<p>North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb test on Wednesday has also rattled India, which has already been concerned over the reclusive communist country’s clandestine nuclear and missile cooperation with Pakistan.<br /><br /></p>.<p>India conveyed its “deep concern” over North Korea’s claim that it tested a thermonuclear weapon, which is also known as “Hydrogen Bomb” or “H-Bomb”. “It is a matter of deep concern that DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea) has again acted in violation of its international commitments in this regard,” Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, stated in New Delhi, just a few hours after Pyongyang claimed that it had tested the H-bomb.<br /><br />“We call upon DPRK to refrain from such actions which adversely impact on peace and stability in the region.”<br /><br />New Delhi said that it was assessing “available information, including claims (by North Korea) that it was “a thermonuclear test”. If what North Korea claimed comes out to be true, it will imply that Pyongyang has advanced nuclear technology and can produce weapons, which are energised by fusion of hydrogen isotopes, unlike atomic bombs, which rely on fission of uranium or plutonium. Officials told Deccan Herald here that if Pyongyang really had the advanced technology to produce thermonuclear weapons, it was “a matter of grave concern” for India, given the history of North Korea’s secret nuclear cooperation with Pakistan.<br /><br />“Our concerns about proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood are well known,” Swarup stated in New Delhi, underscoring India’s concerns over North Korea’s nuke ties with Pakistan.<br /><br />New Delhi suspects that the now-revealed Pyongyang-Islamabad secret defence cooperation, which in mid-1990s led to supply of Rodong Missiles and technology to Pakistan, is still continuing. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, was in 2003 found to have traded the know-how and technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea.<br /><br />Khan in 2011 made public documents in support of his claim that North Korea had bribed senior officials of the Pakistani Army and got them allow him to share nuclear technology and certain equipment with the pariah nation.<br /><br />India’s “Pokhran-II” nuke tests on May 11 and 13, 1998, had included a test on a 45 Kiloton thermonuclear device, which is known as a ‘Hydrogen Bomb’ in common parlance. <br /><br />Late president A P J Abdul Kalam, who as the director-general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation played the lead role in the “Pokhran-II”, had in 2009 told a news agency that the 1998 test had been successful and the “design-yield of the thermonuclear device” had been obtained.<br /><br />Speculation has been rife over Pakistan’s efforts for further advancing its nuclear technology, including its pursuit for a H-bomb to match the thermonuclear capability of India.<br /> </p>
<p>North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb test on Wednesday has also rattled India, which has already been concerned over the reclusive communist country’s clandestine nuclear and missile cooperation with Pakistan.<br /><br /></p>.<p>India conveyed its “deep concern” over North Korea’s claim that it tested a thermonuclear weapon, which is also known as “Hydrogen Bomb” or “H-Bomb”. “It is a matter of deep concern that DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea) has again acted in violation of its international commitments in this regard,” Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, stated in New Delhi, just a few hours after Pyongyang claimed that it had tested the H-bomb.<br /><br />“We call upon DPRK to refrain from such actions which adversely impact on peace and stability in the region.”<br /><br />New Delhi said that it was assessing “available information, including claims (by North Korea) that it was “a thermonuclear test”. If what North Korea claimed comes out to be true, it will imply that Pyongyang has advanced nuclear technology and can produce weapons, which are energised by fusion of hydrogen isotopes, unlike atomic bombs, which rely on fission of uranium or plutonium. Officials told Deccan Herald here that if Pyongyang really had the advanced technology to produce thermonuclear weapons, it was “a matter of grave concern” for India, given the history of North Korea’s secret nuclear cooperation with Pakistan.<br /><br />“Our concerns about proliferation links between North East Asia and our neighbourhood are well known,” Swarup stated in New Delhi, underscoring India’s concerns over North Korea’s nuke ties with Pakistan.<br /><br />New Delhi suspects that the now-revealed Pyongyang-Islamabad secret defence cooperation, which in mid-1990s led to supply of Rodong Missiles and technology to Pakistan, is still continuing. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, was in 2003 found to have traded the know-how and technology with Iran, Libya and North Korea.<br /><br />Khan in 2011 made public documents in support of his claim that North Korea had bribed senior officials of the Pakistani Army and got them allow him to share nuclear technology and certain equipment with the pariah nation.<br /><br />India’s “Pokhran-II” nuke tests on May 11 and 13, 1998, had included a test on a 45 Kiloton thermonuclear device, which is known as a ‘Hydrogen Bomb’ in common parlance. <br /><br />Late president A P J Abdul Kalam, who as the director-general of the Defence Research and Development Organisation played the lead role in the “Pokhran-II”, had in 2009 told a news agency that the 1998 test had been successful and the “design-yield of the thermonuclear device” had been obtained.<br /><br />Speculation has been rife over Pakistan’s efforts for further advancing its nuclear technology, including its pursuit for a H-bomb to match the thermonuclear capability of India.<br /> </p>
