ON January 6 2016 the DPRK announced it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
Since then there has been a lot of hot air and condemnation from the West and the UN Security Council. They have labelled North Korea a rogue state, a hermit state, a recluse with North Koreans described as crazy, totally insane.
South Korea has resumed propaganda broadcasts against the North Korean republic targeted at the demilitarised zone using loud speakers. Among the West and its allies, not one has been found condemning South Korea for this aggression on North Korea.
It has been said it could not have been a hydrogen bomb because the West and its allies cannot fathom anyone not in their armpit achieving anything so spectacular.
What is lost in all the hullaballoo is that DPRK is an independent sovereign state with every right to self-determination and freedom to develop scientifically according to its national goals.
Those countries which condemn it also have nuclear weapons but they have given themselves a platform to decide who should have them and who to stop from developing or acquiring them.
And since the argument is that nuclear weapons are so dangerous they should only be in responsible hands then the first country to be disqualified is the US because it has used an atomic bomb against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an attack with unfathomable consequences, a totally inhuman and criminal act carried out despite Japanese monarch having already surrendered.
The West’s argument that DPRK is not responsible enough to possess nuclear weapons means someone is not being honest. The North Koreans have no history of crimes against humanity such as the slavery that the Europeans perpetrated against Africans, North Korea has never colonised any people/s and certainly they did not go into Iraq to kill its head of state, rendering it ungovernable amid chaos, untold suffering and unprecedented loss of life.
North Korea did not go into Libya to kill its head of state and raze the country to the ground, and it is not DPRK sponsoring terrorism in Syria in order to remove Assad, a lawful head of the state of Syria.
The people of Africa, Iraq and Syria did not know such carnage and horrific pain before the Western powers terrorised them.
It is therefore not the hands of North Koreans dripping blood of innocent people across the globe but of those with the audacity to condemn countries that dare possess weapons of mass destruction that are only a preserve of the village bullies. It was the same with Iran.
But in all this, what is alarmingly evil and hypocritical is for the Western powers, headed by the US, to purport that North Korea must be stopped lest it gives nuclear weapons to terrorist groups like ISIS.
This false accusation is too evil to contemplate. We all know the West created ISIS to get rid of Saddam Hussein so they could loot Iraq’s oil unchecked. Now they want to push their terrorism on to a country that has never associated with terrorism.
They, who have been soft-pedalling on ISIS because it is their creation and it is fighting their cause to remove Assad.
By their admission (the West), the only countries the DPRK has ever assisted to develop nuclear capability are Iran and Syria, two countries under perfectly legitimate rule. That this can be construed to be the precursor to arming terrorist groups is totally reprehensible.
North Koreans are equal citizens on this planet, no-one has the power or permission to brand them otherwise, they are their own masters as is the calling and blessing of each people.
CNN reporting from Pyongyang could not countenance the North Koreans are advancing their defence capabilities for the sake of their national security and that because they are under the gravest threat from the US and its allies, including South Korea constantly barking at its doorstep, the DPRK has to make it clear to its predators that it can and will respond in equal measure if attacked.
This is the only reason they are persecuted. If anyone should not have nuclear weapons, it is those who have used nuclear weapons against others, the US in particular.
The North Koreans have the right to self-defence and no-one can take that away from them and as for the lies that they might arm terrorist groups with nuclear weapons, we know who terrorises people across the globe, we know who murdered Saddam Hussein for imaginary weapons of mass destruction, we know who killed Muammar Gaddafi for Libyan oil, and we also know who created ISIS for their own evil purposes. The North Koreans have never been party to this, or anything else of this nature.
The North Koreans have survived by sheer willpower and self-sacrifice against a barrage of Western attacks in the form of sanctions, evil propaganda and demonisation.
They are guided by the Juche idea which teaches that man is the master of his own destiny.
They have demonstrated that they are the masters of their own destiny and for this their detractors cannot be at peace.
The Western allies have admitted that North Korea is not intimidated by more and more sanctions, they have realised that the North Koreans mean what they say when they state that they are prepared to undergo whatever deprivations meted out to them in defence of their national security and sovereignty.
And as for the Americans sending their B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula on January 10 to threaten the DPRK, they should be ashamed of themselves for two reasons:
1. Their aggression is unprovoked, the North Koreans are simply looking after themselves, they have done nothing against anyone. It is truly barbaric what the Americans did.
2. We have not yet forgotten what they did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Americans have revealed their true colours. They are the terrorists and will haunt anyone who stands by the truth.
Dr Ireen Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University.
She is currently doing consultancy work.