Experts skeptical of North Korea’s hydrogen bomb claim

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made an oblique claim on Thursday to the development of a hydrogen bomb although the Communist nation’s technical capacity for developing such a device was doubted by both United States and South Korean officials.

Citing a report from North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, a South Korean news agency, Yonhap, said Kim made the declaration while touring a historic weapons industry site in the country, according to USA Today.

The country was “ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb”, state news agency KCNA quoted him as saying.

The hydrogen bombs use fusion that results in a blast that is more powerful than a basic atomic bomb, BBC News noted Thursday. North Korea developed its first nuclear weapons in 2005, and tested them in 2006, 2009, and 2013.

North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un has said his country has developed a hydrogen bomb, although military observers have scoffed at the claim. A hydrogen bomb is significantly more powerful than an atomic bomb, like the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S.in World War II.

In a paper published by the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington in September, David Albright and Serena Kelleher-Vergantini said that North Korea might be trying to use the only operational reactor at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, to produce tritium. Analysts have said cash-strapped North Korea might seek the South’s commitment to restart joint tours to its scenic Diamond Mountain resort, which were suspended by Seoul in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist there by a North Korean soldier. Its look is similar to pop bands from the North’s hated rival, South Korea, but it has performed on stages in front of a giant screen showing various images of Kim Jong Un and a missile launch. “I think it seems to be developing it”.

Experts and intelligence community haven’t yet confirmed whether North Korea has indeed designed and developed an H-bomb.

“‘They have not even conducted any single test and now they make this claim – there’s no way for us to believe it is true, ‘ he told NBC News”.

Previous efforts to establish a regular dialogue have tended to falter after an initial meeting – reflecting decades of animosity and mistrust between two countries that have remained technically at war since the end of the 1950-53 Korean conflict.

“The worldwide community has a collective responsibility to protect the population of the DPRK, and to consider the wider implications of the reported grave human rights situation for the stability of the region”, Jeffrey Feltman, U.N. political affairs chief, told the council.