Then in a surprise announcement, a newsreader on North Korean state TV said: “The republic’s first hydrogen bomb test has been successfully performed at 10:00 am on January 6, 2016”.
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North Korea said Wednesday that it conducted the H-bomb test, a move that would put the country closer to improving its limited nuclear arsenal.
If the test is confirmed, it will ratchet up fears in the whole region about the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated states which has been widely censured by the global community for its weapons tests.
“While we can not confirm these claims at this time, we condemn any violation of UN Security Council Resolutions and again call on North Korea to abide by its worldwide obligations and commitments”, said John Kirby, the State Department spokesman.
The United States said it was monitoring the situation.
“[The] nuclear test confirms North Korea’s status as a rogue state and a continuing threat to global peace and security”, Ms Bishop’s statement said.
The statement said the test was a “perfect success”.
“Most analysts are of the view that when a nation conducts nuclear tests four times, it is in the final stage of completing its nuclear armament technology development”, he added, noting that if the North is allowed to continue with its efforts, it will advance its nuclear threats.
The news agency said the test was meant to “firmly protect the sovereignty of the country” from the “ever-growing nuclear threat and blackmail by the U.S.-led hostile forces”.
A hydrogen, or thermonuclear device, uses fusion in a chain reaction that results in a far more powerful explosion than a standard nuclear device.
“No plots and schemes of the enemy can break the indomitable will of our service personnel and people to firmly defend and add brilliance to our style of people-centered socialism, the base of their happy life”, he said.
North Korea needs nuclear tests for practical military and political reasons.
While the claims from North Korea have yet to be verified, the worldwide community have already spoken out in outrage against the secretive state.
The North has conducted three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 – all at the Punggye-ri site.
Experts believe the latest test was designed the bolster the regime domestically and also strengthen Pyongyang’s hand in global diplomacy, particularly in extracting economic and strategic concessions from the US, South Korea and other key nations.
North Korea hadn’t conducted an atomic explosion since early 2013, and leader Kim Jong Un did not mention the country’s nuclear weapons in his New Year’s speech. He said that the failure to do so had emboldened North Korea to do as it pleased.
A document signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, seen in footage aired on North Korean state television, read: “Make the world to look up to our strong nuclear country and labor party by opening the year with (the) exciting noise of the first hydrogen bomb!”
The North called the device the “H-bomb of justice” and said: “The U.S.is a gang of cruel robbers which has worked hard to bring even a nuclear disaster to the DPRK”, using the official acronym for North Korea.
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It has set up an emergency crisis management unit and vowed to take “all necessary measures to punish North Korea for carrying out its hydrogen bomb test in defiance of worldwide warnings”.
