WH Casts Doubt on N. Korea Claims of Hydrogen Bomb Test

In 2013, China – North Korea’s closest ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the council – was so angry with Pyongyang that it did support a resolution that expanded the sanctions regime, notably by making it more hard for North Korea to transfer money.

South Korea and the United States condemned North Korea’s claimed hydrogen bomb test on Wednesday as a “grave provocation” and vowed to strengthen cooperation in their response, the South Korean defense ministry said.

“We can surmise that he’s trying to bolster his legitimacy as North Korea’s leader”, Fifield said.

Chinoy, the U.S.-China Institute fellow, pointed out that three of North Korea’s four nuclear tests – in 2009, 2013 and now – have taken place during the tenure of U.S. President Barack Obama, who’s made progress on curtailing Iran’s atomic aspirations but not North Korea’s.

The Senator adds that if Hillary Clinton is elected president, Iran will test it’s own bomb. It has been leery of taking such steps because of fears that a collapse of North Korea’s socialist government could cause an influx of refugees and lead to a pro-American, unified Korean nation on China’s doorstep.

But the test is yet another reminder of how far the North’s nuclear-weapons programme has advanced through three generations of the ruling Kim family, despite outside efforts to block it. According to a recent estimate it may have as many as 100 weapons by 2020 if its programme is left uncurbed.

Just how big a threat North Korea’s nuclear program poses is a mystery.

“We won’t know for another few days or weeks whether this was (a hydrogen bomb)”, said Martin Navias, a military expert at King’s College London. The U.N. called the 2012 launch a banned test of ballistic missile technology.

Mr. Earnest said the US assessment is ongoing and not yet complete.

The North’s announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event along the country’s northeast coast.

The test is a surprise, both in its purported type and its timing.

A document signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, seen in footage aired on North Korean state television, read: “Make the world to look up to our strong nuclear country and labor party by opening the year with (the) exciting noise of the first hydrogen bomb!” He had received “positive signs” from Pyongyang, he told South Korean reporters at the U.N. “We are discussing when would be the good time for me to visit the North, but so far nothing has been decided”. “North Korea’s latest test suggests evidence of weakness rather than strength”. “And that track is miniaturization, but also increasing the yield of nuclear weapons”.

Cook said Carter reaffirmed the US treaty commitment to defend South Korea, which he said includes “all aspects of the United States’ extended deterrence” – an allusion to a longstanding USA promise to defend South Korea with nuclear weapons if necessary.

“If there’s no invasion on our sovereignty we will not use nuclear weapon”, the North Korean state news agency said.

Jasper Kim with the Center for Conflict Management at Ewha Womans University in Seoul said the test is an attempt to draw attention to North Korea on the global stage.

In previous such tests, Pyongyang had notified China, Russia and the United States beforehand, they said.

The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, as the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice.

South Korean officials earlier detected an “artificial earthquake” near North Korea’s main nuclear test site. Tens of thousands more are in nearby Japan. Chipotle also disclosed that sales at restaurants open at least one year plunged 30 per cent in December in the wake of an E. coli outbreak that affected dozens of restaurants and a norovirus outbreak in one location in MA.