SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea marked its birthday on Friday with a bang: an underground nuclear test that shook the Earth in the country’s remote northeast just after 9 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. Thursday EDT).
The test is North Korea’s fifth illicit nuclear test since 2006, and its second this year. The concern abroad is that with every test, North Korea hones and improves its nuclear technology. Indeed, on Friday, North Korea claimed in its state media to have tested a nuclear warhead, meaning Pyongyang may now be able to mount an atomic weapon on a ballistic missile designed to strike the United States in what would be a significant, and threatening, development.
It also is the latest in a string of provocations ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has made ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs his calling card.
Just days earlier, Kim presided over the launch of three ballistic missiles test-fired on Monday off North Korea’s east coast. Those launches appeared timed to catch the attention of world leaders gathered in Asia this week for two global gatherings: the Group of 20 summit held in Hangzhou, China, just across the border, and the East Asia Summit in Laos.
The provocations are a snub to international pacts banning North Korea from missile and nuclear activity — and a warning to the region that its defiance must not be ignored. With every launch and test, North Korea improves and hones its technology for mounting a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missiles designed to strike US territory, raising the threat to global security and concerns about nuclear proliferation.
But the missile and nuclear activity has a domestic purpose, as well.
North Korea’s young leader, five years into his reign, is still working to solidify and legitimize his place as the third Kim in his family to rule the reclusive nation of 24 million people. It is no coincidence that this year’s nuclear tests took place on or near significant days in North Korea: the first took just days before Kim Jong Un’s Jan. 8 birthday, an unofficial holiday. Today’s suspected test takes place on Sept. 9 th, the day modern North Korea was founded by his grandfather, the late President Kim Il Sung.
Kim Jong Un’s propagandists have sought to make a direct link between grandfather and grandson to legitimize the rule of a young man North Koreans knew little about until his succession campaign began seven years ago.
They have also worked to cement the young Kim’s place in North Korean history with milestone events this year, including the first Workers’ Party Congress in 36 years, held in May. At that Party Congress, Kim called for a 200-day “speed campaign” to motivate the people — construction workers, factory girls, scientists — to perform and deliver during a 6 1/2-month period.
[READ: Decoding North Korea’s Propaganda Paintings]
North Korea’s nuclear scientists were no doubt under immense pressure to come up with a big cause for celebration on this day that North Korea became a modern republic, presided over by his grandfather. The news should appear today on state TV broadcasts that every North Korean (those with a TV and electricity, anyhow) with an aim of instilling in them a sense of pride. And the test, advertised as a show of force against the United States, will be heralded on banners, posters and in slogans for months to come.
North Korea’s regime is in sore need of a political pick-me-up right now. Sanctions imposed by the United Nations and by other governments have targeted the flow of hard currency into North Korea. That, in turn, may has prompted a series of defections among the elites in recent months, including a well-connected deputy ambassador to North Korea’s embassy in London. The defections are not only an embarrassment to the regime but a worrying sign for the leadership of growing discontent among the ruling class that helps keep its political system intact.
Friday’s nuclear test will be treated at home as a major victory for North Korea and Kim Jong Un: a scientific advancement as well as another weapon in its defense arsenal. The regime knows its provocations will earn global condemnation, and that censure will fit into the narrative fed to the people that Kim is protecting his people from outside enmity.
For regional powers, the challenge will be to find a way to answer the provocation forcefully without igniting a dangerous confrontation. World leaders will be huddling to discuss how to further punish North Korea when sanctions have done little to deter Pyongyang from building nuclear weapons, and how to contain the growing threat to global security and nuclear proliferation.
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Reports of North Korea Nuclear Test Play To a Home Audience originally appeared on usnews.com
