North Korea on Wednesday said it has successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test. The surprise announcement complicates already hard efforts to curb the country’s push for a working nuclear arsenal.
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The test, which came just two days before leader Kim Jong-Un’s birthday, was initially detected by global seismology monitors as a 5.1-magnitude tremor next to the North’s main Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of the country.
Hydrogen bombs involve both fission and fusion reactions to generate even more power than single-stage atomic weapons.
The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said any test would be a “grave breach” of United Nations resolutions and “a provocation which I condemn without reservation”.
He said: ” It underlines the very real threat that North Korea represents to regional and global security.
Despite that, China remains the North’s most important ally and trade partner.
“The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted in the DPRK at 10:00 (0130 GMT) on Wednesday”, the DPRK’s state media KCNA said.
There has always been skepticism by Washington and nuclear experts on past North Korean claims about H-bombs, which are much more powerful, and much more hard to make, than atomic bombs.
Nonetheless, South Korean intelligence sources reportedly cautioned that Pyongyang’s claim that it had attained the so-called H-bomb had yet to be verified.
The Seoul military official was quoted as saying that the December test has not seemed to be a success, noting that the DPRK has continued such ejection tests.
North Korea said in May it had conducted a similar successful test.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement: “The DPRK’s nuclear test, if confirmed, is in clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable”.
The incident has been frowned upon by all world leaders including Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In Pyongyang, North Koreans reacted enthusiastically to the news that the country has carried out its fourth nuclear test since 2006.
North Korea is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs and has spent decades trying to flawless a multistage, long-range missile to eventually carry smaller versions of those bombs.
The country had a “legal right” to defend itself against the United States, the statement said.
The official pointed out that North Korea’s 6-kiloton detonation was far weaker than the 20 to 50-megaton blasts produced by American and Russian tests.
After previous tests, the global community has responded with economic and political sanctions.
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Today’s nuclear test confirms DPRK’s status as a “rogue state” and a continuing threat to worldwide peace and security, the DFAT announcement said.
