Hard-to-verify ‘H-bomb’ test benefits N. Korea

The North agreed to end its nuclear programme in worldwide negotiations in 2005 but later walked away from the talks.

Kerry, for his part, took issue with those contentions, emphatically maintaining that, “North Korea has never been left unattended to”.

It is unclear whether Kim, whose birthday is also believed to be Friday, attended the celebrations. He said there had been constant consultations on North Korea, including on his first trip to China after he became the top US diplomat in 2013.

The South Korean broadcasts are considered an insult by the isolated North which has in the past threatened military strikes to stop them.

In October 2014, North Korean troops opened fire after South Korean activists launched balloons carrying propaganda leaflets. Conversely, South Korea ballistic missiles with a range of 500 miles are capable of reaching North Korea airspace in less than 15 minutes, South Korea press reported. The loudspeakers were reinstalled in 2010 after the North torpedoed the South Korean warship, Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. Included are songs by a young female singer, IU, whose sweet, girlish voice might be aimed at North Korean soldiers deployed near the border.

South Korea halted the broadcasts later in August when it agreed with the North on a set of tension-easing measures.

“He’s a god in North Korea, and propaganda broadcasts raise questions among North Koreans about that”, said Park Chang Kwon, a senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for Defence Analyses in Seoul.

North Korea’s latest action reflects recent efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, which has entered its final year, to normalize its relations with adversarial countries, including restoring relations with Cuba and striking a nuclear deal with Iran.

– Seoul’s spy agency quickly disputes North Korea’s claim, saying that the seismic event was too small for an H-bomb, which is dramatically more destructive than an atomic bomb, but also much more hard to make. The House of Representatives will vote as early as next week on legislation imposing new US sanctions. South Korea has reinforced defensive positions near the loudspeakers in case of attack, while the North Korean army has stepped up surveillance along the border, the South Korean Defence Ministry said.

South Korean and USA military leaders also discussed the deployment of US “strategic assets” in the wake of the North’s test, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said. Nuclear-tipped missiles could then be used as deterrents and diplomatic bargaining chips – especially against the USA, which Pyongyang has long pushed to withdraw its troops from the region and to sign a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War.