News / Koreas

North Korea's H-bomb test act of self-defense: Kim

Sunday, 10 January 2016 6:24 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 10 January 2016 6:25 AM ]

This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 3, 2016 and released on January 7 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signing a document for a hydrogen bomb test in Pyongyang. (AFP photo)

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, says the recent hydrogen bomb test has been an act of self-defense against threats of a nuclear war with the United States.

The comments his first since January 6 when North Korea’s state-owned broadcaster, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), reported that Pyongyang had successfully conducted its first hydrogen bomb test.

The test drew condemnation from the international community and raised tensions with neighboring South Korea, which has resumed its propaganda broadcasts into the North across the border.

However, Kim said during a visit to the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces to congratulate them on the “successful” detonation that the test was “a self-defensive step for reliably defending the peace on the Korean Peninsula and the regional security from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists,” the KCNA reported without giving the date of the visit.

“It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and a fair action that nobody can criticize,” Kim said.

In this photograph released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 6, 2016, North Korean people celebrate the success of the first hydrogen bomb test in Pyongyang. (AFP photo)

Elsewhere in his comments, the North Korean leader described a range of key policies that Pyongyang plans to lay out during an upcoming ruling party congress as a “historic turning point in accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche (self-independence).”

“Let us defend the 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea by strengthening the political and military might of the People’s Army in every way,” Kim said, stressing that reinforcing the army is a priority for the country.

North Korea has in numerous cases blamed Washington for deploying nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.

This file photo shows a US B-52 bomber taking off from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. (Reuters photo)

On Sunday, the US sent a B-52 bomber, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, on a low-level flight over South Korea, following North Korea’s nuclear test, with the US military saying that the flight was “in response to recent provocative action by North Korea.”

Back in 2013, after the North’s last test, Washington deployed a pair of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over South Korea and Pyongyang threatened a nuclear attack on the United States.

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