North Korea conducts hydrogen bomb test; U.S. pledges 'massive' response if threatened

[webfact]

North Korea conducts hydrogen bomb test; U.S. pledges 'massive' response if threatened

By Jack Kim, Soyoung Kim and Steve Holland

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang September 3, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS

 

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, which it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, prompting the threat of a "massive" military response from the United States if it or its allies were threatened.

 

Speaking outside the White House after meeting with President Donald Trump and his national security team, U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump asked to be briefed on all available military options.

 

"Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming," Mattis said.

 

"We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea," Mattis said with Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at his side. "But as I said, we have many options to do so."

 

Trump earlier in the day refused to rule out military action and threatened to cut off trade with any country doing business with Pyongyang.

 

Asked while leaving a church service whether the United States would attack North Korea, Trump replied: "We'll see."

 

Early Monday in Seoul, South Korea's military confirmed it had carried out missile drills in response to the North's nuclear test.

 

Despite the tough talk, the immediate focus of the international response was expected to be on tougher economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

 

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the nuclear test.

 

Diplomats have said the council could now consider banning Pyongyang's textile exports and the country's national airline, stop supplies of oil to the government and military, prevent North Koreans from working abroad and add top officials to a blacklist to subject them to an asset freeze and travel ban.

 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday that he would put together a package of new sanctions to potentially cut off all trade with North Korea.

 

"If countries want to do business with the United States, they obviously will be working with our allies and others to cut off North Korea economically," Mnuchin told Fox News.

 

North Korea, which carries out its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions and sanctions, said on state television that the hydrogen bomb test ordered by leader Kim Jong Un had been a "perfect success."

 

The bomb was designed to be mounted on its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, the North said.

 

The test had registered with international seismic agencies as a man-made earthquake near a test site.

 

Japanese and South Korean officials said the tremor was about 10 times more powerful than the one picked up after North Korea's last nuclear test a year ago.

 

U.S. stock futures fell 0.5 percent after trading reopened on Sunday evening.

 

ESCALATING CRISIS

 

After weeks of profound tensions over North Korea's nuclear programme, the size and scope of the latest test set off a new round of diplomatic handwringing.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in China, agreed to "appropriately deal" with North Korea's nuclear test, the Xinhua news agency reported.

 

As North Korea's sole major ally, China said it strongly condemned the nuclear test and urged Pyongyang to stop its "wrong" actions.

 

In a series of early morning tweets, Trump appeared to rebuke ally South Korea, which faces an existential threat from North Korea's nuclear programme.

 

"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!" Trump said in an early morning tweet.

 

Trump appeared to be blaming South Korea for a policy it abandoned years ago of trying to soften North Korea's posture through economic aid.

 

South Korea's new president, Moon Jae-in, has argued for continuing dialogue with its neighbour over its nuclear programme, while also supporting international sanctions.

 

Reports that the United States is considering pulling out of its trade deal with South Korea have also ratcheted up tensions with the country.

 

A former senior State Department official criticized Trump for accusing South Korea of appeasement.

 

“It was unseemly, unhelpful, and divisive to gratuitously slap our major ally at the very moment when the threat from (North Korea) has reached a new height,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

The U.S. president has previously vowed to stop North Korea developing nuclear weapons and said he would unleash "fire and fury" on the country if it threatened U.S. territory.

 

Roy Blunt, a Republican senator and a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, backed Trump's fiery rhetoric on Sunday.

 

"I think the president putting everything on the table is, is not a bad thing right now, both for North Korea, but maybe more importantly for China to be thinking about how consequential this behaviour is," Blunt said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

 

Trump's trade threat may be a way to pressure China, Pyongyang's top trading partner, into doing more to contain its neighbour.

 

But Matthew Goodman, a trade expert at Washington's Centre for International and Strategic Studies, said Trump's suggestion was not viable because it would mean the United States would cut off trade with countries such as France, India, and Mexico, along with China.

 

“The notion of stopping 'all trade' with anyone who does business with North Korea is absurd," Goodman said.

There was no independent confirmation that the detonation was a hydrogen bomb rather than a less powerful atomic device, but Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo could not rule out such a possibility.

 

Experts who studied the impact of the earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey measured at magnitude 6.3, said there was enough strong evidence to suggest the reclusive state had either developed a hydrogen bomb or was getting very close.

 

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, said the nuclear test was "an extremely regrettable act" that was "in complete disregard of the repeated demands of the international community."

 

Moon said Seoul would push for strong steps to further isolate the North, including new U.N. sanctions. Japan also raised the prospect of further sanctions, saying curbs on North Korea's oil trade would be on the table.

 

The United States has repeatedly urged China to do more to rein in its neighbour, but Beijing has lambasted the West and its allies in recent weeks for suggesting that it is solely responsible for doing so. It has said military drills by South Korea and the United States on the Korean peninsula had done nothing to lessen tensions.

 

THERMONUCLEAR DEVICE?

 

Under third-generation leader Kim, North Korea has been pursuing a nuclear device small and light enough to fit on a long-range ballistic missile, without affecting its range and making it capable of surviving re-entry.

 

The test comes amid heightened regional tension following Pyongyang's two tests of ICBMs in July that potentially could fly about 10,000 km (6,200 miles), putting many parts of the U.S. mainland within range.

 

During the nuclear test, people in the Chinese city of Yanji on the North Korean border said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock.

 

Hours before the test, North Korean state news agency, KCNA, released pictures showing Kim inspecting a silver-coloured, hourglass-shaped warhead during a visit to the country's nuclear weapons institute.

 

KCNA said North Korea "recently succeeded" in making a more advanced hydrogen bomb.

 

"All components of the H-bomb were homemade and all the processes ... were put on the Juche basis, thus enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons, as many as it wants," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

 

Juche is North Korea's homegrown ideology of self-reliance. It says its weapons programs are needed to counter U.S. aggression.

 

(For a graphic on Nuclear North Korea, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2n0gd92)

 

(Additional reporting by Elaine Lies, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Tim Kelly, Takaya Yamaguchi and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo, Jane Chung, Yuna Park, Ju-min Park and James Pearson in Seoul, Sue-Lin Wong in Yanji, David Brunnstrom and Jonathan Landay in Washington, and Shadia Nasralla in Vienna; Writing by Alex Richardson, Raju Gopalakrishnan, James Oliphant and Warren Strobel; Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-04

[Thechook]

Kim wants a war soooooo bad and is begging for the world to get it started.  Give him his wish and wipe this little idiot off the planet.  I'm sure most of his people will rejoice when he is gone.

[Samui Bodoh]

13 minutes ago, Thechook said:

Kim wants a war soooooo bad and is begging for the world to get it started.  Give him his wish and wipe this little idiot off the planet.  I'm sure most of his people will rejoice when he is gone.

 

While I understand the sentiment expressed above, it is wrong. Multiple studies and war simulations have shown repeatedly that any war with the North Koreans would have casualties in the millions. I don't think people will rejoice at that.

 

This is an extremely dangerous situation. I do have some confidence in Mattis, McMaster, and the like, but I am terrified at the thought that Trump is President.

 

God help us all.

 

Edited September 3, 2017 by Samui Bodoh

[canuckamuck]

4 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

 

While I understand the sentiment expressed above, it is wrong. Multiple studies and war simulations have shown repeatedly that any war with the North Koreans would have casualties in the millions. I don't think people will rejoice at that.

 

This is an extremely dangerous situation. I do have some confidence in Mattis, McMaster, and the like, but I am terrified at the thought that Trump is President.

 

God help us all.

 

Yes because if Obama was prez there would already be a metaphorical red line which, of course, NK would dare not cross. 

[ilostmypassword]

19 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

Yes because if Obama was prez there would already be a metaphorical red line which, of course, NK would dare not cross. 

They don't seem intimidated by Trump's red line.

[canuckamuck]

1 minute ago, ilostmypassword said:

They don't seem intimidated by Trump's red line.

You will know when they have crossed it.

[ilostmypassword]

Just now, canuckamuck said:

You will know when they have crossed it.

The question isn't what I will know, it's what Trump will do. I still remember the rejoicing among Trump supporters when he sent that convoy into the vicinity of North Korea. An empty gesture.

[nausea]

40 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Multiple studies and war simulations have shown repeatedly that any war with the North Koreans would have casualties in the millions.

 

Frankly, some of the more gung-ho might want to educate themselves on just what kind of war this is gonna be. War might indeed be inevitable, but don't go into it with blinkered eyes.

[tonray]

12 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

You will know when they have crossed it.

Yes for sure...NK is afraid he will open and then bankrupt a casino in their country....because that is the sum total of his life's experience. 

[tonray]

2 minutes ago, nausea said:

 

Frankly, some of the more gung-ho might want to educate themselves on just what kind of war this is gonna be. War might indeed be inevitable, but don't go into it with blinkered eyes.

Clearly you don't watch enough Fox News my friend. All we need do (according to Fox) is turn NK into a parking lot, then show them how right wing Conservative values (read racism, Neo Nazi rallies, and gun nuts) can turn their country into a Charlottsville-like paradise.

Edited September 4, 2017 by tonray

[canuckamuck]

4 minutes ago, nausea said:

 

Frankly, some of the more gung-ho might want to educate themselves on just what kind of war this is gonna be. War might indeed be inevitable, but don't go into it with blinkered eyes.

Well I won't be buying a new Hyundai any time soon.

[Scott]

The absolute worst thing that could be done is to use nuclear weapons on NK.   If the goal is to take out their nuclear capability, this can be done with conventional weapons, much more easily and with greater precision.   Any attack has to be to cripple the many places where Kim has the possibility of launching missiles.  

 

Nuclear weapons destroy a large area, but they are pretty non-discriminatory and probably wouldn't be effective in destroying multiple missile sites.  

 

If Kim, in return, does manage to make a nuclear launch, then all bets are off.  

[coconuthead]

They want an end to the US threatening  their security with war games on their borders.

 

 

[kotsak]

The caption of the image in the OP about Kim providing guidance sounds so familiar 

[cmsally]

The argument against cutting off N Koreas oil supplies is that the country would collapse and become completely destabilised. However with a mad man at the helm I don't see what there is to lose especially when its coming into to winter. Six months and the country would have fallen apart. Then there needs to be an international plan to neutralise NK's nuclear ability. China needs to exercise its brain before exercising its veto power.

Here we have the various big powers who can only focus on what they have to lose , when they need to be focusing on the idiot who is building nuclear weaponry. Instead of worrying about their status on the world stage , they should start thinking about whether they will have a world left, in which case their rank order means nothing.

[the guest]

The US and their Allies have no choice but to strike at the heart of this evil regime. Can't have a mad-man going around with nuclear weapons, threatening whoever they like. 

[retarius]

31 minutes ago, Scott said:

The absolute worst thing that could be done is to use nuclear weapons on NK.   If the goal is to take out their nuclear capability, this can be done with conventional weapons, much more easily and with greater precision.   Any attack has to be cripple the many places where Kim has the possibility of launching missiles.  

 

Nuclear weapons destroy a large area, but they are pretty non-discriminatory and probably wouldn't be effective in destroying multiple missile sites.  

 

If Kim, in return, does manage to make a nuclear launch, then all bets are off.  

I agree that the absolute worst thing would be to use nukes on NK. But the second worst thing is to start yet another war. 

Kim's scientists now have the knowledge of how to make nukes, you cannot eradicate this knowledge with bombs and war. The aim now should be non-profileration, so that the knowledge doesn't spread to other states or non-state actors like ISIS.

Kim at most has a warhead or two and perhaps a few bombs, nothing that would threaten large nations existentially. His ability to deliver these accurately is questionable. These bombs are relatively also easy to intercept with the sophisticated defensive weaponry that is available and being installed in SK. 

[LannaGuy]

Sanction everything and everyone who deals with them. If that fails, step that up to limit conventional strikes and if he launches the nuke then it's a no-brainer and he brought it on himself and his people but it has to be a complete and total 'one hit wonder'.  Hope first option works but I think it's less than 50/50 and he will goad until it's too late.

 

USA has no choice if the NK people do not rise up. Imagine having to explain to Americans "oh we waited hoping he would be a good boy" sorry about the mass casualties. Better the casualties are NK.  

Edited September 4, 2017 by LannaGuy

[habanero]

1 hour ago, coconuthead said:

They want an end to the US threatening  their security with war games on their borders.

 

 

Then why won't they come to the table and sign a peace agreement? The war has not officially ended because of the NK. It is only a cease fire. Nobody is going to stop training.

[phantomfiddler]

"Provides guidance" my a*s* ! The fat clown would not have a clue about which end was which !

[phantomfiddler]

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

 

While I understand the sentiment expressed above, it is wrong. Multiple studies and war simulations have shown repeatedly that any war with the North Koreans would have casualties in the millions. I don't think people will rejoice at that.

 

This is an extremely dangerous situation. I do have some confidence in Mattis, McMaster, and the like, but I am terrified at the thought that Trump is President.

 

God help us all.

 

Oh no, not another one blaming the entire list of the world,s problems on Trump !

[ilostmypassword]

2 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Oh no, not another one blaming the entire list of the world,s problems on Trump !

I didn't see any list in that post.It was specifically about North Korea. In your mind is North Korea the entire world? If so, medication might be in order.

[tonray]

13 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

Oh no, not another one blaming the entire list of the world,s problems on Trump !

When Trump stops taking credit for successes (ie stock market, economy etc) that he had nothing to do with as he hasn't actually enacted any legislation yet, then perhaps we can also stop blaming him for problems he has not created.

Edited September 4, 2017 by tonray

[baboon]

1 hour ago, cmsally said:

The argument against cutting off N Koreas oil supplies is that the country would collapse and become completely destabilised. However with a mad man at the helm I don't see what there is to lose especially when its coming into to winter. Six months and the country would have fallen apart. Then there needs to be an international plan to neutralise NK's nuclear ability. China needs to exercise its brain before exercising its veto power.

Here we have the various big powers who can only focus on what they have to lose , when they need to be focusing on the idiot who is building nuclear weaponry. Instead of worrying about their status on the world stage , they should start thinking about whether they will have a world left, in which case their rank order means nothing.

Nothing he is doing indicates he is mad.

No amount of sanctions are going to collapse the place in 6 months. They have survived natural disasters, a calamitous famine and sanction after sanction. These are tough people, capable of enduring unimaginable hardship. 

[tonray]

16 minutes ago, baboon said:

Nothing he is doing indicates he is mad.

No amount of sanctions are going to collapse the place in 6 months. They have survived natural disasters, a calamitous famine and sanction after sanction. These are tough people, capable of enduring unimaginable hardship. 

Sanctions have been remarkably ineffective:

 

[Thechook]

2 hours ago, coconuthead said:

They want an end to the US threatening  their security with war games on their borders.

 

 

How are training exercises threatening north Korean security?  All militaries constantly train including Nth Korea on South Korean borders and over Japan. 

[Beats56]

The US won't take miltary actions first. If NK does then the US has the tools to swiftly respond. 

 

[Boon Mee]

I wouldn't want to be living on Guam right now...

[champers]

The only way to end this is by direct intervention from the Chinese, i.e. with tanks and troops and replacement of the madman in charge. Not a pleasant prospect for USA or S Korea, but better than what is currently in place.

[Thaidream]

Kim is not a fool- he is playing nuclear poker and so is the US.  The only way out is for some type of negotiation in which china or Russia provides a security guarantee for North Korea. In turn, NK gets to keep its nukes but stops any further testing and stops its missile program to deliver the weapons.

In turn- the US stops all war games- redeploys its troop to Japan and signs a peace treaty with NK ending the Korean War.

A first strike on NK by the Us either conventional or nuclear would be catastrophic. In fact, I doubt that Mattis or the other Generals would carry out an order from Trump for a first strike using nuclear weapons.  A limited conventional strike  could be used only if the US had intelligence information that an intercontinental  ballistic missile was fuelled with a target of Guam or an American Ally  or another US base.  NK will then immediately unleast a huge artillery barrage that will destroy much of Seoul  and cause massive casualties with deaths  in numbers that are unthinkable. The war will then be on and it will take months to neutralize the North militarily resulting in tens of thousands of military casualties; a million civilian deaths; and the destruction of the South Korea economy and possibly Japan's.  American forces will be on China's doorstep and close to Russia causing an unknown Chinese or Russian reaction or both.

 

There is only one solution and that is negotiation- NK is a nuclear power and will remain so but the goal should be to end its isolation;  create an atmosphere in which it cannot use its nuclear weapons and try and open the country up to capitalism. There is no other logical option.