N. Korea may test H-bomb
Russian foreign minister calls for cool heads as Trump, Kim continue to trade insults
Russia’s top diplomat said “we have to calm down the hotheads” in the North Korean nuclear dispute and work to promote contacts between the Trump administration and the government of Kim Jong Un.
It is “unacceptable to simply sit back and to look at the nuclear and military gambles of North Korea, but it is also unacceptable to start the war on the peninsula,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference Friday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s ministerial meeting. Lavrov said he would welcome mediation, believing that “the mediators could be one of the neutral European countries.”
Lavrov was responding to a question about U.S. President Donald Trump’s combative speech Tuesday in which the president threatened “to totally destroy North Korea” if the U.S. is forced to defend itself or its allies. In response, Kim called Trump “deranged” and saying he would “pay dearly” for his threats, a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon.
Hours later, North Korea’s foreign minister reportedly said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean to fulfil Kim’s vow to take the “highest-level” action against the United States.
Kim, in his statement, said Trump is “unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country.” He also described the U.S. president as “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire.”
Lavrov said there are many people “who would like to try not to pursue” military action and sanctions, but rather try peaceful resolution.
The dispatch from North Korea was unusual in that it was written in the first person. South Korea’s government said it was the first such direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.
In a country where the leader is essentially portrayed as a god, Kim’s decision to respond personally to Trump’s speech and pledge reprisals escalated the standoff over the North’s nuclear program in a way that neither he nor his predecessors had done before.
Some analysts saw a clear sign that North Korea would ramp up its al- ready brisk pace of weapons testing, which has included missiles meant to target U.S. forces throughout Asia and the U.S. mainland.
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera noted another test could mean a nuclear-armed missile flying over Japan. He said North Korea might conduct an H-bomb test with a medium-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, given its recent advances in weapons development.
“We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country,” he said.
Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at MIT, said that such a test could pose a danger to shipping and aircraft, even if the North declared a keep-out zone.
“And if the test doesn’t go according to plan, you could have population at risk, too,” he said. “We are talking about putting a live nuclear warhead on a missile that has been tested only a handful of times. It is truly terrifying if something goes wrong.”
Kim said Trump’s remarks “have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last.” With files from the New York Times