North Korea said Tuesday its nuclear test was not intended to be a provocation or threat, as it laid out plans for a weapons system capable of obliterating the entire United States.
North Korea said Tuesday its nuclear test was not intended to be a provocation or threat, as it laid out plans for a weapons system capable of obliterating the entire United States.
A lengthy commentary by the official KCNA news agency underlined the North’s claim that last Wednesday’s test was of a powerful miniaturised hydrogen bomb which marked a “new high stage” in the country’s search for a credible nuclear deterrent.
The KCNA commentary said the test was an indispensable stage on the “normal course” which other countries have taken to the development of a two-stage fission-fusion H-bomb. “The test was neither to ‘threaten’ anyone, nor to ‘provoke’ someone for a certain purpose,” KCNA said, insisting that the main focus was on providing a “sure guarantee” of the North’s immunity from attack by hostile forces.
Prime among those forces was the United States it said, offering an apocalyptic vision of how it would respond to US aggression. North Korean scientists and technicians “are in high spirit to detonate H-bombs of hundreds of kilotons and megatons, capable of wiping out the whole territory of the US all at once,” it said.
Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives House pushed ahead on legislation that seeks to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test by expanding sanctions on Pyongyang, a move with strong bipartisan support despite questions over how effective the new restrictions can be.
Lawmakers are scheduled to vote today on the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act, which proposes to deny North Korea the hard currency they say it needs for its weapons programmes. Hol-ding the vote Wednesday puts it on the same day as President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address.
