The updates about North Korea and what the country’s leader claims in a statement was the testing of their first successful hydrogen bomb are flowing into social media quickly on Wednesday, January 6. According to Twitter, North Korea is one of the top trending topics, with 213,000 tweets appearing on the social media platform recently.
What’s next after North Korea’s ‘H-bomb’ test https://t.co/kARzFC8f8D
— TIME (@TIME) January 6, 2016
North Korea issued a statement calling their first hydrogen bomb test successful, and called the U.S. a “gang of cruel robbers” in the wake of the bomb test, as reported by the Independent . North Korea explained in their statement that nuclear war could start in the Korean Peninsula because of what they call the U.S.’ economic sanctions and other isolating actions against North Korea due to differing ideologies.
“The U.S. is a gang of cruel robbers which has worked hard to bring even a nuclear disaster to the DPRK, not content with having imposed the thrice-cursed and unheard-of political isolation, economic blockade and military pressure on it for the mere reason that it has differing ideology and social system and refuses to yield to the former’s ambition for aggression.
“The Korean Peninsula and its vicinity are turning into the world’s biggest hotspot where a nuclear war may break out since they have been constantly stormed with all nuclear strike means of the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops, including nuclear carrier strike group and nuclear strategic flying corps. While kicking up all forms of economic sanctions and conspiratorial ‘human rights’ racket against the DPRK with mobilization of the hostile forces, the US has made desperate efforts to block its building of a thriving nation and improvement of the people’s living standard and ‘bring down its social system.’”
Despite North Korea’s claim that their first hydrogen bomb test was successful in their statement, experts are calling it a failure. As reported by the Daily Mail , the 5.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred in the wake of the hydrogen bomb test was too small for the explosion to be deemed successful.
Meanwhile, the Strait Times reports that Japan has sent planes to test the atmosphere and any radioactive materials released in the wake of North Korea’s claimed hydrogen bomb test . Either way, the UN Security Council plans to meet in order to decide how it will respond to North Korea and the bomb test proclamations. The White House has not confirmed the claim from North Korea that a hydrogen bomb was successfully tested.
Latest on North Korea H-bomb test: EU calls on North Korea to cease “illegal and dangerous behavior” https://t.co/M5mUuBz5WT
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 6, 2016
The tests of the alleged hydrogen bomb came two days prior to North Korea leader Kim Jong Un’s birthday. It showed up as a strange tremor near North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site. The claims coming out of Pyongyang over the thermonuclear weapon test are being met with skepticism, but the 5.1 magnitude earthquake could be felt for miles away from the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
The center of the earthquake that resulted from the alleged North Korean bomb test falls 30 miles away from Kilju, in the northeastern part of North Korea. In South Korea, soldiers began patrolling the border of North Korea and South Korea. If North Korea’s surprise hydrogen bomb test claims are true, experts call it a huge leap forward in the country’s capabilities to test their limited arsenal.
The action by North Korea is being condemned around the world and being called another act of defiance by North Korea. As a result, Beijing is expected to agree with new United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
On Twitter, releated search terms such as “ North Korea ISIS ” and “ North Korea U.S. ” prove that searchers want to get to the bottom of North Korea’s rationale for claims of their bomb test.
Still others want proof that a hydrogen bomb test was conducted, and as such, the search terms “ North Korea video ” and “ North Korea earthquake ” are also being reported.
(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
