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KCNA announces N.Korea successfully tested hydrogen bomb which can be used for ICBM purposes.
- North Korea Says It Has ‘Succeeded in Making a More Developed’ Nuclear Weapon
- Kim Jong Un Witnesses Hydrogen Bomb Being Loaded onto a ‘New ICBM’ —North Korea State Media
- New Hydrogen Bomb’s Explosive Power Goes Up to Hundreds of Kilotons —North Korea State Media
- North Korea Threatens ‘Super-Powerful’ EMP, or Electromagnetic Pulse, Attack
- North Korea Claims All Hydrogen Bomb Components Are ‘Homemade,’ Can Produce ‘As Many As It Wants’
Reuters explains that the hydrogen bomb's power is adjustable to hundreds of kilotons and can be detonated at high altitudes. Kim Jong Un "set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes," KCNA said, but it made no mention of plans for a sixth nuclear test.
Trump Responds
The US President used twitter to make his initial reaction known. He reiterated rhetoric stated in the week prior.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it had recorded a M6.3 earthquake this morning. It described the event as a “possible explosion” in northeastern North Korea. The agency initially assessed it to be a magnitude-5.1 tremor. The epicenter was in the same region where North Korea had conducted previous nuclear tests.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff assumed North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test, after an artificial earthquake was detected near the site of the North’s previous nuclear tests earlier today. Additionally, the Korea Meteorological Administration said that it had detected a revised magnitude-5.7 earthquake in the same area of North Korea, in what it described as likely being a “man-made” earthquake.
Because earthquakes are measured using a logarithmic scale, a magnitude-6.3 quake would be 10 times as powerful as the one triggered by the North’s September 2016 nuclear test, which triggered a magnitude-5.3 earthquake, according to the USGS.
Leaving all suspense out of it, shortly after the earthquake reports, North Korea says Kim Jong-un ordered the test of a hydrogen bomb that can be fitted onto an ICBM, and the device was successfully detonated. Additionally, North Korea confirmed the nuclear test on local television, adding that it had been a "perfect success."
Via KCNA:
Second quake near North Korean test site could be tunnel collapse | NK News - North Korea News
A second earthquake event measuring 4.6 magnitude detected by the China Earthquake Networks Center on Sunday may have been a tunnel collapse, a U.S. earthquake monitoring service said.
The event, which took place at a reported depth of 0km and allegedly occurred eight minutes after the first nuclear test, was confirmed by the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program later as a 4.1 magnitude “collapse”.
“(This was a) seismic event collocated with the larger possible explosion 8 minutes and 32 seconds earlier,” the USGS said of the quake.
“This significantly smaller event is likely a secondary feature (possibly a structural collapse) associated with the larger event.”
Chinese authorities described the second earthquake as being caused by a “cave in,” Agence France Press earlier said.
The second earthquake occurred around one kilometer northwest from the location North Korea appears to have conducted its sixth nuclear test, the USGS data shows.
Depending on the nature of any tunnel collapse, it remains possible that radioactive fallout from the prior nuclear event may have been released into the nearby environment and atmosphere.
While citizens of nearby Yanji in China and Vladivostok in Russia both reported feeling earthquake tremors for several seconds during the first event, the second earthquake was not however felt, two informed sources in Yanji told NK News.
Meanwhile, South Korean and Japanese authorities have not yet stated that a second earthquake event took place.
Sunday’s nuclear weapons test comes following North Korean state media in the morning showcasing a hydrogen bomb that could be loaded on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The test occurred just under a year after North Korea’s fifth nuclear test on September 9.
Read more by Soren K.Group
