Japan says possible that North Korea conducted nuclear test

A military officer in South Korea’s defense ministry said “artificial quake movement” was detected, and officials were trying to determine if North Korea conducted a nuclear test.

A South Korean government official said it was a suspected nuclear test, Yonhap reported, and Seoul called for an emergency National Security Council meeting.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed the relevant ministries to collect and analyse information regarding North Korea, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

The 5.0 magnitude natural disaster Friday is the largest of the four past quakes associated with North Korean nuclear tests, according to South Korea’s weather agency.

U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye spoke by telephone on Friday about North Korea’s latest nuclear test, South Korea’s presidential office said.

“We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners”, Price said.

Isolated North Korea’s fourth nuclear test in January resulted in tough new United Nations sanctions.

The size of the seismic signal represented a device with a 20- to 30-kilotonne yield, according to one analyst, making it the largest estimated yield so far of a North Korean nuclear device.

“Yield estimates are always kind of approximate”. Artificial seismic waves measuring 3.9 were reported after North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006; 4.8 was reported from its fourth test this January.

A United States official told CNN that it looked like a nuclear test but confirmation would be dependent on seismic readings, location of the seismic event and whether it can be matched to an underground test site. “They aren’t a backwards state any more”, he said.

North Korea claimed its January test was of a miniaturised hydrogen bomb, which can be far more powerful than other nuclear devices.

And analysts said the shockwaves made it highly likely a nuclear bomb had been tested.

He praised the country’s scientists for “creating milestone miracles with the magnificent and exhilarating sound of the first H-bomb of our republic”.