North and South Korea traded artillery fire in August after Pyongyang demanded a halt to the loudspeaker broadcasts.
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On January 6, North Korea successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device, according to the state broadcaster, KCTV.
President Barack Obama, in talks with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, reaffirmed the “unshakeable USA commitment” to the security of the two Asian allies. Despite that, North Korean defectors say South Korean music is popular in their home country, with songs and other elements of South Korea popular culture smuggled in on USB sticks and DVDs. After North Korea’s last nuclear test in 2013, the USA sent B-2 stealth bombers, B-52 bombers and F-22 Raptor fighters for drills in South Korea in a show of force. Hecker, who has visited North Korea seven times since 2004, agreed it was extremely unlikely to have been a true two-stage H-bomb – a very sophisticated and hard device that “is still likely beyond the reach of North Korea”.
Sen. Bob Corker, Tennessee Republican and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday that if North Korea’s claim is found to be legitimate, it would serve “as a sober reminder that ignoring this threat and hoping it will go away does not constitute a policy”.
The test has again raised questions among world powers about what can be done to stop the North’s nuclear weapons programme.
North Korea’s fourth nuclear test is an abrupt reminder that for Kim Jong Un, the costs of developing an atomic arsenal don’t yet outweigh its benefits.
“Now China had a particular approach that it wanted to make and we agreed and give them time to implement that”, he said, describing his call to China’s foreign minister Wang Yi.
Cho also said the South’s military was ready to respond if the North reacted to the renewed broadcasts with armed hostilities.
The newspaper headline in Korean read: “Statement of the government of DPRK on the complete success of Korea’s first hydrogen bomb test”.
The Wednesday nuclear test by North Korea is viewed as a diplomatic failure by Chinese President Xi Jinping in trying to rein in North Korea.
A hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb uses fusion in a chain reaction that results in a far more powerful explosion than the fission blast generated by uranium or plutonium alone.
“North Korea may take provocative action such as the launch of a short-range missile”, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
The hydrogen bomb already is the global standard for the five nations with the greatest nuclear capabilities: the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and China.
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The broadcasts are a low-tech response to Mr Kim’s saber-rattling, compared with options like the tightening of sanctions, Seoul developing its own missile defence system or potentially a beefing up of the U.S. military presence south of the border.
