WASHINGTON: North Korea, in an open mockery of US' “locked and loaded” and inflicting of unprecedented “fire and fury” comments, tested a massive nuclear device that it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon- also known as a hydrogen bomb. State media said the test was carried to test the “accuracy and credibility” of its “Hbomb to be placed at the payload of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)”.
The test was preceded by the release of photographs purportedly showing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un inspecting the weapon that was exploded. US president Donald Trump condemned the test, calling the country a “rogue nation” whose “words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States”. He tweeted, “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!” Officials from the US and South Korea were on the hotline to coordinate a response to the test. US chief Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford called his South Korean counterpart- General Jeong Kyeongdoo to promise support and cooperation and the pair had “agreed to discuss all military measures against the North.”
While US experts remain sceptic of the scale of the bomb and whether it was a thermonuclear weapon, it remains certain that it was large enough to vaporise Seoul. Analysts said it had at least a 100 kilotonne yield and caused a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The blast was North Korea's sixth nuclear test and the first since Trump took office.
“Enough is enough! We have kicked the can down the road long enough. There is no more road left,” US representative at the UN Nikki Haley said during an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Haley left the slightest crack in the door open for negotiations, saying, among other things, “The time has come to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it is too late” and “War is never something the United States wants. We don't want it now.”
