Japan on alert after Pyongyang hydrogen bomb test threat

September 22, 2017

TOKYO- The Japanese government said Friday it will be on strict alert for every eventuality, following North Korea's threat to detonate a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

The government will be fully prepared to respond to any situation even if the House of Representatives is dissolved for a snap election, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference in Tokyo.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reportedly planning to dissolve the lower chamber of parliament at the beginning of an extraordinary session expected to be convened on Thursday.

Suga made the comments after South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said in New York on Thursday that his country may conduct the largest test of a hydrogen bomb ever in the Pacific Ocean.

At a separate press conference in Tokyo, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said that if North Korea delivers a hydrogen bomb to the Pacific Ocean by a ballistic missile, the possibility that it will pass over Japan cannot be denied.

There may be some sort of experiment using a small nuclear device, Onodera said.

Suga criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's threat to consider the highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history against the United States.

The threat is "a clear challenge to security in the region and the international community and unacceptable," Suga said. Jiji Press