By Robert Steven Ingebo

On 09/03/2017, North Korea said it conducted its largest nuclear test so far. In a televised statement, North Korea described the underground explosion as a “perfect success in the test of a hydrogen bomb for an ICBM.” Pyongyang said “the operation of the nuclear warhead is fully guaranteed.”

Kim Young-woo, a South Korean lawmaker who is chairman of the legislature’s defense committee, and who was briefed by his military, said that the latest nuclear test was estimated to have a yield of as high as 100 kilotons — about 10 times the power of the North’s previous test.

In response, South Korea’s national security adviser, after a 90-minute emergency meeting of the National Security Council Chung Eui-yong, said that Seoul would consider the possible deployment of what he described as the “most powerful strategic assets that the U.S. possesses.” The term “strategic assets” means the use of stealth bombers, aircraft carriers or possibly nuclear weapons.

How big a threat is this to the safety of the U.S.? Analysts have been divided on whether North Korea could shrink a nuclear warhead to fit on the tip of a missile. Many also remain skeptical about whether a North Korean warhead can survive the strain of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

However, in an earlier statement on 09/03/2017, North Korea claimed it had already mastered the ability to mount a hydrogen bomb atop a long-range missile.

Mr. Kim was quoted as saying that all of the components of its hydrogen bomb were homemade, insulating the nuclear weapons program from sanctions and “enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons, as many as it wants.” The bomb’s explosive power has a range of up to hundreds of kilotons, the North Korean report said.

This new nuclear test comes after the U.S. president’s warning that “fire and fury” would befall North Korea if it continued to threaten the US.

President Trump’s warning appeared to have deterred Kim Jong Un from following through on his plan to fire missiles near Guam, a strategic US military base.

But then on 08/26, North Korea conducted its most provocative ballistic missile test to date. The missile flew over one of Japan’s northern islands and landed in the sea, flying a total distance of nearly 1,700 miles.

On 09/03/2017, it carried out its most ambitious nuclear test, a thermonuclear device.

On Sunday morning, President Trump responded to the nuclear test by blaming it on the South Korean government, saying that Seoul’s policy of “appeasement” has failed.

“South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!" Trump tweeted.

Moon, who was elected in May, has cautioned against threatening a pre-emptive attack against North Korea and insisted that South Korea, which would almost certainly bear the brunt of a response, would have to be consulted before major military action.

President Trump also lashed out at China, saying North Korea has become a "great threat and embarrassment” to Beijing.

The U.S. pundits and diplomats have been unable to grasp the fact that China’s government is no friend of the United States because it is a communist state. It is against all democracies, and the U.S. is the most powerful one in the world, therefore, the Chinese have no reason to help the U.S.

Additionally, the Chinese don’t want to see North Korea fail because:

1. The entire peninsula could quickly be replaced by a South Korean democracy backed by the United States military. Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, would become the new capital of the entire peninsula, and Communism would be overthrown. The prospect of a new, powerful democracy filled with U.S. military bases dominating the entire peninsula would be a direct threat to the Chinese government.

2. Many North Koreans would leave their country and travel across the Yalu River into China. Add them to the several million ethnic Koreans already there and the Chinese government would have a huge assimilation problem. Compounding the problem is the fact that this area is close to the growing middle class in Beijing, and it would be much more challenging for the Chinese government to contain reports of repression. Chinese-Koreans would also have a large influence in the new, larger Korea.

These facts clearly explain why the Chinese government is not going to help the U.S. rein in North Korea. Because the Chinese are ideologically opposed to the U.S., it is logical to assume that they desire the North Koreans to continue to be a thorn in the side of the U.S., South Korea and Japan.

The U.S. government must act because of three statements made by the North Korean dictator.

1. On 07/04/2017, North Korea vowed to “turn the U.S. into a pile of ash” if Donald Trump tried to curb the nation’s nuclear ambitions by force. North Korea’s vow was declared after Kim Jong Un’s regime launched what it claimed was an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the West Coast of America.

2. On 08/30/2017, Kim Jong Un renewed his vow to never stop his nuclear weapons program.

3. Just before North Korea’s nuclear test on 09/03, Mr. Kim threatened to detonate a nuclear device at a high altitude above the U.S. The detonation could emit a brief but powerful electromagnetic signal capable of disrupting swaths of the U.S. electrical grid, experts say.

The Trump administration is taking these threats seriously. Kim Jong Un has given the U.S. government every reason to believe that his military will continue advancing its nuclear ICBM missile technology regardless of diplomacy, sanctions or regime change.

Because of Kim Jong Un’s threats to the U.S. and his recent behavior, when the Pentagon believes that the North Korean dictator is capable of striking major cities in the United States with a nuclear ICBM, or capable of detonating a nuclear warhead at a high altitude above the U.S., it will recommend to the White house that the U.S. military must take out North Korean’s nuclear capability by force.

This article was written by Robert Steven Ingebo, president of FRI corporation.