North Korea Detonates Nuclear Bomb And Launches Missile Over Japan

By Steve Bynum, Jerome McDonnell
South Korea’s Hyunmoo II ballistic missile is fired during an exercise at an undisclosed location in South Korea on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017.
South Korea's Hyunmoo II ballistic missile is fired during an exercise at an undisclosed location in South Korea on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. South Korea Defense Ministry via AP
South Korea’s Hyunmoo II ballistic missile is fired during an exercise at an undisclosed location in South Korea on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017.
South Korea's Hyunmoo II ballistic missile is fired during an exercise at an undisclosed location in South Korea on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. South Korea Defense Ministry via AP

North Korea Detonates Nuclear Bomb And Launches Missile Over Japan

By Steve Bynum, Jerome McDonnell
WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

North Korea’s state television claimed a successful detonation of what it called a hydrogen bomb on Sunday. It’s the country’s sixth nuclear test. The incident caused a magnitude-6.3 tremor. South Korea responded with a live-fire military exercise on Monday. And last week, North Korea launched a missile that flew over the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Applying pressure to North Korea’s allies, like China, President Donald Trump threatened in a tweet, “The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.” Russian President Vladimir Putin described the current sanctions regime against North Korea as “useless.”

We’ll talk about the region’s growing instability with Joseph Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, a nonprofit that works to reduce nuclear threats.