Korea says it could halt nuke tests if US scraps drills

North Korea’s mission to the United Nations bragged about successfully building a hydrogen bomb, which they say has the capability of “wiping out the whole territory of the USA”.

Following Saturday talks between visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and his South Korean counterpart Lim Sung-nam, Seoul’s foreign ministry made clear that they agreed on the need for “strong and comprehensive sanctions against North Korea”.

Blinken chastised North Korea for the “flaunting of its worldwide obligations”.

Also on Friday, North Korea’s state-run media KRT cited the foreign ministry in saying that the country is willing to cease nuclear tests in exchange for an end to joint US-South Korea military exercises.

“If the nuclear threat posed by North Korea … should reach that level of seriousness, South Korea … will face a critical strategic choice: seek the re-introduction of US nuclear weapons, pursue its own independent nuclear force or accept the necessity of accommodating its nuclear-armed adversaries, often-called ‘Finlandization, ‘” Murdock said.

Kerry’s visit is to reaffirm USA commitment to rebalancing toward the Asia-Pacific region, State Department spokesman John Kirby told press. The e-mails were sent to government officials following the North’s nuclear test on January 6. Following its second and third nuclear tests in 2009 and 2013, North Korea launched similar cyber attacks against the South.

Nuclear experts continue to analyze the data, but preliminary assessments are that North Korea did indeed conduct its fourth nuclear test, though it is more likely that Pyongyang has achieved a boosted fission rather than a fusion bomb.

The Korean Peninsula has technically been in a state of war since the Korean War ended in the mid 1950s.

Cooperation from China is key to the U.N. Security Council’s push to adopt a new sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang because the country is one of the veto-holding permanent members of the Security Council, along with Britain, France, Russia and the U.S.

Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea and the U.S. yesterday ratcheted up pressure on China to support the “strongest possible” punishment against the North over the nuclear test. Pyongyang is under United Natons sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes.