions levied against the smaller country – even though it voted for many of them – sustaining a government that could otherwise likely collapse.
South Korea’s loudspeaker broadcasts aimed at North Korea are pushing the rivals to the “brink of war”, a top North Korean official has told a propaganda rally.
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(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man). A visitor uses binoculars to see North Korean territory from the unification observatory in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. In a hydrogen bomb, a nuclear fission explosion sets off a fusion reaction responsible for a powerful blast and radioactivity.
