North Korea offers to stop nuclear tests

North Korea’s official news agency today issued a statement reiterating the nation’s willingness to suspend all nuclear testing in return for a peace treaty to end the Korean War, and the cessation of usa military exercises aimed at them.

But whatever the nature of the device, it was North Korea’s fourth nuclear test since 2006, and further evidence of Pyongyang’s intention to continue developing its nuclear weapons capability in the face of global censure.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, center left, speaks with South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam, left, and U.S.Deputy Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, right, at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.

Critics have accused Obama of not paying enough attention on North Korea, which has conducted three nuclear test explosions since he took office in 2009.

On January 6, North Korea announced that it has successfully carried out its first hydrogen bomb test. The move immediately led to a chorus of worldwide condemnation, with some also expressing suspicion about the announcement.

The isolated state has long sought a peace treaty with the U.S., as well as an end to the exercises by South Korea and the USA, which has about 28,500 troops based in the South.

But China’s leverage over Pyongyang is mitigated, analysts say, by its overriding fear of a North Korean collapse and the prospect of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.

But asked if the United States would consider a halt to joint exercises, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said it had alliance commitments to South Korea.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace agreement.

“In response to the United States continuously invading our sovereignty and making threatening provocations, we will acquire ourselves with all possible nuclear attack and nuclear retaliation abilities, but will not thoughtlessly use our nuclear weapons”, he said. Pyongyang has said it could stop nuclear tests in exchange for the USA scrapping joint military drills with South Korea.