SEOUL: North Korea said Wednesday it had carried out a "successful" hydrogen bomb test, a claim that -- if true -- massively raises the stakes over the hermit state's banned nuclear programme.
In a surprise announcement Pyongyang said it had carried out a hydrogen blast.
"The republic's first hydrogen bomb test has been successfully performed at 10:00 am on January 6, 2016, based on the strategic determination of the Workers' Party," a state television news reader said.
A hydrogen, or thermonuclear device, uses fusion in a chain reaction that results in a far more powerful explosion than the fission blast generated by uranium or plutonium alone.
Last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had suggested Pyongyang had already developed a hydrogen bomb -- although the claim was greeted with scepticism by international experts.
North Korea has hinted before at the possession of "stronger, more powerful" weapons, but Kim's remarks were believed to be the first direct reference to an H-bomb.
"There took place a world startling event to be specially recorded in the national history spanning 5,000 years," a government statement read, as reported by North Korean media outlet KCNA.
"Through the test conducted with ingenious wisdom, technology and efforts the DPRK fully proved that the technological specifications of the newly developed H-bomb for the purpose of the test were accurate," the statement continued.
The announcement by North Korean state media came two days before Kim's birthday and just over four years after he succeeded his father as leader of the Stalinist state.
Suspicions over a possible nuclear test -- Pyongyang's fourth -- were first raised by seismologists who said they had detected a 5.1 magnitude tremor next to its main atomic test site in the northeast of the country.
The website of the China Earthquake Network Centre described the seismic activity as a "suspected explosion", while the Japanese government said there was a strong possibility that "this might be a nuclear test".
The US Geological Survey said the epicentre of the quake -- detected at 10:00 am Pyongyang time (0130 GMT) -- was in the northeast of the country, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Kilju city, placing it right next to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
Any confirmation of the test will trigger widespread international condemnation of North Korea, which has already conducted three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 -- all at Punggye-ri.
It would certainly result in a tightening of international sanctions imposed after the North's previous nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
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