North Korea’s latest nuclear test makes Kim Jong-Un a massive global threat
On Sunday, September 3, 2017, North Korea tested its sixth and most powerful hydrogen bomb in a controlled nuclear test that set off a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in the country’s Punggye-ri testing site, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Pyongyang had detonated a hydrogen bomb with a 100-kiloton yield, which was seven times stronger than the bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
The “Little Boy” that wiped out the Japanese city, however, is miniscule compared to what North Korea, under its “boy leader” Kim Jong-Un, tested on Sunday.
Evidently, this has sparked off fears of a global nuclear meltdown, with South Korea, the United States, Europe and China, on high alert, as also issuing condemnations of the latest test, capable to wiping out a major city. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s state-run public broadcaster, had released images of Kim Jong-Un examining the hydrogen bomb load into an intercontinental ballistic missile that could in fact target and wipe out major US and European cities.
US president Donald Trump was visibly exasperated as issued stern tweets aimed at North Korea, saying other countries doing business with Pyongyang too could be impacted by sanctions. He called North Korea a “rogue nation” and said their actions continued to be “hostile and dangerous to the United States”.
Speculations are also rife whether Pyongyang’s tests meant that their nuclear weapons capability has gone up by several notches. Nuclear literacy among global powers is basically about scrambling power nuclear weapons and very little about the concerted effort to ensure and achieve worldwide disarmament.
In retaliation, South Korea has simulated a nuclear site attack and conducted major drills to offset a possible strike from Pyongyang.
Pyongyang had earlier said that the test was carried out on Sunday to “examine and confirm the accuracy and credibility” of the weapon.
Experts at various US universities seem to concur that the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are capable of destroying big US cities, leaving trails of destruction behind, in addition to nuclear contamination and ushering in a nuclear winter.
US and South Korea rattled
It’s with extreme caution that experts are watching the North Korean threat assume gigantic proportions, even as POTUS Trump returns equally churlish counter-responses to the Pyongyang dare. On the other hand, Seoul and Tokyo are rightfully concerned about their safety, and South Korean president Moon Jae-in has already convened high-level meetings and thereafter Monday’s live drill.
Sanctions aside, the North Korean threat seems to loom large, and Washington has responded by saying it is not ruling out the military option. Japan is more concerned because on August 29, Tuesday, Pyongyang launched a missile into the Japanese airspace that eventually landed 733 miles east of the island country in the Pacific Ocean. The latest nuclear test has been widely condemned by the Japanese officials.
China’s handwringing
Many are looking at China to intervene and make North Korea to climb down from its high horse of nuclear hubris. But increasingly, Xi Jinping seems powerless to move Kim Jong-Un, despite their seeming bonhomie.
The latest provocation has been condemned at the BRICS summit and Beijing has categorically chided Pyongyang for its rash, nuclear dare at the world. But that also demonstrates that Xi’s direct hold on Kim is slipping, or has already slipped away.
Sanctions from China can work to put massive economic pressure on North Korea, but that would make the Chinese territory vulnerable to a possible North Korean missile attack. Evidently, the unpredictability of Kim Jong-Un has meant that deterrence as a factor fails to work with Pyongyang, which is increasingly falling back on its nuclear nationalism to dare the world over and over again.
Pyongyang’s demand that the US and other major global powers undergo complete nuclear disarmament first before asking the same from North Korea is unsound, precisely because of its own rashness. Despite UN sanctions, with some Chinese help and trade embargoes, cutting off oil supplies, Pyongyang can be brought under control somewhat.
Though, that’s drastic and risk-laden path, and it’s becoming increasingly unclear whether Xi would be willing to take such considerable measures, beyond the platitudes at multilateral forums such as BRICS. The state media mouthpiece Global Times has asked Beijing to avoid a full embargo on North Korea, given historic and close ties.
Global Times mentioned a "deadlock", while reiterating that China needed "a sober mind and must minimise the risks Chinese society has to bear".
It added that China "should avoid imposing overly aggressive sanctions on North Korea". But it trained its guns at the US too: "The root cause of the North Korean nuclear issue is that the military pressure of the Washington-Seoul alliance generates a sense of insecurity for Pyongyang, who then believes that owning a nuclear strike capability is its sole guarantee for the survival of its regime."
"China is a big power and its agendas and interests are globally oriented. The issue around the Korean Peninsula could never consume all of China's attention,” Global Times wrote.
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