SEOUL—Decorated by Pyongyang but blacklisted abroad, two scientists pictured with North Korea’s leader ahead of Sunday’s nuclear test play vital roles in the reclusive country’s pursuit of a powerful weapon capable of striking the United States, experts say.
North Korea’s sixth nuclear test on Sunday showed the country has either developed a hydrogen bomb—which has vastly more destructive power than atomic bombs—or was very close to obtaining one.
Photos released by the official KCNA news agency just hours before the test showed two men standing alongside leader Kim Jong Un as he inspected a new peanut-shaped warhead: Ri Hong Sop, head of North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Institute, and Hong Sung Mu, deputy director of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s munitions industry department.
