North Korea may seek to detonate a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, the country’s foreign minister has told reporters, just hours after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to respond to a threat made by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Speaking to reporters in New York on Thursday night, Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said he did not know which action was being considered by Kim, but he added that the country could carry out a test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
“It could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific,” Ri said, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency. He provided no further details but added that he did not know exactly which measures were being considered, noting that they would be ordered by Kim.
Ri is in New York to address the United Nations on Friday or Saturday.
His comments came just hours after Kim Jong Un delivered a speech and vowed to respond to Trump, who threatened during a speech at the United Nations to “totally destroy” North Korea if it poses a direct threat to the U.S. or its allies.
“As a man representing the DPRK and on behalf of the dignity and honor of my state and people and on my own, I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK,” Kim said.
Kim added: “I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue. Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”
The suggestion of a H-bomb test comes just weeks after North Korea carried out its sixth and most advanced nuclear test to date. The country’s nuclear tests normally take place underground at a mountain in North Hamgyong province.
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