South Korean officials watch television news channels showing North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un, at the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul on September 3, 2017. The “artificial quake” in North Korea on September 3, thought to be its sixth nuclear test, was five to six times more powerful than the tremor from Pyongyang’s fifth test, the South’s weather agency said.
AFP PHOTO
North Korea declared itself a thermonuclear power on Sunday, after carrying out a sixth nuclear test more powerful than any it has previously detonated, presenting President Donald Trump with a potent challenge.
The North has tested a hydrogen bomb with “perfect success,” a jubilant newsreader announced on state television, adding the device could be mounted on a missile.
The test was of a bomb with “unprecedently large power,” she said, and “marked a very significant occasion in attaining the final goal of completing the state nuclear force.”
The broadcaster showed an image of leader Kim Jong-Un’s handwritten order for the test to be carried out at noon on September 3.
The announcement came after monitors measured a 6.3-magnitude tremor near the North’s main testing site, which South Korean experts said was five to six times stronger than that from the 10-kiloton test carried out a year ago.
Hours earlier, the North released images of Kim inspecting what it said was a miniaturized H-bomb that could be fitted onto an ICBM, at the Nuclear Weapons Institute.
Hydrogen bombs or H-bombs — also known as thermonuclear devices — are far more powerful than the relatively simple atomic weapons the North was believed to have tested so far.
South Korean President Moon Jae-In summoned the National Security Council for an emergency meeting and Seoul’s military raised its alert level.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ahead of the announcement that a test would be “absolutely unacceptable.”