We have Hydrogen bomb with us, claims North Korea leader

The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war, because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. “Let’s break down that barrier and pave the ground [for reunification]”, replied Jon.

Seoul, Dec 11 South Korea and North Korea (DPRK) on Friday began a vice ministerial-level meeting in Pyongyang’s border city of Kaesong.

Minutes before the meeting started, China demanded a rare vote on whether to discuss the issue, saying the Security Council was not the place to discuss human rights.

The talks ran late into the night over three sessions interspersed with lengthy breaks to consult with their respective capitals.

The industrial zone in Kaesong, founded in 2002, is the last remaining major joint project to result from an earlier period of improved ties.

Jon said the talks were an opportunity to overcome the decades of mistrust and confrontation. “We will do our best to resolve them one by one”.

The U.N. human rights chief has told the Security Council it is “essential” that the council refer North Korea’s bleak human rights situation to the International Criminal Court, a proposition that the reclusive country views with alarm.

There have been allegations that North Korea has cooperated with Iran on missile and weapons development, and there are concerns that Pyongyang would be willing to sell to the highest bidder, including terrorists. But while Seoul may well raise the issue of denuclearisation, experts said the two sides were likely to focus on more achievable targets. “The North’s denuclearization needs to be seen as the ultimate goal of inter-Korea dialogue, not a pre-condition of it”, said Kim Keun-Shik, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

On Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un suggested his isolated government has developed a hydrogen bomb, which would represent a significant technological advance. There was no set agenda in Kaesong, but both sides have clear, if not necessarily complementary priorities.

The North was expected to have called on the South to resume tours to Mount Kumgang that were suspended since July 2008, when a South Korean female tourist was fatally shot.

South Korean officials want to discuss more reunions between aging family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Building trust has been a key feature of the South’s Park Geun-hye administration, which was reportedly hoping to arrange regular family reunions for relatives separated by the closely-guarded border.

H-bombs are many times more powerful than ordinary atom bombs but also much more hard to develop, and it is unlikely the North has made much progress in that direction.