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North Korea nuclear test: what we know so far North Korea nuclear test: what we know so far
(about 1 hour later)
An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 was recorded inside North Korea, hours after the regime boasted it had built a new, more advanced nuclear warhead. North Korea has carried out a sixth nuclear test. It claims the device is a hydrogen bomb that could be loaded into an intercontinental ballistic missile.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says it detected a seismic wave from 12.34 to 12.36pm around Punggyeri, North Korea. The underground test was registered as a magnitude 5.6 earthquake with North Korea and came hours after Pyongyang boasted it had built a new, more advanced nuclear warhead.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quotes military officials as saying they believe North Korea has conducted its sixth nuclear test. Japan’s defence minister said the larger magnitude of the earthquake suggests “capability significantly exceeding the last one.”
China’s Earthquake Administration said it detected a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in North Korea that was a “suspected explosion”. US National Security Adviser, HR McMaster, spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, for 20 minutes in an emergency phone call following the test.
The same body said it detected another quake in North Korea of magnitude 4.6, which it termed as a “collapse”. South Korea’s weather agency, the Korea Meteorological Administration, estimated Sunday that the nuclear blast yield of the presumed test was between 50 to 60 kilotons, or five to six times stronger than the North Korea’s fifth test in September 2016.
A statement from the administration’s said the second quake, measured at a depth of zero kilometres, came eight minutes after the first quake, which it said was a “suspected explosion”. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says it detected a seismic wave from 12.34 to 12.36pm around Punggyeri, North Korea, and second wave of magnitude 4.6, which it termed as a “collapse”.
Witnesses in the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock.Witnesses in the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, says “If North Korea has indeed gone ahead with a nuclear test, it is completely unacceptable and we must lodge a strong protest.” Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, said: “If North Korea has indeed gone ahead with a nuclear test, it is completely unacceptable and we must lodge a strong protest.”
The Japanese government shortly after determines that North Korea has conducted its sixth nuclear test, the country’s foreign minister, Taro Kono said.
The North Korean regime is set to make a “special and important” announcement at 3pm Pyongyang time.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said in a tweet: “North Korean artificial quake 9.8 times more powerful than fifth nuclear test.”
Yonhap adds: “North Korea’s apparent sixth nuclear test was estimated to have a yield of up to 100 kilotons.”
In it “special and important” TV announcement, North Korea claims to have conducted a hydrogen bomb test.
It now seems that a second tremor reported, initially thought to be another nuclear test, was a structural collapse in the aftermath of the first explosion. Possibly a tunnel collapse, reports say.