Evidence is clear that North Korea detonated a thermonuclear bomb today that was five or six times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II, the BBC reports.
Hours before the blast, which sent a tremor that was measured in the US and in China, North Korean President Kim Jung-un was shown in a photograph near a device that appears to be either the actual bomb or a model of it.
Although the test appears to have been directed more toward Japan than the US, international alliances come into play.
North Korea’s greatest ally in the region is China, which has condemned the several nuclear tests performed under Mr Kim’s leadership. But China’s influence on the US is greater than North Korea’s, and the US has used strong rhetoric to refer to the nuclear threat from the North. This action could put increased pressure on President Donald Trump to step up a military response.
President Trump vows America will respond to North Korean threats with "fire & fury" in a warning to the rogue nation pic.twitter.com/UaE2rPkZ6f
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Furthermore, our reliance on China to keep North Korea under control appears to be getting us nowhere, as the North keeps detonating nuclear bombs.
“This is not going in a good direction,” the BBC quoted Doug Paal from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as saying. “It’s not calamitous tonight because they did not choose to launch missiles against Guam or any other US territory so far, but it’s going in a bad direction.”
