South Korea Will Resume Propaganda Broadcasts At North Korean Border

The US government and weapons experts have voiced doubts about whether the device tested by North Korea on Wednesday was a hydrogen bomb, as Pyongyang had claimed.

“North Korea’s nuclear test is a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and Japan strongly denounces it”, Nakatani was quoted as having said during the 20-minute conversation.

“We are putting out critical messages about Kim Jong Un’s regime and its fourth nuclear test, saying North Korea’s nuclear weapons development is putting its people in more hard times economically”, a military official said, according to Reuters.

The US navy is increasingly anxious about tensions on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang tested a nuclear device, a move that could spur closer military ties between neighbours South Korea and Japan, a senior US officer said on Friday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to take a tougher line with North Korea after its latest nuclear test, warning in a call to his Beijing counterpart on Thursday (Jan 7) that it can not be “business as usual”.

“Any escalation in this region, any over-reaction can easily lead to not only a conflict between South and North Korea, but drag China and the United States and Japan into a confrontation”, Cordesman said.

Hours after Seoul resumed high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the border it shares with the secretive state, Philip Hammond warned against “rising to the bait”.

Seoul stopped earlier broadcasts after it agreed with Pyongyang in late August on a package of measures aimed at easing animosities that had the rivals threatening war.

North Koreans gather in Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on January 8, 2016.

Protesters took to the streets in Seoul to denounce North Korea’s reported nuclear testing.

In New York, the UN Security Council has threatened fresh punitive measures against North Korea in response to Wednesday’s test.

The U.S.is doubtful that the test was actually a hydrogen bomb.

Kerry told reporters in Washington that he spoke by phone Thursday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

It’s unclear why North Korea chose to conduct another nuclear test now.

The hydrogen bomb already is the global standard for the five nations with the greatest nuclear capabilities: the US, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and China.

Defense Minister Han Minkoo told a parliamentary hearing that “reopening broadcasts is not our only option among military responses to the North’s nuclear test. There are also military responses and economic responses”.

South Korean and us military leaders also have discussed the deployment of USA “strategic assets”, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said.

The Alaska Earthquake Center says its equipment picked up seismic activity after North Korea’s claimed detonation of a hydrogen bomb Tuesday.