US says North Korea will be judged by ‘actions,’ not ‘words’

Such a technological breakthrough would represent a leap forward for Pyongyang’s arsenal, even if North Korea’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong-un raised eyebrows last month after claiming that his country was “ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb”. However, in the same speech, the leader of the isolated communist country indicated his willingness to for negotiations with his southern neighbor, South Korea for a peaceful Korean peninsula, reported HNGN. A surprising number of North Korea’s high officials appear to leave the world this way; indeed, the latter’s predecessor, who helped arrange the first inter-Korean summit, was said to have died in a vehicle accident in 2003.

“If invasive outsiders and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not be forgiving in the least and sternly with a merciless holy war of justice”, Kim said.

Instead, Jeong chose to respond to the sharp criticism Kim directed at South Korea in his address when the North Korean leader called President Park Geun-hye’s peaceful reunification goal a disguised form of “regime change” in the North.

While the South Korean government has said it has no reason to believe Kim was intentionally killed, he had reportedly clashed with Gen. Kim Won-hong, the state security minister, in the lead-up to his death.

The South’s Chemical, Biological and Radiological Defense Command suggested that Pyongyang already has “the foundation for thermonuclear weapons”, which are often referred to as hydrogen bombs.

Pyongyang to date has conducted three nuclear tests – in 2006, 2009 and 2013 – all of them at the Punggye-ri complex.

However, North Korea analyst Bruce Bechtol at Angelo State University in Texas is doubtful that China wields that degree of influence over North Korea.

“As we have long said, we support improved inter-Korean relations”.

Bechtol said North Korea’s recent nuclear restraint may have been caused more by technical delays than relenting to political and economic pressure. It may have nothing to do with the Chinese. It takes countries many years to independently develop the technology needed to create a fission bomb and then make the subsequent jump to fusion weapons.