WH casts doubt on NKorea claims of hydrogen bomb test

USA stocks stumbled on Wednesday as investors were unnerved by another steep drop in the price of oil, more signs of weakness in China and claims from the reclusive government of North Korea that it had successfully tested a powerful nuclear weapon.

The United Nations Security Council also will hold a meeting later Wednesday, at the behest of the United States and Japan. “We know it was a test, but we don’t know it was a hydrogen test and it will take some time to determine what it was”.

The test was unexpected in part because North Korea’s last nuclear test was almost three years ago and Kim Jong Un did not mention nuclear weapons in his annual New Year’s speech.

In the past, North Korea has tested fission weapons, which break large atoms like plutonium, into smaller atoms, creating considerable energy.

Hydrogen bombs involve fission and fusion reactions to generate greater power than single-stage atomic weapons.

Wednesday’s purported hydrogen bomb test will intensify pressure on China to tighten the screws on Kim.

The blast may now push the Obama administration to refocus on North Korea. Bennett is a senior defense analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Rand Corp.

“Even so, if operationalized, any North Korean nuclear device could still cause considerable damage”, he said, “and is a source of considerable concern”.

North Korea needs fresh nuclear tests for practical military and political reasons.

The development illustrates the continuing challenge North Korea poses to its neighbors and the world. The failure of U.N. sanctions, as well as those imposed by the US and other nations, to rein in North Korea’s nuclear advances raises questions over whether a new approach is needed to tackle the issue.

And nothing in the data being analyzed by USA officials and independent analysts suggests that Kim has crossed that line. “That’s why the test is happening now”. The North’s last nuclear test, in February 2013, set off a magnitude 4.9 tremor. North Korea portrays that tie as a threat to its sovereignty. “My guess is probably not”.

Yet North Korea has balked at returning to worldwide aid-for-disarmament talks as it looks to assert itself as a nuclear weapons state. The United States expressed doubts about North Korea’s claim.

A United Nations sanctions committee was established in 2006 to put together a blacklist of persons and entities deemed to be providing support to North Korea’s banned programs.

Past U.N. measures included arms, nonproliferation and luxury good embargoes, a freeze on overseas financial assets and a travel ban.

But those seem to have had little effect on Pyongyang’s ambitions.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, “The nuclear test that was carried out by North Korea is a serious threat to the safety of our nation and we absolutely can not tolerate this”.

At the Consumer Electronic Conference, the streaming video company said its service is now available in every country in the world except for China, Syria, North Korea and Crimea.

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called the test a “grave provocation” to its national security and a “threat to our future”.

Kerry vowed the USA wouldn’t allow North Korea to be a nuclear-armed state and called on Pyongyang to “end these provocations” and start “living up to its global obligations and commitments”. “This rogue regime has no interest in being a responsible state”.

But its conventional weaponry is dated, with limited effectiveness, and it has looked to developing its nuclear capabilities to project power internationally.

The second test, in 2009, appeared to be more successful, with an estimated yield of two to seven kilotons, while the third, in 2013, was measured at up to 10 kilotons. Add nuclear weapons to the mix – even if they aren’t thermonuclear – and Pyongyang could unleash devastation of a sort not seen in over 70 years.

Several Western diplomats said that if the latest North Korean nuclear test was confirmed, the United States, European council members and Japan would seek to expand existing U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.

If confirmed, the test would mark another big step toward Pyongyang’s goal of building a warhead that can be mounted on a missile capable of reaching the USA mainland.