The ministry said signs that North Korea was “preparing for another ballistic missile launch have consistently been detected since Sunday’s test”, referring to Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test.

It did not give details, or indicate when a launch might take place.

Sunday’s blast had a strength of 50 kilotons, defence ministry officials told a parliamentary briefing.

Pyongyang on Sunday triggered global alarm with by far its most powerful test to date, after it claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted onto a long-range missile, which analysts say is a major advancement in its nuclear programme.

“The explosive power of the North’s nuclear test is estimated to be 50 kilotons,” a senior ministry official told lawmakers at an emergency parliamentary briefing.

That would make it five times the size of the North’s previous test in September last year, and more than three times bigger than the US device that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

The official did not confirm whether the tested device was a hydrogen bomb but said “a variety of nuclear material” appeared to have been used.

The North – which in July carried out two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches that apparently brought much of the US mainland into range – has rapidly made progress with its weapons programme in defiance of seven sets of UN sanctions.//AFP

In the release, the Daily confirmed the newspaper would shut down over a $6.3 million tax dispute with the Cambodian government, a dispute that representatives and observers have condemned as being political in nature.

“The power to tax is the power to destroy. And after 24 years and 15 days, the Cambodian government has destroyed The Cambodia Daily, a special and singular part of Cambodia’s free press,” the statement reads.

The press release acknowledged the possibility of a “legitimate” dispute, but accused the Cambodian government of making “unfounded and defamatory” statements and handling the situation illegally and unprofessionally.

“The Daily has been targeted with an astronomical tax assessment, leaks and false statements by the tax department and public vilification by the head of government before an audit, much less a legal proceeding,” the release continues.

“On Monday, the Daily’s service to the Cambodian people will end. We want to thank … our staff, who have fought fiercely and courageously to report All the News Without Fear or Favor,” the statement concludes.

An article in the Korea Herald said that the test brings North Korea closer to becoming a full-fledged nuclear state.

“With Sunday’s nuclear test, North Korea is seen drawing increasingly closer to becoming a full-  fledged nuclear weapons state, which would further unsettle Northeast Asia’s geopolitical   landscape and may escalate risks of a military standoff.

State media said the test was designed to chiefly examine the technology to adjust the explosive power of a hydrogen bomb to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. As a result, it proved the high reliability of the device’s mutually reinforcing fission-fusion reactions.”

The Herald in a separate article said that the United States and South Korea had agreed to most powerful sanctions against North Korea after the tests.

“Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had 25-minute talks to discuss countermeasures after North Korea earlier in the day conducted what it called a successful test of a hydrogen bomb that can be mounted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Tillerson affirmed that the US will place the strongest-ever sanctions on North Korea based on its alliance with South Korea.”

The Japan News reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joined calls for tougher sanctions against the North calling the tests ‘totally unacceptable.’

“In a statement issued after the meeting, Abe said, “[The test] is totally unacceptable for Japan,” noting that the U.N. Security Council has repeatedly condemned the North’s ballistic missile launches this year. The prime minister said Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile development has reached “a new stage of threat to Japan’s security with even more severity and urgency.”

Meanwhile, an editorial in China Daily asks what comes next after the nuclear test noting that the international community has in the past failed to show a united front when dealing with Pyongyang.

“It’s high time, therefore, that the DPRK realized the devastating consequences of using that space to further its missile/nuclear programs and the stakeholders considered Pyongyang’s genuine needs, especially food and national security, because whatever nonpublic concerns they may have, all the stakeholders share one genuine, and growing, concern: the threat those programs pose to them, the region and beyond. If they do not work together to check the DPRK now, they will find it increasingly difficult to do so as time passes by, because Pyongyang will not stop doing what it believes is safe to do.”

The Prime Minister took to Twitter to call for a holistic approach in dealing with the recent flare-up of violence in the area. “We echo the @UN ’s Sec-Gen’s call for Myanmar’s security forces to seek holistic approaches towards addressing the crisis in Rakhine state. “We urge for calm and restraint. The dire situation facing our Rohingya brothers and sisters must be alleviated for good of Myanmar & region,” he tweeted on Sunday. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Friday warned of a looming humanitarian crisis in western Myanmar following the violence. “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the reports of excesses during the security operations conducted by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine state and urges restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe,” said a UN spokesman.  Guterres said it was the government’s responsibility to provide security and allow aid agencies to reach those in need.The violence erupted following attacks by militants on police posts and an army base on Aug 25, which prompted a major counter-offensive that reportedly killed around 400 people, mostly Rohingya.The UN estimated that 38,000 people had sought refuge in Bangladesh while another 20,000 were amassing along its border, barred from entering the country.

All eyes will be on In­done­sia, which in spite of its con­tin­ued en­gage­ment and his­toric affin­ity to Myan­mar, will still have to prove whether it has enough lever­age to re­solve a multi-faceted prob­lem that has per­sisted through­out many years with­out reach­ing a so­lu­tion to the state­less­ness of the Ro­hingya Mus­lim mi­nor­ity.

Likely goaded by pres­sure from within the coun­try and abroad, Pres­i­dent Joko “Jokowi” Wi­dodo fi­nally broke his si­lence on the re­cent vi­o­lence in Rakhine, as­sert­ing the need to help vic­tims of vi­o­lence and dis­place­ment in a coun­try un­der­go­ing a tran­si­tion to­ward democ­racy.

The most re­cent cy­cle of vi­o­lence, al­legedly in­sti­gated by Ro­hingya mil­i­tants and wors­ened by a mil­i­tary counter-op­er­a­tion last month, has re­sulted in nearly 400 deaths and pushed some 38,000 Ro­hingya to flee across the bor­der into neigh­bor­ing Bangladesh.

Dur­ing an evening press con­fer­ence that fol­lowed For­eign Min­is­ter Retno LP Mar­sudi’s de­par­ture to Myan­mar ear­lier that day, Jokowi said the sit­u­a­tion in Rakhine re­quired real ac­tion and not just empty con­dem­na­tion to help the dis­placed peo­ples.

“All of In­done­sia and I deeply re­gret the vi­o­lent acts that are hap­pen­ing in Rakhine state,” Jokowi told a press con­fer­ence at the State Palace. “The gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to help in this hu­man­i­tar­ian cri­sis [and] to work to­gether with civil so­ci­eties in In­done­sia and [with the] in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity.”

The Pres­i­dent said In­done­sia sent 10 con­tain­ers of food and med­i­cal aid in Jan­uary and Fe­bru­ary. The gov­ern­ment also built a num­ber of schools in Rakhine and is ex­pected to start build­ing a hos­pi­tal next month.

“This af­ter­noon [Sun­day], the for­eign min­is­ter left for Myan­mar to re­quest that [the Myan­mar] gov­ern­ment stop and pre­vent any more vi­o­lence, while also giv­ing pro­tec­tion to its peo­ple, in­clud­ing Mus­lims in Myan­mar, and pro­vide them ac­cess to hu­man­i­tar­ian aid,” Jokowi said.

In her high­est pro­file diplo­matic peace mis­sion to date, Retno will be the first for­eign min­is­ter of any coun­try to en­ter Myan­mar and speak di­rectly with the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties on the Rakhine cri­sis. The min­is­ter is sure to meet Myan­mar State Coun­sel­lor Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyi­daw on Mon­day, with whom last year she had can­did con­ver­sa­tions on the mat­ter. She is also hop­ing to meet with De­fense Min­is­ter Sr. Gen. U Min Aung Hlaing, the min­is­ter of the Pres­i­den­tial Of­fice, U Kyaw Tint Swe, and Na­tional Se­cu­rity ad­vi­sor U Thaung Tun.

“My visit to Myan­mar car­ries with it the will of the In­done­sian peo­ple, so that we may aid in the hu­man­i­tar­ian cri­sis, while also com­mu­ni­cat­ing the will of the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity so that the cri­sis is quickly re­solved.” she told re­porters ear­lier on Sun­day.

The min­is­ter has also been asked to com­mu­ni­cate with Bangladeshi au­thor­i­ties to over­see prepa­ra­tions for more hu­man­i­tar­ian aid to be sent next week for the refugees who crossed into the South Asian coun­try.

In the world’s largest Mus­lim­ma­jor­ity na­tion, pub­lic opin­ion on the Rakhine is­sue has po­lar­ized in re­cent weeks. Amid the mount­ing rage over the vi­o­lence against the Ro­hingya, a Molo­tov cock­tail was thrown at the Myan­mar Em­bassy in Cen­tral Jakarta on Sun­day at 2:35 a.m.

The gaso­line bomb caused a small fire on the ter­race of the em­bassy, which was later ex­tin­guished by the po­lice. Of­fi­cers later found a shat­tered bot­tle with a wick at­tached to it. Po­lice could not make out how many peo­ple were in­volved. Jakarta Po­lice spokesman Sr. Commr. Argo Yu­wono said the po­lice had ques­tioned six wit­nesses and that of­fi­cers were check­ing CCTV footage. The Ge­gana bomb squad will be de­ployed to se­cure the em­bassy, Argo said.

While the con­text of the at­tack was ap­par­ently clear, the po­lice still could not ab­so­lutely con­clude the at­tack was re­lated to vi­o­lence against Ro­hingya Mus­lims.

In­done­sian In­sti­tute of Sciences (LIPI) re­searcher Sandy Nur Ik­fal said the pub­lic should be more aware of the struc­tural as­pects of the cri­sis, which boil down to com­pe­ti­tion and dis­crim­i­na­tive poli­cies.

“The re­li­gion card has been a main con­cern of mass or­ga­ni­za­tions [in In­done­sia]. It is not com­pletely wrong, but the is­sue would be bet­ter framed as a hu­man­i­tar­ian cri­sis and that ev­ery­one should be pro­tected, what­ever their race or be­liefs,” Sandy said on Sun­day.

Myan­mar urged Mus­lims in the trou­bled north­west to co­op­er­ate in the search for in­sur­gents, whose co­or­di­nated at­tacks on se­cu­rity posts and an army crack­down have led to one of the dead­li­est bouts of vi­o­lence to en­gulf the Ro­hingya com­mu­nity in decades.

Aid agen­cies es­ti­mate about 73,000 Ro­hingya have fled into neigh­bor­ing Bangladesh from Myan­mar since vi­o­lence erupted last week, Vi­vian Tan, re­gional spokes­woman for UN refugee agency United Na­tions High Com­mi­sioner fo Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters on Sun­day.

Hun­dreds more refugees on Sun­day walked through rice pad­dies from the Naf river sep­a­rat­ing the two coun­tries into Bangladesh, strain­ing scarce re­sources of aid groups and lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties al­ready help­ing tens of thou­sands.

The clashes and mil­i­tary coun­terof­fen­sive have killed nearly 400 peo­ple dur­ing the past week.

The treat­ment of Bud­dhist­ma­jor­ity Myan­mar’s roughly 1.1 mil­lion Mus­lim Ro­hingya is the big­gest chal­lenge fac­ing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ac­cused by Western crit­ics of not speak­ing out for the mi­nor­ity that has long com­plained of per­se­cu­tion.

Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Tayyip Er­do­gan said on Fri­day that vi­o­lence against Mus­lims amounted to geno­cide.

It marks a dra­matic es­ca­la­tion of a con­flict that has sim­mered since Oc­to­ber, when a smaller Ro­hingya at­tack on se­cu­rity posts prompted a mil­i­tary re­sponse dogged by al­le­ga­tions of rights abuses.

“Is­lamic vil­lagers in north­ern Maungtaw have been urged over loud­speak­ers to co­op­er­ate when se­cu­rity forces search for Arakan Ro­hingya Sal­va­tion Army [ARSA] ex­trem­ist ter­ror­ists, and not to pose a threat or bran­dish weapons when se­cu­rity forces en­ter their vil­lages,” the state-run Global New Light of Myan­mar said on Sun­day.

ARSA has been de­clared a ter­ror­ist or­ga­ni­za­tion by the gov­ern­ment. The group claimed re­spon­si­bil­ity for co­or­di­nated at­tacks on se­cu­rity posts last week.

In Maungni vil­lage in north­ern Rakhine, vil­lagers ear­lier this week caught two ARSA mem­bers and handed them over to the au­thor­i­ties, the news­pa­per added.

The army wrote in a Face­book post on Sun­day that Ro­hingya in­sur­gents had set fires to monas­ter­ies, im­ages of Bud­dha as well as schools and houses in north­ern Rakhine.

More than 200 build­ings, in­clud­ing houses and shops, were de­stroyed across sev­eral vil­lages, the army said.

While Myan­mar of­fi­cials blamed the ARSA for the burn­ing of the homes, Ro­hingya flee­ing to Bangladesh and hu­man rights watch­ers say a cam­paign of ar­son and killings by the army is aimed at try­ing to force the mi­nor­ity group out.

More than 11,700 “eth­nic res­i­dents” had been evac­u­ated from north­ern Rakhine, the gov­ern­ment has said, re­fer­ring to non-Mus­lims.

In Bangladesh, au­thor­i­ties said at least 53 bod­ies of Ro­hingya had ei­ther been found float­ing in the Naf river or washed up on the beach in the past week, as tens of thou­sands con­tinue to try to flee the vi­o­lence

The comments from defense secretary Jim Mattis came after President Donald Trump called an emergency meeting of his national security advisers to discuss what was an unexpectedly powerful nuclear test said to exceed in magnitude the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

Mattis told reporters: “Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming.

“We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea. But as I said, we have many options to do so,” he added.

Trump had earlier denounced the test, tweeting that the time for “appeasement” was over and threatening drastic economic sanctions, including “stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.”

US monitors measured a powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake near the North’s main testing site, felt as far as parts of China, with an aftershock possibly caused by the collapse of a tunnel at the site.

Seoul reacts

The North hailed its test of what it described as a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile as “a perfect success.”

Pyongyang residents celebrated as a jubilant television newsreader hailed the “unprecedentedly large” blast; she said it had moved the country closer to “the final goal of completing the state nuclear force.”

Neighboring South Korea reacted by conducting a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on the North’s nuclear site, state news agency Yonhap reported, hitting “designated targets in the East Sea” with missiles and F-15K fighter jets.

The South’s military said the range to the simulated targets were equivalent to the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site in its northeastern province.

The exercise came after South Korean President Moon Jae-In, once an advocate of dialogue with the North, called for the “strongest punishment,” joining a chorus of international condemnation of Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test including from China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the test “torpedoes the global non-proliferation regime, violates UN Security Council resolutions” and threatens regional peace, while adding, in a phone call to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, that the crisis “should be resolved only by political and diplomatic means.”

And UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the test as “profoundly destabilizing,” while the Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday.

‘Cut off North Korea’

Hours before the test, the North released images of Kim at his country’s Nuclear Weapons Institute, inspecting the device it called a “thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power” entirely made “by our own efforts and technology,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.

A series of US and United Nations-backed sanctions seem to have had little effect on Pyongyang.

But US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday his department was preparing potent new measures that would “cut off North Korea economically.”

“I’m going to draft a sanctions package and send it to the president for his strong consideration that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them will be prevented from doing trade or business with us,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

While the United States has virtually no trade with the North, the burden of sanctions such as Mnuchin described would fall heavily on China, which buys about 90 percent of North Korean exports.

In Seoul, President Moon Jae-In called for new United Nations sanctions to “completely isolate North Korea.” He said the South would discuss deploying “the strongest strategic assets of the US military” — a possible reference to tactical nuclear weapons, which the US withdrew from South Korea in 1991.

Tremor felt in China, Russia

While US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke by phone with his Asian counterparts, US and South Korean military chiefs also conferred.

Seoul’s defense ministry said the respective chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff — General Jeong Kyeong-Doo and General Joseph Dunford — had “agreed to prepare a South Korea-US military counteraction and to put it into action at the earliest date.”

South Korean experts said the tremor near the North’s main test site was five to six times stronger than that from a 10-kiloton test a year ago.

Pyongyang raised tensions in July with two successful tests of an ICBM which apparently brought much of the US mainland within range.

Last week, it fired a missile over Japan.

Jeffrey Lewis of website armscontrolwonk said Sunday’s blast clearly was “a staged thermonuclear weapon,” representing a significant advance.

Trump has warned Pyongyang that it faces “fire and fury” and that Washington’s weapons are “locked and loaded.”

But even some Trump advisers say US military options are limited when Pyongyang has the capacity to quickly wipe out much of the South Korean capital Seoul.

Analysts believe Pyongyang’s weapons program is aimed both at self-defense and strengthening its hand in any negotiations with the United States.

“North Korea will continue with their nuclear weapons program unless the US proposes talks,” Koo Kab-Woo of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

The BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — had gathered in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen hoping to counter accusations that the group of big emerging economies was drifting apart and becoming irrelevant.

But North Korea stole the spotlight on Sunday by announcing it had detonated a powerful hydrogen bomb and claiming it could fit the device on a long-range missile, dramatically raising the stakes in its standoff with the world.

The nuclear test came just before Xi took the stage for a pre-BRICS address in Xiamen, timing that seemed deliberate and will doubt angered Beijing, which swiftly condemned the explosion.

The summit includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Brazil’s Michel Temer and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma.

BRICS was already struggling to live down doubts about its own cohesion that have spiked since nuclear-armed China and India engaged in a protracted standoff over a disputed Himalayan region.

They backed off last week — perhaps to avoid ruining the summit — but the issue remains tense and eyes will be on the interplay between Modi and Xi on Monday.

In his speech Sunday, Xi stressed the need for BRICS members to show mutual respect and “avoid conflicts” but otherwise did not mention the border dispute.

BRICS nations, who comprise more than 40 per cent of humanity, came together a decade ago to advocate for the developing world’s interests.

But policy analysts have increasingly questioned the group’s relevance, pointing out that its members have little in common and face various economic challenges.

Xi alluded to these questions in his speech.

“Some people, seeing that emerging markets and developing countries have experienced growth setbacks, assert that BRICS countries are losing their lustre,” he said, admitting the group’s members faced various “headwinds”.

BRICS includes Communist-ruled China, authoritarian Russia and the democracies of India, Brazil and South Africa.

China remains an economic powerhouse, though a slowing one, while India is rising. But slumping commodity prices have hit hard the economies of exporters Russia, Brazil and South Africa.

Brazil’s Temer and South Africa’s Zuma, meanwhile, are distracted by political turmoil at home.

Perhaps the BRICS’ biggest success has been the 2016 establishment of the Shanghai-based New Development Bank, envisioned as the developing world’s World Bank, but many economists doubt it will be influential.

Intra-BRICS trade is heavily tilted in China’s favour, fuelling complaints from fellow members. India alone has lodged several trade cases against China this year.

The North Korean hydrogen bomb claim represents an apparent major advance in Pyongyang’s banned nuclear weapons programme and brought condemnation from the international community, which has forbidden North Korea’s pursuit of atomic weapons and missiles.

Xi and Putin held a bilateral meeting late Sunday during which they discussed the North Korea blast and pledged to “appropriately deal” with the issue, China’s official Xinhua news agency said, without giving details.

The event will be joined by 150 shopping malls across the big cities of Indonesia such as Jakarta, Banten, Bandung, Surabaya, Malang, Yogyakarta, Solo, Semarang, Palembang, Medan, Bali, Makassar, Pekanbaru and Balikpapan.

Tourism ministry’s archipelago marketing development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti said that the festival’s concept would highlight the Tourism Pentahelix consisting of scholars, businesspeople, community, government and media.

“This event is a collaboration between the ministry and APPBI, this marks the second anniversary of this event. 65 percent of international tourists come to Indonesia because of its culture, 35 percent for nature and 5 percent for man-made attractions such as sports events or MICE. I believe this event will attract a lot of tourists,” said Esthy.

Read also: Free tour to Kota Tua launched for foreign tourists

“Wonderful Indonesia Culinary and Festival 2017 will showcase the many varieties of local cuisines and handicrafts. This event is the perfect platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (UMKM) that produce local food and handicraft,” added the ministry’s culinary and shopping tourism acceleration team head, Vita Datau Messakh.

Speaking on a separate occasion, the head of APPBI Stefanus Ridwan said that the opening of the festival will be held on September 27 at Kota Kasablanka Mall in Jakarta.

“There will be traditional dance performance and fashion show of tenun and batik from renowned local designers,” said Stefanus.

According to tourism minister Arief Yahya, this event is the main agenda to attract foodies and shopaholics out there as well as attracting Chinese tourists.

He said while he was visiting Beijing to meet with Chinese web services company Baidu, he was told that 52 percent of Chinese tourists who travel abroad are traveling for shopping, 27 percent for transportation and six percent for culinary.

“China is our main target market at the moment, which surpasses Australia in terms of the number of tourists traveling to Indonesia,” Arief said.

Moreover, he said that Chinese tourists also visit Geneva in Switzerland and Paris with the same intentions.

“Number one is shopping and then followed by culinary and beaches. Indonesia is strong in these three elements,” Arief added.

Vehicle drivers in the country, especially in big cities, are expected to benefit in coming years from a smart transport system like those in developed countries.

That is because the Ministry of Transport has recently directed relevant agencies to speed up progress on building the digital traffic map system in the country.

The map is designed to improve the management capability of authorised agencies as well as provide useful information for road users.

To speed up the progress, the relevant agencies will fix shortcomings of pilot programmes to build its digital traffic map system, the Ha Noi Moi ( New Ha Noi) newspaper reported.

A representative of the ministry’s Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam said that in 2013, the agency worked with two domestic service providers to build a system to connect data from itinerary monitoring devices installed in 650,000 vehicles of transport firms; integrated with the system of road signs and the weighbridge system in the country.

However, there were inconsistencies between the two providers, so the programme was less effective than expected, he said.

Two years later, the Viet Nam Inland Waterway Administration also started its plan to build its digital waterway traffic map. Due to lack of financial resources, the administration had built the map based on the free Google maps. And one major shortcoming was that it could not extract data from the administration map.

Pham Duy Ninh, director of the ministry’s Information and Technology Centre said the ministry’s policies of building the digital traffic map were now combining funds from the State and investment from private sectors. This would help to fix the situation, he said.

Ha Noi digitalises its traffic map

The capital administration has already scheduled to turn Ha Noi into a smart city by 2020. One of the prioritized parts of the plan was to set up the city’s digital traffic map.

To do that, in May, the Ha Noi People’s Committee gave the green light for the FPT Corporation’s project on building an intelligent transportation system (ITS) for the city.

ITS  is a combination of advanced technology and transport infrastructure to manage and operate the transportation system.

It includes a control centre, traffic monitoring systems, traffic information, as well as security, safety, and emergency management systems.

Also this month, a pilot programme that used software and automation technology to manage public parking zones was run on two streets, Ly Thuong Kiet and Tran Hung Dao in Hoan Kiem District.

The programme, developed and implemented by the Ha Noi Car Park Exploitation Company, involves the digital mapping of car parking areas, the use of management software, and the installation of cameras to record vehicle registration plates in parking zones.

All information relating to car parks will be available online, and car owners will be able to find and book parking spaces in advance on devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The smart technology behind the system will also make it possible for vehicle owners to park their cars without help from parking staff.

Three weeks ago, the Ha Noi Transport Department and the Ha Noi Transport Corporation proposed to the People’s Committee a pilot programme on using an electronic transportation cards on BRT route 01, connecting the Kim Ma and Yen Nghia bus stations.

Travellers using e-cards tap them on a sensor to pay and can top up their e-cards at every bus station on the route. This saves them having to purchase single journey tickets for every ride. The pilot programme is scheduled to run in September and October.

Pyongyang residents threw their arms aloft in triumph as a jubilant television newsreader hailed the “unprecedentedly large” blast.

It “marked a very significant occasion in attaining the final goal of completing the state nuclear force”, she added.

But world reaction was swift and angry. US President Donald Trump said on Twitter Pyongyang’s “words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States”.

The US leader refrained from direct threats but branded the North “a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success”.

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

The US Treasury Department will prepare a package of sanctions that would “cut off North Korea economically”, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Hours before the test the North had released images of leader Kim Jong-Un at the Nuclear Weapons Institute, inspecting what it said was a miniaturised H-bomb that could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

China, the North’s sole remaining major ally, issued a “strong condemnation” of the test, which overshadowed the opening of the BRICS summit in Xiamen by leader Xi Jinping.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described it as “absolutely unacceptable” while Russia’s foreign ministry expressed “strongest condemnation” but urged calm.

In Seoul, President Moon Jae-In called for new United Nations sanctions to “completely isolate North Korea” and said the South would discuss deploying “the strongest strategic assets of the US military”.

That could be taken as a reference to tactical nuclear weapons, which were withdrawn from South Korea by Washington in 1991.

– Tremor felt in China –

========================

The US and South Korean military chiefs spoke by telephone and agreed the test was “a provocation that cannot be overlooked”, Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.

The chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff, General Jeong Kyeong-Doo and General Joseph Dunford, “agreed to prepare a South Korea-US military counteraction and to put it into action at the earliest date.”

US monitors measured a 6.3-magnitude tremor near the North’s main testing site, which South Korean experts said was five to six times stronger than that from the 10-kiloton test carried out a year ago.

The tremor was felt in northeastern China, with people in the border city of Yanji saying they fled their homes in their underwear, and in the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok. It was even detected as far away as Germany.

Whatever the final figure for the test’s yield turned out to be, said Jeffrey Lewis of the armscontrolwonk website, it was “a staged thermonuclear weapon” which represents a significant advance.

Chinese monitors said they had detected a second tremor shortly afterwards of 4.6 magnitude that could be due to a “collapse (cave in)”, suggesting the rock over the underground blast had given way.

Pyongyang triggered a new rise in tensions in July, when it carried out two successful tests of an ICBM which apparently brought much of the US mainland within range.

Last week it fired a missile over Japan.

Trump has warned Pyongyang that it faces “fire and fury” and that Washington’s weapons are “locked and loaded”.

‘Super explosive power’

Analysts believe Pyongyang has been developing its weapons capability to give it a stronger hand in any negotiations with the US.

“North Korea will continue with their nuclear weapons programme unless the US proposes talks,” Koo Kab-Woo of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies told AFP.

Pictures of Kim at the Nuclear Weapons Institute showed the young leader, dressed in a black suit, examining a metal casing with a shape akin to a peanut shell.

The device was a “thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by our own efforts and technology”, the Korean Central News Agency cited Kim as saying, and “all components of the H-bomb were 100 percent domestically made”.

Despite its power there were no radioactive leaks from the test, KCNA said in a later report.

Analysts cautioned that the image had not been verified.

“We don’t know if this thing is full of styrofoam, but yes, it is shaped like it has two devices,” Melissa Hanham of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in California said on Twitter.

Pyongyang, which insists it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself, carried out its first atomic test in 2006.

Its fifth detonation, in September last year, caused a 5.3 magnitude quake and according to Seoul had a 10-kiloton yield.

The North has been subjected to seven rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but always insists it will continue to pursue them.