N.Korea’s Kim Jong Un says H-bomb test self-defensive step against US

Jeong said that the latest measure is necessary to secure the safety of South Koreans, considering the possibility that inter-Korean tensions will grow at border areas following the government’s decision to resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts toward the North.

South Korea and Japan also used their shared military hotline for the first time in the aftermath of North Korea’s nuclear test. The two military allies of the United States have been working to overcome strained bilateral relations over Japan’s conduct during World War II to better deal with the increasing nuclear threat they both face from North Korea.

The US yesterday sent a B-52 bomber on a low-level flight south of Seoul, while South Korea has restarted propaganda broadcasts across its heavily armed northern border.

In addition to the B-52 bomber, US and South Korean defense authorities were continuing discussion on further deployment of ” strategic assets”, South Korea’s defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said at a press briefing on Monday.

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un justified that their recent hydrogen bomb test was a form of self-defense against the United States.

In the past two years, North Korea refrained from nuclear tests limiting itself to ballistic missile launches as a response to the US-South Korea large-scale military drills.

Situated north of the DMZ, the Kaesong complex was established in 2002 during the “Sunshine Policy” of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who sought better relations with Seoul’s northern neighbor.

A spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry said that in the interest of safety, only skeleton crews would be allowed to enter the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea starting Tuesday.

Kim added the talk is significant as South Korea has been in close contact with Japan and the US over the North’s nuclear weapon and missile programs.

Responding to the Norths bomb test, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China, the Norths only major ally and biggest aid provider, to end “business as usual” with North Korea.

“After the third nuclear test (by North Korea in 2013) we couldn’t find any radionuclides….” Reuters reported Sunday that the United States flew a B-52 bomber to South Korea to show its “ironclad” commitment to ally country.

On January 8 South Korea resumed propagandistic broadcasts on the border with DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).

North Korea regularly accuses the USA of using these exercises to prepare an attack on Pyongyang, a claim fiercely denied by Seoul and Washington.

They are expected to affirm cooperation on the issue and discuss an expected U.N. Security Council resolution to strengthen worldwide sanctions on North Korea.

It was escorted by a South Korean and an American jet.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang claimed it had carried out its first hydrogen bomb test.