WH casts doubt on NKorea claims of hydrogen bomb test

Some people took videos or photos of the screen on their mobile phones; others applauded and cheered.

In Seoul and elsewhere there was high-level worry.

South Korea’s ministry of national defence slammed the test as a “grave threat” to the peace of the Korean Peninsula and the world, and vowed to punish the secretive communist country.

According to North Korean state news agency KCNA: “The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted…at 10:00 a.m. (0130 GMT) on Wednesday”.

None of these scenarios are likely, but experts said the potential risks of war with North Korea seem to far outweigh any benefits.

“While we can not confirm at this time that a test was carried out, we condemn any violation of UNSC Resolutions and again call on North Korea to abide by its worldwide obligations and commitments”, USA mission spokeswoman Hagar Chemali said.

Hydrogen bombs are based on nuclear fusion and are hundreds of times more devastating than atomic weapons, which use nuclear fission. “But it is not a true fusion bomb capable of the massive multi-megaton yields these bombs produce”.

State television showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s signed order – dated December 15 – to go ahead with the test and begin 2016 with the “thrilling sound of the first hydrogen bomb explosion”.

Clement also noted the continued imprisonment of a Canadian in North Korea, Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim. North Korean nuclear scientists have access to their counterparts in Pakistan, possibly Iran and maybe a few other places. The poor Caixin reading and a weakening yuan that hurts China’s export rivals were bad enough, but now “you have North Korea letting off a hydrogen bomb, not just a nuclear test, but a stronger nuclear bomb”, he said.

Following the North’s last nuclear test, in 2013, it was 55 days before radioactive xenon gas was detected at a monitoring station in Japan, located about 1,000 km from the test site, which pointed to a nuclear blast by Pyongyang. Kim Sok Chol, 32, told The Associated Press that he doesn’t know much about H-bombs, but added: “Since we have it, the USA will not attack us”.

The two sides also reaffrimed that they will not accept the North as a nuclear state and “pledged that both sides would coordinate appropriate alliance responses to these provocations”, it said.

“North Korea has successfully detonated an H-bomb”. A miniaturized H-bomb can trigger a weak quake, but only the US and Russian Federation have such weapons, Lee cited the NIS as saying.

This is just one of the theories.

“Now, the government should closely cooperate with the global community to make sure that North Korea pays a corresponding price for the nuclear test“, Park was quoted as telling her aides.

A commentary by the official Xinhua news agency condemned the “highly regrettable” move.

“It is close to what happened in 2013”, Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary of the U.N. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, told The Guardian. The country conducted all three previous atomic detonations there. Beijing has restrained US-led allies from stronger action against Pyongyang in the past. “And that track is miniaturization, but also increasing the yield of nuclear weapons”.

The years since Kim Jong Un took power following his father Kim Jong Il’s death of a heart attack in late 2011 have been turbulent, marked by high-level purges and executions. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan.