A look at developments surrounding North Korea’s nuclear test
By Paul Elliott Jan 11, 2016
Tri-County Sun Times
Secretary of State John Kerry has told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the U.S. has decided China’s North Korea strategy is a failure and that they must abandon “business as usual” after this week’s apparent nuclear test. “But today in my conversation with the Chinese I made it very clear that that has not worked and we can not continue business as usual”. North Korea said it had detonated a hydrogen bomb, a vastly more powerful weapon than the nuclear devices it has tested three times before, but experts were extremely skeptical of that claim. South Korea’s initial retaliation to the North’s latest nuclear test was a mix of K-pop, scathing commentary on its nuclear programme and derision of the ruling family’s penchant for costly clothes and luxury handbags. North Korea is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs and has spent decades trying to ideal a multistage, long-range missile to carry smaller versions of those bombs. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency session and pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions against North Korea, saying its test was a “clear violation” of previous U.N. resolutions. “Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment”. North Korean government officials told CNN’s Will Ripley, who is in Pyongyang, that they are not afraid of more sanctions; they said that they’ve lived for years with the crippling measures levied against them and are prepared to tighten their belts even more. “We urge South Korea to exercise restraint”, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said during a visit to Japan, after the South resumed the broadcasts. Japan is considering reinstating some of its own sanctions against North Korea while working with the United States for an global response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test. North Korea’s declaration that it had tested a hydrogen bomb fo… Kerry rejected a reporter’s suggestion that the Obama administration had neglected the North Korean threat as it focused on curbing Iran’s nuclear program. He adds that North Korea seems to look down on the South “because we are always in a defensive position”. South Korean companies – mostly small- and medium-sized – make products such as watches and fashion goods with cheap labor from North Korea. South Korean officials cranked up banks of loudspeakers near the demilitarized zone with North Korea, blaring pop music, news reports and other information into the isolated country. Officials refused to elaborate, but the assets likely are B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines. “Broadcasts from South Korea can reach deep and far into North Korea’s society, imbuing the minds of its people with the images of a free nation and hurting the oppressive personality cult”. The United States is highly unlikely to restore the tactical nuclear missiles it removed from South Korea in 1991, experts said. It can not have escaped the notice of North Korea that after Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program was ended after the first Gulf War and Muammar Ghadafi voluntarily gave up his nuclear weapons program, one wound up dead in a hole in the ground and the other in a sewer pipe. The North’s 2013 test produced an estimated yield of 6-7 kilotons of explosives, according to South Korean officials. Obama also discussed options with President Park Geun-hye of South Korea. Tri-County Sun Times
