The path to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test followed a textbook North Korean strategy: escalating provocations accompanied by furious denunciations of annual South Korea-US military exercises.
In the 12 days since Washington praised Pyongyang’s “restraint” and held out the prospect of early talks, the North has fired three short-range missiles, sent another one soaring over Japan and detonated what appears to be a full-fledged thermonuclear device.
“The hydrogen bomb test was a perfect success,” an announcer on state television claimed after Sunday’s test.
The bomb had “unprecedentedly big power” and can be loaded onto a long-range missile, according to the North, a step forward that would dramatically escalate any threat it poses.
The blast was its most powerful to date by far and analysts suspect it was from a hydrogen bomb.