North Korea Now A Global Threat – UN

North Korea under the leadership of Kim Jong-un has evolved from being a regional menace to a global threat, Yukiya Amano, head of the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog has said.

Amano, who heads the International Atomic Energy Authority, says the North’s claim to a have tested a hydrogen bomb 8-times the power of Hiroshima represents a “new dimension of threat.”

Tensions have risen on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea carried out its most powerful nuclear test to date on Sunday, claiming to have developed an advanced hydrogen bomb that could sit atop an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The bomb used in the country’s sixth-ever nuclear test sent tremors across the region that were 10 times more powerful than Pyongyang’s previous test.

“I think the North Korean threat is a global one now. In the past people believed it was a regional one, that’s no longer the case,” Amano told CNN.

“It is a global threat now and it combines nuclear weapons and missiles.”

While the IAEA could not determine if the explosion came from a hydrogen bomb as North Korea claimed, Amano said the bigger yield of this latest test means “it is safe to assume North Korea is making significant progress.”

While the type of bomb used and its size have not been independently verified, if true, the pariah state is a significant step closer to being able to fire a nuclear warhead to the US mainland, as it has repeatedly threatened it could if provoked.

“We do not have the capacity to determine whether it was a hydrogen bomb or not,” Amano said.

“Some analysis by other organizations is ongoing but it is difficult. In light of all the experience of the IAEA following other nuclear programs of North Korea, North Korea generally does what it says it is going to do.

“North Korea is one of the countries where it’s most difficult to guess their next step.
“It’s not at the nuclear weapon stage under the treaty but it is clear that North Korea has some nuclear weapons, nuclear explosive devices and missiles.

“In the past the threat of North Korea was related to nuclear weapons. Now the North Korean threat is related to nuclear weapons combined with missiles.”

Sunday’s nuclear test is the first since Trump took office, and the President condemned the test in a Tweet on Sunday morning, calling North Korea’s words and actions “hostile and dangerous to the United States.”

“North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.”

“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!”

When asked by a reporter Sunday whether he would attack North Korea, Trump responded: “We’ll see.”

South Korea launched a series of live drills in response and boosted the deployment of a US-made missile defense system, THAAD.