South Korea Blasts K-Pop at North Over Nuclear Test

The three countries, which have long sought to project a united front against the North Korean nuclear threat – agreed to work together at the UN to secure the strongest possible Security Council resolution.

In one of the broadcasts, an announcer said: “The nuclear test is making North Korea more isolated and turning it into the land of death”, according to Reuters.

Seoul resumed loudspeaker broadcasts into North Korea on Friday in response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test, with recent South Korean hit songs.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is asking South Korea to refrain from resuming propaganda broadcasts across the border into North Korea.

“We have to recognize that the North Korea nuclear issue is a huge challenge for everyone, and in fact it is not just China’s problem”, said Wang Dong, a professor of worldwide relations at Peking University.

With the two nations technically at war, South Korea have broadcast propaganda messages from loudspeakers towards North Korea in the past, but agreed to stop this a year ago as it was seen to be causing further tension.

“The initial analysis is not consistent with the North Korean claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters this week.

North Korea announced Wednesday that it had successfully carried out its first hydrogen bomb test.

In a mark of protest against the test, South Korea will limit entry to the Kaesong industrial complex jointly operated with North Korea to minimal production staff, said an official from Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

“The test is bad example of nuclear proliferation in the world …”

Troops have reportedly been deployed into the border region.

In 2005, North Korea reached an agreement with the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russian Federation to suspend its nuclear programme in return for diplomatic rewards and energy assistance.

The broadcasts include popular Korean pop songs, world news and weather forecasts as well as criticism of the North’s nuclear test, its troubled economy and dire human rights conditions, according to Seoul’s Defense Ministry.

The United States says China could pressure North Korea by cutting energy to the country and restricting trade.

“There is no hope to put an end to the North Korean nuclear conundrum if the US, South Korea and Japan do not change their policies toward Pyongyang”, it said.

Some believe North Korea might have detonated a boosted fission bomb, a weapon considered halfway between an atomic bomb and an H-bomb.

The test follows leader Kim Jong-un’s claims last month that the country was in possession of its first H-bomb.

Korea with conventional military forces backed by its “hydrogen bomb” capability is sufficient to warrant consideration, the Japanese government must make preparations for operations such as rescuing Japanese nationals in South Korea, based on the presumption of an emergency situation on the Korean Peninsula.

“Not mentioning a peace treaty is a strategic mistake”.