North Korea Claims Successful Thermonuclear Bomb Test

North Korea Claims Successful Thermonuclear Bomb Test

North Korea has announced that it had successfully detonated a “miniaturised” hydrogen bomb, which is set to trigger global repercussions. Though the claims are as yet unconfirmed, a blast — earlier believed to have been a 5.1 magnitude earthquake — was registered near the North Korean city of Sungjibaegam late yesterday.

South Korea and Japan have called for urgent action against North Korea, which has violated international warnings not to perform nuclear testing. Both nations want the UN to step in as quickly as possible. The official statement confirming nuclear testing came from the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency:

The official statement confirming nuclear testing, which came from the state-run Korean Central News Agency, would have been laughable if the circumstances weren’t so serious.

There took place a world-startling event to be specially recorded in the national history spanning 5,000 years in the exciting period when all service personnel and people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are making a giant strides, performing eye-catching miracles and exploits day by day after turning out as one in the all-out charge to bring earlier the final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche, true to the militant appeal of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

That’s the introduction of a lightly-edited version published on WSJ.

It goes on to claim that a small H-bomb test was conducted in a ‘safe’ manner, and that North Korea’s nuclear weapons would act as a deterrent against US forces.

It goes without saying that the UK and US are deeply against North Korea’s nuclear activities. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was in Beijing when the announcement was made, and has reiterated his opposition to North Korea’s nuclear testing. National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price, meanwhile, has said that the US will intervene if its allies come under threat.

Many journalists remain sceptical — as do South Korean authorities, who say no radiation has been so far detected.

[clear]


How Would A North Korean Nuke Affect The World’s Major Cities?

Using Nukemap, we’re able to find out. Nukemap is a nifty little tool that lets you plug in a city, town or even the middle of nowhere, pick a bomb and find out what sort of damage it would do. Jeepers.
[clear]


Updates:


This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.