WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 6 (DPI) – The North Korean regime once again detonated a nuclear device, heightening fears that the isolated rogue state, as it claimed, figured out a way to create and test a hydrogen bomb. But as US and South Korean observers ruled out such a bomb as the source of Kim Jung Un’s latest roar, comment boards today generated remarkably insightful commentary on the incident and its broader political fallout.

In fact, one comment in particular – attached to The New York Times’s news story on the incident today – zeroed in on a central question: Why does China allow the unstable and unpredictable North Korean regime to continue to exist – and to threaten and blackmail the civilized world?

This comment, by a poster who goes by the name “Satire & Sarcasm,” answered it succinctly:

North Korea’s leadership has gone off the rails. A true H-bomb explosion would have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of North Koreans, South Koreans, and Chinese. Yet North Korea’s leadership doesn’t see this as a problem.

China doesn’t want to lean on North Korea too heavily because
– it doesn’t want tens of thousands of North Korean refugees pouring over its border
– it doesn’t want a united, democratic Korea on its border
– it doesn’t want to do anything that might be in the interests of the United States
– it doesn’t want American soldiers stationed on its border
China has to be convinced that eliminating North Korea’s current leadership is in its best interest … and that doing so shows China is a true world leader. There’s not much you can do to address the first three bullets, but as for the fourth bullet, tell China that once Korea has been unified, there will be no need for American troops in Korea and they’ll all come home. Or at least guarantee that, should they stay, they’ll never advance beyond the 38th parallel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/world/asia/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-claim-reactions.html

Well obviously the DPRK’s claim of testing a hydrogen bomb is a lie. The first U.S. hydrogen bomb test, in 1954, yielded the energy of 15 megatons of TNT, and created a fireball four and a half miles across in one second. It also significantly irradiated pretty much everything to the horizon. If the DPRK had really tested a hydrogen bomb in their territory, it would have destroyed a good chunk of their country and left most of the rest uninhabitable. And the nuclear firecracker they set off had a yield of about half of one thousandth of a real hydrogen bomb. Still, their nuclear brinksmanship just goes to show that the country must be absorbed by either China or South Korea at some point, it can’t be left independent. Luckily China will not allow it to cause a nuclear war with the U.S., because China doesn’t want the fallout and millions of refugees. I believe if the DPRK ever actually launched a nuclear missile, not only would it fail (nearly all their missiles fail), but China would crush their government and conquer the country with conventional weapons, rather than let the U.S. turn it into a large cloud of radioactive dust.