A series of recent missile tests has caused growing international unease.<\/p>\n
In a report on Sunday, the North’s state news agency KCNA said Kim Jong-un had visited scientists at the nuclear weapons institute and “guided the work for nuclear weaponisation”.<\/p>\n The North has previously claimed to have miniaturised a nuclear weapon, but experts have cast doubt on this. There is also scepticism about the North’s claims to have developed a hydrogen bomb.<\/p>\n However, this does appears to be the biggest and most successful nuclear test by North Korea to date – and the messaging is clear. North Korea wants to demonstrate it knows what makes a credible nuclear warhead.<\/p>\n Kim inspects ‘nuclear warhead’: A picture decoded<\/p>\n Nuclear weapons expert Catherine Dill told the BBC it was not yet clear exactly what nuclear weapon design was tested.<\/p>\n “But based on the seismic signature, the yield of this test definitely is an order of magnitude higher than the yields of the previous tests.”<\/p>\n Current information did not definitively indicate that a thermonuclear weapon had been tested “but it appears to be a likely possibility at this point”, she said.<\/p>\n Hydrogen bombs use fusion – the merging of atoms – to unleash huge amounts of energy, whereas atomic bombs use nuclear fission, or the splitting of atoms.<\/p>\n What has the reaction been?<\/strong><\/p>\n South Korean President Moon Jae-in said North Korea’s sixth nuclear test should be met with the “strongest possible” response, including new United Nations Security Council sanctions to “completely isolate” the country.<\/p>\n China, North Korea’s only major ally, condemned the test.<\/p>\n North Korea “has ignored the international community’s widespread opposition, again carrying out a nuclear test. China’s government expresses resolute opposition and strong condemnation toward this,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n And Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, also condemned the test and said sanctions against North Korea should include restrictions on the trade of oil products.<\/p>\n How can the world respond?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n North Korea’s sixth nuclear test – probably its largest so far – sends out one clear political signal.<\/p>\n Despite the bluster and threats from the Trump administration in Washington and near-universal condemnation from around the world, Pyongyang is not going to halt or constrain its nuclear activities.<\/p>\n Worryingly, it also suggests that this is a programme that is progressing on all fronts at a faster rate than many had expected. So far all efforts to pressure North Korea – sanctions, isolation, and military threats – have all failed to move Pyongyang.<\/p>\n Could more be done? Certainly, but the harshest economic pressure would potentially cripple the regime and push it towards catastrophe – something China is unwilling to countenance.<\/p>\n Containment and deterrence will now come to the fore as the world adjusts its policy from seeking to roll-back Pyongyang’s weapons programme to living with a nuclear-armed North Korea.<\/p>\n How did news of the test emerge?<\/p>\n The first suggestion that this was to be a far from normal Sunday in the region came when seismologists’ equipment started picking up readings of an earth tremor in the area where North Korea has conducted nuclear tests before.<\/p>\n Initial reports from the US Geological Survey put the tremor at 5.6 magnitude with a depth of 10km (six miles) but this was later upgraded to 6.3 magnitude at 0km.<\/p>\n Then Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said there was no doubt this was North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.<\/p>\n Finally, in a radio broadcast that had been trailed as a “major announcement”, North Korean state media confirmed this was no earthquake.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" North Korea says it has successfully tested a nuclear weapon that could be loaded onto a long-range missile. The secretive communist state said its sixth nuclear test was a “perfect success”, hours after seismologists had detected an earth tremor. Pyongyang said it had tested a hydrogen bomb – a device many times more powerful than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/17FEC\/production\/_97648289_041423379.jpg\")
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