TOKYO — World leaders sternly criticized North Korea on Wednesday for carrying out a fourth nuclear test, an explosion that Pyongyang claimed was an exponentially more powerful hydrogen bomb.
However, there was a considerable amount of skepticism about the North's assertion. Nuclear experts and the South Korean military saying that the size of the blast was consistent with an atomic explosion, not an enormous hydrogen bomb.
The United Nations Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting in New York to discuss the international response to the test, which North Korea called an “H-bomb of justice” that it needed for defense against the United States.
North Korea's three previous nuclear tests since 2006 have been met with international condemnation, including resolutions and sanctions from the Security Council, but have done nothing to deter Pyongyang.
[A look behind the North’s claim]
In Seoul, South Korean President Park Geun-hye put her military on alert and said North Korea would pay the price for the test, which she called a “grave provocation.”
“Now, the government should closely cooperate with the international community to make sure that North Korea pays the corresponding price for the nuclear test,” Park said in a national security council meeting, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a similar message.
“This nuclear test by North Korea is a major threat to our country’s security, and I absolutely cannot accept it,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “Also, it is clearly a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions so . . . we will take strong measures, including steps within the U.N. Security Council.”
The United States said it was monitoring the situation.
“While we cannot confirm these claims at this time, we condemn any violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions and again call on North Korea to abide by its international obligations and commitments,” said John Kirby, the State Department spokesman. “We have consistently made clear that we will not accept it as a nuclear state. We will continue to protect and defend our allies in the region, including [South] Korea, and will respond appropriately to any and all North Korean provocations.”
[North Korea also tests limits of Chinese ties]
A confirmed North Korean nuclear test would be the 2,055th since 1945 View Graphic
But the severity of any response will depend on the level of anger in China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council and both the closest thing North Korea has to friends.
After the nuclear test in 2013, the first of Kim Jong Un's tenure, China supported expanded sanctions against North Korea, although it's not clear how strictly Beijing has enforced the restrictions on its neighbor.
Still, China also condemned the test Wednesday.
“Today [North Korea] ignored the general objection from the international community and conducted a nuclear test once again. As to this matter, China strongly opposes,” Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters in Beijing.
“China will resolutely promote the goal of denuclearization on the peninsula, and stick to solving the peninsula nuclear issues through the six-party talk framework,” she said, referring to long-defunct multilateral talks aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Although China remains North Korea's biggest patron, relations have been severely strained since Kim took power and detonated a nuclear device a month before Xi Jinping took over as president of China.
Russia, which declared 2015 a “year of friendship” with North Korea, also condemned the detonation.
“If in fact the test is confirmed, it would be a new step in the development of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons, a flagrant violation of international law and the existing U.N. Security Council resolutions,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a statement.
[North Korea’s leader: Scary funny]
She said that Russia wanted to start six-party talks with North Korea as soon as possible.
Separately, a Kremlin spokesman said that “Moscow is extremely concerned.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, who gave Kim a rare foreign invitation for a visit last year, ordered a full study of data from Russia’s monitoring stations, said the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
North Korea triggered international tremors when it detonated a device at its main nuclear test site in Punggye-ri Wednesday, the site of its three previous nuclear tests. Pyongyang claimed that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, a claim that, if true, would mark a huge step forward in its nuclear capability.
“The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement issued shortly after a special announcement was broadcast on state-run television. It said it needed the weapon for defense against the United States, which it described as “the chieftain of aggression” and a “gang of cruel robbers.”
“Nothing is more foolish than dropping a hunting gun before herds of ferocious wolves,” the statement said in North Korea's trademark colorful prose.
But there was immediate questions about the claim, with nuclear experts noting that the yield appeared to be similar to North Korea’s three previous atomic tests, rather than the “enormous” yield that would be expected if it had been a thermonuclear explosion.
Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif, said that Wednesday’s explosion looked very similar to past tests and was not enormous, suggesting it was not a hydrogen bomb. South Korean lawmakers told local reporters that the explosion had a yield of about 6 kilotons — making it about the same size as North Korea’s 2013 atomic test.
Either way, Pyongyang’s provocative action will present a new challenge to the outside world, which has struggled to find ways to bring about an end to North Korea’s nuclear defiance.
“North Korea’s fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese, and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Reagan? Heck, you're looking at [Sleezebag] with his finger on the button.Well, since Reagan is dead now, I'm no longer worried about him. But I am concerned about [Sleezebag] ending up on the ballot. He's the American version of the sociopath we just tossed out of office here (Stephen Harper). Thank goodness there's no chance of those two being in office at the same time.
I've noticed that far too many younger people are far too glib about nuclear war. I'm old enough to remember "duck and cover" drills in school; we were conditioned that the second we heard the siren, we were to be under our desks (or the next low piece of furniture if a desk was not available)... as if that would have done any good.
I'm not frightened. We all die after all. Besides even a full blown nuclear exchange would be recoverable from.
Reagan? Heck, you're looking at [Sleezebag] with his finger on the button.Nothing wrong with [Sleezebag]. At least he's no Obama busily trying to start a war with Russia
Depends how you define "recoverable".Just take a look at Hiroshima now or Dresden which was destroyed every bit as thoroughly.
Just take a look at Hiroshima now or Dresden which was destroyed every bit as thoroughly.
Too isolated to draw any correlation.
QuoteToo isolated to draw any correlation.
Not really. Japan and Germany were leveled every bit as thoroughly as if by nuclear weapons. They recovered.
All nukes do is make the mass slaughter quicker.
For years I am interested in mystics, predictions of future events, etc. But still I am completely not sure what to make out of it.
On one side, Padre Pio said, there would be no 3rd World War, iirc. That means probably no nuclear strikes.
On the other hand, there is this masonic letter from US to Italy, that was for some time in London museum (?) where all three world wars were planned.
There are also hints, that even more powerful weapons are now available, so even worse than nuclear. (Something Tesla knew?)
And there is much more about things just connected to possible nuclear war. Or something similar. Has anyone listened to interviews of Malachi Martin?
Like I said take a look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People live there still. Nuclear weapons aren't the world enders that people think they are.Tell that to the dead, and the people who died later from lack of potable water, lack of food, lack of sanitation, the ones who would have died in hospitals (not enough medical staff to treat everyone), those who have died in the decades since of cancer...
Over a hundred years later the Russians were planning to invade Europe to spread communism, but Hitler pre-empted them by two weeks. It was a disaster for both.Read icebreaker. Its available on pdf. Its a Russian general telling how the Germans beat out a Russian invasion by two weeks. The reason Hitlers invasion worked is because Stalin was an idiot and dismantled all his defenses.
I don't know of any super weapons to surpass nukes, but Tesla was way smarter than I am. A hurricane releases more energy, but I don't think anybody has any control of them.One of the rumors I've heard is Tesla actually had a way of causing massive explosions. The Tunguska blast 40 mt was rumored to have been caused by him.
I haven't heard of Malachi Martin.I have it was highly interesting but its been awhile.