No more ‘business as usual’ with North Korea, US warns China

BBC reports that the broadcasts are set to start again on Friday, which happens to be the 33rd birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The last time Seoul deployed the speakers, in retaliation for a landmine blast in August that wounded two South Korean soldiers, it led to an armed standoff and exchange of artillery fire.

It wasn’t clear what they were doing, but they could be involved in trying to determine what kind of nuclear device North Korea detonated.

The development marks a major advance in North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

A South Korean research institution says a small amount of radioactive elements was found in air samples collected from the peninsula’s eastern seas after the blast Wednesday in North Korea. Officials refused to elaborate, but the assets likely are B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines.

North Korea’s alleged bomb, however, triggered an natural disaster of 4.8 magnitudes which, on the logarithmic scale of quake magnitude, indicates a huge drop in explosive power.

Philip Hammond has urged South Korea to be “bigger” than its northern adversary and resist blasting propaganda across their border with loudspeakers.

Washington and nuclear experts have been sceptical of past North Korean claims about hydrogen bombs, which are much more powerful and much more hard to make than atomic bombs.

But North Korea believes the U.S. will only negotiate if Pyongyang can demonstrate its strength through its weapons.

A new test by the North raises tension on and around the Korean Peninsula.

Before the broadcasts began, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged China to end “business as usual” with North Korea.

– The U.N. Security Council holds an emergency meeting and pledges to swiftly pursue new sanctions against North Korea.

The United Nations said it would work immediately on significant new measures against Korea.

North Korea conducted another nuclear test after recognizing how Iran was “gaming the system” in the nuclear deal pushed by U.S. President Barack Obama, an analyst said.

“Our military is at a state of full readiness, and if North Korea wages provocation, there will be firm punishment”.

However, the call had been delayed due to China’s “internal scheduling”, it said, citing an unidentified official.

North Korea then threatened to attack the loudspeakers and put its military on what it called a “semi-war” footing, moving more troops to the border.

In Seoul, the government took unilateral action by announcing the resumption of high-decibel propaganda broadcasts into the North – a tactic that had prompted Pyongyang to threaten military strikes when it was last employed during a cross-border crisis previous year. The mass leader has been criticised for his war propaganda tactics over the past decade with four nuclear test since 2006. Japanese media said Tokyo mobilized its own reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan to try to collect atmospheric data.