“It is impossible to predict with any certainty a time frame or the type of test they will carry out as it’s all very speculative, but all North Korea’s behavior and testing to date is consistent with their program to develop their nuclear capabilities”, Daniel Pinkston, a professor of global relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University, told DW.
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In real life, North Korea claimed it conducted its first test of a powerful hydrogen bomb in January, but the United States and other countries doubted that blast was strong enough to be a hydrogen bomb.
“The North Korean problem is a very concerning one”.
A recent episode of the snappily named “The stage of optimism that Songun presented – Volume 11”, which airs on state-controlled Korea Central Television (KCTV), lampooned the USA leader and “oppressed” South Koreans ahead of the North’s nuclear warhead test this month.
Ri said the nuclear tests were needed to counter “threats” from Washington.
“North Korea is ready to launch another attack in defiance of the provocations by the United States”, he was quoted as saying Thursday during a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Venezuela.
It also urged the North to immediately and unconditionally abandon its nuclear and missile programs and called on China to exercise its leverage over the North, including through aggressive enforcement of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
Past cases have shown that China often turns a blind eye to sanctions against its ally.
“We join the vast majority of UN Member States and the UN Secretary-General in calling for urgent action to eradicate all nuclear weapons, once and for all”, said Monyela.
But Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University and an authority on the North Korean leadership, believes there may be an element of bluff in the statements emerging from Pyongyang.
There have been hints, however, about Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
Instead, the USA should insist on three conditions for resumption of formal talks: reaffirming the principle of a 2005 denuclearization deal, negotiations making consistent progress and a moratorium on all nuclear and missile tests, it said.
It is a policy that could foment dissatisfaction among the military, he added, although Kim’s ruthlessness – human rights organizations believe that at least 60 senior officials have been executed over the past year and hundreds sent to labor camps – means that a revolution is “unlikely”, he said.
This time, Japan, the United States and South Korea are seeking a total ban on petroleum exports to North Korea, including those used for private-sector purposes.
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“North Korea appears to be on the cusp of significant advances towards longer-range missiles, mobile and potentially sea-launched missiles”, Karako told Business Insider in a prior interview.
