Samantha Power cancels Israel visit amid N. Korea tensions

Samantha Power, the American UN envoy, has canceled a visit to Israel slated for the coming days as world powers seek to coordinate a response to last week’d North Korean nuclear test.

Power, whose post makes her a cabinet member in the US, and who is considered an adviser to President Barack Obama, was slated to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority on January 15.

According to the Ynet news site, Power has been tasked by Obama with leading efforts in the UN Security Council to mobilize an international response to last Wednesday’s underground nuclear test by North Korea.

The specific purpose of Power’s visit, amid stalled peace talks, a wave of Palestinian terror attacks and calls within the PA to renew efforts to join international organizations, is not immediately known.

Israeli officials have not said whether Power has rescheduled the trip.

Responding to the North Korean bomb test, US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged China, North Korea’s only major ally and biggest aid provider, to end “business as usual” with Pyongyang.

Diplomats at a UN Security Council emergency session pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better cooperation and stronger implementation from China is seen as key.

The South Korean and US militaries also discussed the deployment of US “strategic assets,” Seoul’s Defense Ministry said. Officials refused to elaborate, but the assets would likely include B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters and nuclear-powered submarines.

After North Korea’s third nuclear test, in 2013, the US took the unusual step of sending its most powerful warplanes to drills with South Korea in a show of force. B-2 and B-52 bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North’s claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal. Outside experts are skeptical the blast was a hydrogen bomb, but even a test of an atomic bomb would push North Korea closer to building a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a long-range missile.

The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety said a small amount of radioactive elements was found in air samples collected from the peninsula’s eastern seas after the blast, but the measured amount was too small to determine whether the North had really detonated a nuclear device. The institute will continue to collect and analyze more samples.