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 The test, the fourth time the isolated state has exploded a
nuclear device, was ordered by young leader Kim Jong Un and
successfully conducted at 10:00 a.m. local time (8.30 p.m. ET on
Tuesday), North Korea's official KCNA news agency said.
"Let the world look up to the strong, self-reliant nuclear-armed
state," Kim wrote in what North Korean state TV displayed as a
handwritten note.
The reported nuclear test drew condemnation abroad, including from
China and Russia, North Korea's two main allies. China expressed
"resolute opposition" and said it would lodge a protest with
Pyongyang.
While a fourth nuclear test had been long expected, the claim that
it was a hydrogen device, much more powerful than an atomic bomb,
came as a surprise, as did the timing. It ensures that North Korea
will be a key topic during the U.S. presidential campaign.
North Korea has long coveted diplomatic recognition from Washington
but sees its nuclear deterrent as crucial to ensuring the survival
of its third-generation dictatorship.
 "With Iran being off the table, the North Koreans have placed
themselves at the top of the foreign policy agenda as far as
nation-states who present a threat to the U.S.", said Michael
Madden, an expert on the country's secretive leadership.
South Korean intelligence officials and several analysts, however,
questioned whether Wednesday's explosion was indeed a full-fledged
test of a hydrogen device.
The device had a yield of about 6 kilotons, according to the office
of a South Korean lawmaker on the parliamentary intelligence
committee - roughly the same size as the North's last test, which
was equivalent to 6-7 kilotons of TNT.
"Given the scale, it is hard to believe this is a real hydrogen
bomb," said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defence
and Security Forum.
"They could have tested some middle stage kind (of device) between
an A-bomb and H-bomb, but unless they come up with any clear
evidence, it is difficult to trust their claim."
Joe Cirincione, a nuclear expert who is president of Ploughshares
Fund, a global security organization, said North Korea may have
mixed a hydrogen isotope in a normal atomic fission bomb.
"Because it is, in fact, hydrogen, they could claim it is a hydrogen
bomb," he said. "But it is not a true fusion bomb capable of the
massive multi-megaton yields these bombs produce".
The United States Geological Survey reported a 5.1 magnitude quake
that South Korea said was 49 km (30 miles) from the Punggye-ri site
where the North has conducted nuclear tests in the past.
North Korea's last test of an atomic device, in 2013, also
registered at 5.1 on the USGS scale.
The test nevertheless may mark an advance of North Korea's nuclear
technology. The claim of miniaturizing, which would allow the device
to be adapted as a weapon and placed on a missile, would also pose a
new threat to the United States and its regional allies, Japan and
South Korea.
The North's previous miniaturization claims have not been
independently verified. Many experts also doubt whether the North
possesses missile technology capable of reliably delivering a
warhead to the continental United States.
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UN MEETING
The White House said it could not confirm North Korea's claims of
miniaturization and a hydrogen bomb test, but added the United
States would respond appropriately to provocations and defend its
allies.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan would make a firm response to
North Korea's challenge against nuclear non-proliferation.
"North Korea’s nuclear test is a serious threat to our nation’s
security and we absolutely cannot tolerate it," Abe told reporters.
"We strongly denounce it."
South Korea said it would take all possible measures, including
possible United Nations sanctions, to ensure Pyongyang paid the
price after its fourth nuclear test.
"The government must now work closely with the international
community to ensure that North Korea pays the commensurate price for
the latest nuclear test," President Park Geun-hye said in a
statement. "We must respond decisively through measures such as
strong international sanctions."
North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since it
first tested an atomic device in 2006 and could face additional
measures. The Security Council will meet later on Wednesday to
discuss what steps it could take, diplomats said.
While the Kim regime boasts of its military might to project
strength globally, it also plays up the need to defend itself from
external threats as a way to maintain control domestically.
The North's state news agency said it will not give up its nuclear
program as long as the United States maintained what it called "its
stance of aggression".
The nuclear test came two days ahead of what is believed to be Kim's
birthday.
The North called the device the "H-bomb of justice" and said: "The
U.S. is a gang of cruel robbers which has worked hard to bring even
a nuclear disaster to the DPRK," using the official acronym for
North Korea.
However, the agency said Pyongyang will act as a responsible nuclear
state and vowed not to use its nuclear weapons unless its
sovereignty was infringed. It said it will not transfer its nuclear
capabilities to other parties.
(Reporting by Meeyoung Cho, Ju-min Park, James Pearson, Se Young
Lee, Christine Kim, Jee Heun Kahng in Seoul, Louis Charbonneau at
the United Nations, Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, Megha Rajagopalan
in Beijing and Takashi Umekawa in Tokyo; Writing by Tony Munroe;
Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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