The Korean bomb

According to media reports, North Korea has claimed to have successfully detonated a thermonuclear weapon. The device, according to the North Korean state media, was a miniaturised hydrogen bomb. A thermonuclear device is lighter yet hundreds of times more powerful than nuclear bombs. This is why the world should really be worried by North Korean claims. The development poses a grave threat to international peace and security. This calls for launching urgent diplomatic efforts to rein in the Kim Jong-Un regime. But it is clear that in reaching such an advanced stage in its nuclear development, despite a raft of UN sanctions and the West’s attempts to isolate the secretive state, North Korea has again laid bare the limitations of the international community’s response.

In the Middle East, the world is grappling with the Saudi-Iran tension. Sectarian and regional rivalries can ignite a never-ending war if this sectarian conflagration is not handled carefully. It is these global crises that demand the UN to step in and play a more visible role in reining in the Korean regime on the one hand, and cooling tempers in the Middle East on the other.

Naila Mehsud

Peshawar