Claiming to detonate a “hydrogen bomb,” North Korea’s state-run new agency claimed the
Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea broke new ground in its nuclear program testing a thermonuclear device. Generating at 5.1 on the Richter Scale, roughly the same magnitude as the 4.7 yield on North Korea’s last A-bomb test Feb, 12, 2013 with a 20-kiloton blast yield. Yesterday’s test equaled the two prior A-bomb tests, suggesting that the device was not a hydrogen bomb but more likely the same crudely constructed plutonium device derived from North Korea’s Yongbyon heavy water reactor. “Let the world look up to the strong, self-reliant nuclear-armed state,” 32-year-old North Korean President Kim Jong-un wrote in a note for North Korean state TV. South Korean officials said yesterday’s blast was measured only 6 kilotons, disputing Pyongyang’s H-bomb claim.
Announcing with great fanfare on North Korean TV that the state exploded an H-bomb, Kim played for maximum PR value, serving notice to the U.S. and West to not mess with North Korea. Kim’s bluster resembles all insecure dictators, like Iraq’s late Saddam Hussein or Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, exaggerating claims about offensive weapons to keep enemies at bay. Kim, like his father Kim Jong-Il, likes to use nuclear blackmail to exact concessions from the West, or, for that matter, its patron state communist China. “Given the scale, it is hard to believe this is a real hydrogen bomb,” said Korea Defense and Security Forum fellow Yan Uk, skeptical about Pyongyang’s claims of testing an H-bomb. “They could have tested some middle kind [of device] between and A-bomb and H-bomb, but unless they come up any clear evidence, it is difficult to trust their claims.”
If history’s any guide, North Korea likes to use its prior nuke tests to rattle the world press, especially exacting concessions from the U.S. and other world powers. Announcing the H-bomb blast on state TV, a traditionally-garbed female news anchor declared the test was a “act of self-defense,” to guard against threats from the United States. Like other Stalinist or authoritarian regimes, the state media constantly hypes an imminent U.S. invasion, keeping North Korea’s population in an angry frenzy. World powers play into Pyongyang, giving saturation press coverage, precisely what Kim wants. Turning the North Korean nuke test into an election-year gimmick, GOP presidential candidates ripped President Barack Obama for a “feckless” foreign policy, failing to deter America’s enemies. All GOP candidates, except Trump and Paul, blamed the White House for North Korea’s nuke test.
Criticized for allowing North Korea’s nuclear proliferation, Democratic front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her tenure in the State Department. “As secretary, I championed the United States’ pivot to the Asia Pacific—including shifting additional military assets to the theater—in part to confront threats like North Korea and to support our allies,” said Hillary, rejecting GOP campaign rhetoric that the Obama administration didn’t contain North Korea’s nuke program. GOP front-runner real estate tycoon Donald Trump laid North Korea’s nuke problems at the feet of China. “China should solve the problem,” said Trump, rejecting the idea that the Obama administration dropped the ball. “And if they don’t solve the problem, we should make trade very difficult for China . . ” said Trump seeking to use China as leverage against Pyongyang.
Sinking in the polls to under 5%, 62-eyar-old former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush placed the blame squarely on Obama and Clinton. “North Korean nuke test shows danger of continuing feckless Obama/Clinton foreign policy, despite the fact, that North Korea’s Kim Jong-il developed its nuke program and completed its first underground test Oct. 9, 2006 on former President George W. Bush’s watch. No GOP candidate has any real plan to contain what Trump calls a “madman” like Kim Jong-un. “The latest example of the failed Obama-Clinton foreign policy,” said GOP candidate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “I have been warning throughout this campaign that North Korea is run by a lunatic who has been expanding his nuclear arsenal while President Obama has stood idly by,” knowing that North Korea’s nuke program flourished under Bush, former VP Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
North Korea’s latest bluff shows at least enough nuclear sophistication to detonate most likely a crude plutonium device, enough to rattle world powers, certainly in Seoul, South Korea. Only GOP contender Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) comes close to the truth about North Korea. “There are no easy solutions,” Paul told CNN. “You want me to wave a wand and all of a sudden that their nuclear weapons are gone,” said Paul, telling the truth that there’s no easy fix to stop Kim’s insanity. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—running at least 20% behind Hillary—agreed with Trump that the U.S. should “lean on” China to abide by international agreements. While it’s doubtful Kim detonated an H-bomb, it’s clear that Kim wants attention from world powers, especially to extract more financial concessions from the U.S. and South Korea, both top Kim’s enemies list.
