South Korea resumes propaganda broadcasts at border

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry publicly took issue with China’s policy towards its neighbor North Korea on Thursday and defended the U.S. handling of the crisis sparked by Pyongyang’s nuclear test earlier this week.

“We’re putting out critical messages about Kim Jong-un’s regime and its fourth nuclear test, saying North Korea’s nuclear weapons development is putting its people in more hard times economically”, a military official said.

China is the North’s main economic and diplomatic backer, although relations between the two Cold War allies have cooled in recent years.

The test also alarmed Japan.

A White House spokesman said there had been no talk with South Korea about any introduction of the so-called Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system, a move opposed by China.

In a statement, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said the response could involve the deployment of USA “strategic assets” to the peninsula.

South Korea, technically in a state of war against the North, said it was not considering a nuclear deterrent of its own, despite calls from ruling party leaders.

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

Performers on Seoul’s propaganda playlist include a female K-pop band that rose to fame when its members fell multiple times on stage, a middle-aged singer who rose from obscurity last year with a song about living for 100 years and songs by a young female singer, IU, whose sweet, girlish voice might be aimed at North Korean soldiers deployed near the border.

The United States and South Korea are limited in their military response.

The United States and China have both dangled the prospect of better ties, including the lifting of sanctions and eventually a likely peace treaty, if North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons. The (South Korean) army near here said local residents should not go around, and should stay in the town hall and go to shelter located near the guard post if the army makes a call in case of emergency.

There is still widespread speculation over what device the North actually did test, but global experts mostly concur that it could not have been a full-scale thermonuclear device as claimed.

The source with contacts in Pyongyang said North Korea was already largely cut off from the world after decades of sanctions, and more would not work.

These broadcasts are reportedly considered highly insulting in Pyongyang, because they are damaging to the dignity of leader Kim Jong Un.

The Yomiuri Shimbun Hideshi Takesada, senior lecturer at Takushoku University, discussed North Korea’s latest nuclear test in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Cook said Carter had also conferred on possible responses by phone with Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command.

It is more powerful than basic atomic bomb as it uses fusion to create blast. However, it will likely take several days to determine more precisely what kind of device was set off as a variety of sensors, including “sniffer planes”, collect evidence.

World leaders shook on January 6 morning when North Korea bragged about the “spectacular success” of its first hydrogen bomb test which resulted into a 5.1 magnitude quake near its nuclear site.