Kim Jong-un in hydrogen bomb claim

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un has said that his country has developed a hydrogen bomb, the latest of several claims that the isolated nation has made about its nuclear capabilities that outside analysts have greeted with scepticism.

While touring a Pyongyang arms factory, Kim said his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, “turned [North Korea] into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant [atomic] bomb and [hydrogen] bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation”, according to North Korea’s state-run news outlet KCNA.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said he supported a call by the U.N. General Assembly urging the Security Council to refer the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court, saying it is “essential, given the scale and extreme gravity of the allegations”.

High-level delegates from South and North Korea began rare talks at the North’s industrial complex of Kaesong on Friday (Dec 11) aimed at defusing tension on the Korean peninsula and establishing better ties between the two Koreas that remain technically at war.

North Korea is critical of the annual military drills between South Korea and the United States, calling them rehearsals for war.

“We have always opposed the involvement of the U.N. Security Council in a country’s human rights issues”, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a regular press conference in Beijing.

North Korea is under strict economic sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council for conducting three underground nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. However, the senior defence and intelligence officials condemned that there is no evidence of such weapon made by North Korea.

China, North Korea’s main ally, wouldn’t comment on whether the claims are credible.

White House officials on Thursday said it was doubtful that North Korea had developed a hydrogen bomb.

“I think it’s unlikely that they have an H-bomb at the moment, but I don’t expect them to keep testing basic devices indefinitely, either”, said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

In this photo, taken on October 22, 2015, South and North Korean relatives pose for a photo during the final day of a family reunion event at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort. Hwang Jang-yop, who used to be secretary of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party before fleeing the country, reported that the country had been in fact researching nuclear fusion and atomic weapons from a long time ago.

Zeid told reporters after Thursday’s meeting that he hopes to go to North Korea “in the near future” and that discussions on the details continue.