Obama discusses NKorea nuclear threat with Asian leaders

Seoul said the broadcasts would restart on Friday at noon – a move that is likely to irritate North Korea.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama have agreed to push for strong United Nations resolutions over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s fourth nuclear test, Park’s office said Thursday.

“By now, the extensive independent analysis that’s been done in the United States and in other countries that includes significant and understandable skepticism about the claims of the North Korean regime”, said spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Hydrogen bombs are different from atomic bombs.

“It is also a grave contravention of the global norm against nuclear testing”.

“Neither the United States nor China will accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state”, he said, adding that National Security Adviser Susan Rice has spoken to the Chinese ambassador to the United States about the purported test.

Meanwhile, in Pyongyang, North Koreans were seen “celebrating” the launch as they gathered around TV screens at the capital’s rail station.

“We have now joined the ranks of advanced nuclear states”, it said, adding that the test was of a miniaturised device.

The council said North Korea’s actions posed “a clear threat to worldwide peace and security” and was “a clear violation” of previous council resolutions aimed at blocking North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.

Diplomats at the United Nations quickly scheduled an emergency closed-door meeting to discuss the developments.

North Korea is rattling nations around the world with an unannounced test of a powerful bomb. The announcement was met with scepticism, however, with South Korea’s spy agency saying the estimated explosive yield from the explosion was much smaller than what even a failed H-bomb detonation would produce.

“Beyond that, all on the Security Council, are aware of the need to tread carefully in order not to further provoke a leader [North Korea’s Kim Jong-un] who makes unpredictable, some would rash decisions, and holds a nuclear capability, however primitive”.

Q: What do you think of North Korea’s claims that they have detonated a hydrogen bomb?

Hydrogen bombs are significantly more powerful than atomic bombs, which were used during World War II in attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan has already dispatched H4 training planes to investigate whether the test has unleashed nuclear material in the atmosphere, though initial reports say this is unlikely.

South Korea is to resume propaganda broadcasts into North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s claims to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.