{{U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts warned North Korea against any “provocative” moves Sunday ahead of a possible new nuclear bomb test by Pyongyang.}}<\/p>\n
In a round of calls Sunday, Kerry, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s Kim Sung-hwan all agreed the North must understand “that it will face significant consequences from the international community if it continues its provocative behavior,” according to a summary of the calls from the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n
Earlier Sunday, North Korea announced that its leader, Kim Jong Un, “has made an important decision” that would strengthen the country.<\/p>\n
The brief statement on the state-run news agency KCNA provided no details, but it said the decision was made at a meeting of the reclusive Stalinist state’s Party Central Military Committee.<\/p>\n
Across the Demilitarized Zone, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called on his government to be prepared for a possible test.<\/p>\n
Lee paid a visit to the underground bunker that serves as the South’s crisis management center, his press office reported.<\/p>\n
North Korea has conducted two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, and proclaimed itself a “nuclear state” in 2012. U.S. officials told CNN last week that the North appeared to be ready test another nuclear device “at any time.”<\/p>\n
U.S. analysts believe the 2006 test had a yield of about 1 kiloton — comparable to the explosive power of about 1,000 tons of TNT — while the second was roughly 2 kilotons, National Intelligence Director James Clapper told a Senate committee in 2012.<\/p>\n
By comparison, the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 was roughly 15 kilotons.<\/p>\n
CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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