North Korea Says It Tested a Hydrogen Bomb Meant for Missiles

North Korea declares H-bomb test 'a perfect success' 

Click to expand UP NEXT N. Korea: Hydrogen bomb test successful In a "major announcement" on Korean Central Television, North Korea says it has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. CNN's Will Ripley reports. Japan says N. Korea tremor was a nuclear test North Korea has conducted a sixth nuclear test, the Japanese government said, a move the United States and its allies in the region are likely to view as a major provocation. USGS: 6.3-magnitude 'explosion' in N. Korea A 6.3-magnitude "possible explosion" has occurred in North Korea, according to the US Geological Survey. UP NEXT (Video By Reuters) 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 miniaturised 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. Whatever the final figure for test's yield turned out to be, said Jeffrey Lewis of the armscontrolwonk website, it was "a staged thermonuclear weapon" which represents a significant advance in its weapons program. Chinese monitors said they had detected a second quake shortly afterwards of 4.6 magnitude that could be due to a "collapse (cave in)", suggesting the rock over the underground blast had given way. Pyongyang has long sought the means to deliver an atomic warhead to the United States, its sworn enemy, and the test will infuriate Washington, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and others. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ahead of the announcement that a test would be "absolutely unacceptable".  South Korean President Moon Jae-In summoned the National Security Council for an emergency meeting and Seoul's military raised its alert level. - 'Super explosive power' - Pyongyang triggered a new ramping up of tensions in July, when it carried out two successful tests of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14, which apparently brought much of the US mainland within range. It has since threatened to send a salvo of rockets towards the US territory of Guam, and last week fired a missile over Japan and into the Pacific, the first time time it has ever acknowledged doing so. Trump has warned Pyongyang that it faces "fire and fury", and that Washington's weapons are "locked and loaded". Analysts believe Pyongyang has been developing weapons capability to give it a stronger hand in any negotiations with the US. "North Korea will continue with their nuclear weapons programme unless the US proposes talks,"  Koo Kab-Woo of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies told AFP. He pointed to the fact that Pakistan -- whose nuclear programme is believed to have links with the North's -- conducted six nuclear tests in total, and may not have seen a need for any further blasts. "If we look at it from Pakistan's example, the North might be in the final stages" of becoming a nuclear state, he said. Pictures of Kim at the Nuclear Weapons Institute showed the young leader, dressed in a black suit, examining a metal casing with a shape akin to a peanut shell. The device was a "thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by our own efforts and technology", KCNA cited Kim as saying, and "all components of the H-bomb were 100 percent domestically made". Actually mounting a warhead onto a missile would amount to a significant escalation on the North's part, as it would create a risk that it was preparing an attack.   North Korea nuclear test (Slideshow by Photo Services) - Failure of sanctions - The North carried out its first nuclear test in 2006, and successive blasts are believed to have been aimed at refining designs and reliability as well as increasing yield. Its fifth detonation, in September last year, caused a 5.3 magnitude quake and according to Seoul had a 10-kiloton yield -- still less than the 15-kiloton US device which destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. The North Korean leadership says a credible nuclear deterrent is critical to the nation's survival, claiming it is under constant threat from an aggressive United States. It has been subjected to seven rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, but always insists it will continue to pursue them. Atomic or "A-bombs" work on the principle of nuclear fission, where energy is released by splitting atoms of enriched uranium or plutonium encased in the warhead. Hydrogen or H-bombs, also known as thermonuclear weapons, work on fusion and are far more powerful, with a nuclear blast taking place first to create the intense temperatures required. No H-bomb has ever been used in combat, but they make up most of the world's nuclear arsenals. sh-slb/sls


North Korea conducts sixth nuclear test, says developed H-bomb 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which it said was a successful detonation of an advanced hydrogen bomb, in a dramatic escalation of the isolated state’s stand-off with the United States and its allies. The announcement from Pyongyang came a few hours after international seismic agencies detected a manmade earthquake near the North’s test site, which Japanese and South Korean officials said was around 10 times more powerful than the tremor picked up after its last test a year ago. There was no independent confirmation that the detonation was a hydrogen bomb rather than an atomic device. The test is a direct challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump, who hours earlier had talked by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the “escalating” nuclear crisis in the region and has previously vowed to stop North Korea developing nuclear weapons that could threaten the United States. North Korea, which carries out its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions and sanctions, said in an announcement on state television that a hydrogen bomb test ordered by leader Kim Jong Un was a “perfect success” and a “meaningful” step in completing the country’s nuclear weapons programs. The bomb was designed to be mounted on its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the North said. China, North Korea’s sole major ally, said it strongly condemned the nuclear test. The United States has repeatedly urged Beijing to do more to rein in its neighbor. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Seoul would push for strong steps to further isolate the North, including new UN sanctions, news agency Yonhap reported. Japan also raised the prospect of further sanctions, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga saying that curbs on North Korea’s oil trade would be on the table. A U.S. official who studies North Korea’s military and politics said it was too early to determine if a test supported the North’s claim that it has succeeded in developing a thermonuclear weapon, “much less one that could be mounted on an ICBM and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere without burning up”. The latest nuclear test comes amid heightened regional tension following Pyongyang’s two tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in July that potentially could fly about 10,000 km (6,200 miles), putting many parts of the mainland United States within range. Under third-generation leader Kim, North Korea has been pursuing a nuclear device small and light enough to fit on a long-range ballistic missile, without affecting its range and making it capable of surviving re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. One expert said the size of Sunday’s detonation, measured by the U.S. Geological Survey at magnitude 6.3, meant it was possible it could be a hydrogen bomb test. “The power is 10 or 20 times or even more than previous ones,” Said Kune Y. Suh, a nuclear engineering professor at Seoul National University. “That scale is to the level where anyone can say a hydrogen bomb test.” AIR RAID SIRENS Witnesses in the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock. Men walk past a street monitor showing North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un in a news report about North Korea's nuclear test, in Tokyo, Japan, September 3, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai “I was eating brunch just over the border here in Yanji when we felt the whole building shake,” Michael Spavor, director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, which promotes business and cultural ties with North Korea. “It lasted for about five seconds. The city air raid sirens started going off.” The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) in Vienna said it had detected an “unusual seismic event” in North Korea that was larger than previous nuclear tests. “North Korea’s mission is quite clear when it comes to this latest atomic test: to develop a nuclear arsenal that can strike all of Asia and the U.S. homeland,” Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the conservative Center for the National Interest in Washington, said. “This test is just another step towards such a goal. None of us should be shocked by Pyongyang’s latest actions.” Earthquakes triggered by North Korean nuclear tests have gradually increased in magnitude since Pyongyang’s first test in 2006, indicating the isolated country is steadily improving the destructive power of its nuclear technology. After the fifth nuclear test last September, USGS measured a magnitude of 5.3. HOURGLASS-SHAPED DEVICE Hours before the test, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA had released pictures showing Kim Jong Un inspecting a silver-colored, hourglass-shaped warhead during a visit to the country’s nuclear weapons institute accompanied by scientists. Kim “watched an H-bomb to be loaded into new ICBM” and “set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes”, KCNA said. The shape shows a marked difference from pictures of the ball-shaped device North Korea released in March last year, and appears to indicate the appearance of a two-stage thermonuclear weapon, or a hydrogen bomb, said Lee Choon-geun, senior research fellow at state-run Science and Technology Policy Institute KCNA said North Korea “recently succeeded” in making a more advanced hydrogen bomb. “All components of the H-bomb were homemade and all the processes ... were put on the Juche basis, thus enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying. Juche is North Korea’s homegrown ideology of self-reliance that is a mix of Marxism and extreme nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather. It says its weapons programs are needed to counter U.S. aggression. A hydrogen bomb can achieve thousands of kilotons of explosive yield - massively more powerful than some 10 to 15 kilotons that North Korea’s last nuclear test in September was estimated to have produced, similar to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high since last month when North Korea threatened to launch missiles into the sea near the strategically located U.S. Pacific territory of Guam after Trump said Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” if it threatened the United States. North Korea further raised regional tensions on Tuesday by launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan, drawing international condemnation. Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States. Additional reporting by Elaine Lies, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Tim Kelly, Takaya Yamaguchi and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo, Jane Chung, Yuna Park, Ju-min Park and James Pearson in Seoul, Sue-Lin Wong in Yanji and Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Shadia Nasralla in Vienna; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Nick Macfie


North Korea Says It Tested a Hydrogen Bomb Meant for Missiles 

The blast was so powerful that the first tremor was followed by a second, weaker one minutes later, which the United States Geological Survey called a “collapse.” The second tremor was detected in China but not in South Korea; officials in the South said that would be consistent with a cave-in at the North’s underground test site. Photo Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, at a military parade in Pyongyang in April. Credit Wong Maye-E/Associated Press China, the North’s main ally and biggest trading partner, expressed “strong condemnation” of the test, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Japan requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and Mr. Trump had spoken by telephone and resolved to put more pressure on North Korea. Just last week, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan, sharply escalating tensions in the region. Pyongyang recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the American mainland, and it responded to Mr. Trump’s “fire and fury” rhetoric by threatening to fire missiles into waters around Guam, a United States territory that is home to military bases. North Korea has conducted a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006. Its previous nuclear tests have produced increasingly larger blasts. The last test, in September 2016, yielded one about as powerful as the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. In its fourth nuclear test, in January 2016, North Korea claimed to have used a hydrogen bomb. Other countries dismissed the claim for lack of evidence, but experts have said that the North may have tested a “boosted” atomic bomb, in which a small amount of thermonuclear fuel produced a slightly higher explosive yield but fell well short of a true hydrogen bomb. Photo A United States Geological Survey map shows the location of an “explosion” with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3. Credit United States Geological Survey Hours before the tremor was detected on Sunday, North Korea’s state news agency said the country had developed a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. The report offered no evidence for the claim, other than photos of Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, inspecting what it said was the weapon. Kim Dong-yub, a defense analyst at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, said he believed the device that North Korea detonated on Sunday was a “boosted” atomic bomb. He said the estimated explosive yield of 60 to 80 kilotons was too low for a bona fide hydrogen bomb, which can pack more than 1,000 times the destructive power of an ordinary nuclear weapon. Analysts noted that the device in the photo that the North released on Sunday — whether real or a mock-up — was shaped like a two-stage thermonuclear device. David Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said he doubted the device was real, but he said there was strong evidence that the North had been working on thermonuclear weapons. “The size of the seismic signal of the recent test suggests a significantly higher explosive yield than the fifth test,” Mr. Albright said. “Getting this high of a yield would likely require thermonuclear material in the device.” But he said he was “skeptical that this design has been miniaturized to fit reliably on a ballistic missile.” Photo Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan, spoke to reporters after a report that North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test. Credit Kyodo News, via Associated Press Mr. Trump’s aides have concluded that his options in responding to the North Korean threat are limited. A strike on the North’s main nuclear and missile sites faces the same challenge it always has: the North’s ability to retaliate against Seoul, the South’s capital, which is within range of its artillery. So for now, Mr. Trump has turned to the same strategy his predecessors have tried: increasing economic pressure and threatening military force, though Mr. Trump has used more provocative rhetoric about a potential military response than his predecessors did. Another strategic consideration in responding to a nuclear blast is China. While the country’s president, Xi Jinping, fears that a collapse in North Korea could lead to a wave of hungry refugees and a scramble for North Korea’s territory and nuclear weapons, he appears to have lost patience with Mr. Kim, recently agreeing to stronger United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang. The test’s timing was a major embarrassment for Mr. Xi, who on Sunday was hosting a summit meeting of the so-called Brics countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Cheng Xiaohe, a North Korea expert at Renmin University in Beijing, said the timing of the test — on the day of the summit meeting’s opening ceremony, in the Chinese city of Xiamen — appeared to be deliberate. “This will test whether China is prepared to go ahead with more radical actions like cutting off oil supplies to North Korea,” Mr. Cheng said. Peter Hayes, director of Nautilus, a United States-based research institute specializing in North Korea, said the test seemed intended to jolt Mr. Xi, and to convince him that he needed to persuade the United States to talk to North Korea. “It’s aimed more at Xi than Trump,” Mr. Hayes said. “Kim Jong-un doesn’t have the leverage to get Washington to talk. Xi has real power to affect the calculations in Washington. He’s putting pressure on China to say to Trump, you have to sit down with Kim Jong-un.”