A New Global Threat

Announcing its first hydrogen bomb test this week, the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Un has unleashed a new and worrisome risk to the international community. It remains to be seen whether it was indeed an H-bomb; according to experts, early indicators suggest a skeptical position should be adopted because the release of energy in the explosion was too weak.

But even if this is the case, all of the signs suggest that an improved atomic bomb represents a leap forward in North Korean nuclear technology. As such, it is a new attempt by the Kim dynasty to increase the pressure on the U.S. and South Korea, and consequently to try to secure economic concessions. In order to return to the negotiating table, Pyongyang needs the United States to recognize it as a nuclear power, something that Washington adamantly refuses to do.

The international community has spent more than 20 years trying to curb the nuclear ambitions of North Korea. The agreement that President Clinton achieved in 1994 was broken years later amid suspicion that Pyongyang was not fulfilling its commitment to freeze its plutonium production program while receiving financial aid. Successive attempts to strengthen this position with sanctions, including pressure by the United Nations Security Council, have not achieved results, and North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has continued to grow and improve.

Now the danger of a regime systematically focused on resorting to threats for its survival could have serious security consequences in the Asia-Pacific. In this region, China’s strength and the rivalry between Beijing and Washington are already driving increased investment in armaments. South Korea President Park Geun-hye, who has yet to decide if her country will accept the offer of an anti-missile shield by the U.S., has already warned at a meeting of its National Security Council that confirmation of the North Korean announcement “could potentially change the security landscape in Northeast Asia and fundamentally change the nature of the North Korean nuclear threat.”

Against this obvious danger to the security of Asia and the rest of the world, the United States and China — Beijing has much greater ability in this regard, and therefore, more responsibility — need to find an effective formula that does not fall for Pyongyang’s blackmail, and that forces it to accept the principle of denuclearization in exchange for economic cooperation. North Korea is not Iran, but it would be irresponsible not to address this challenge and the dangers associated with it.