North Korea announces hydrogen bomb test

“This clearly violates UN Security Council resolutions and is a grave challenge against worldwide efforts for non-proliferation”, he said, adding his country would seek to coordinate efforts among UN members to deal with the action.

North Korea’s claim to have successfully carried out an underground hydrogen bomb test provoked condemnation of several countries including the US, China, the UK, France and Australia.

South Korea’s top nuclear envoy began full-fledged consultations Wednesday with his American and Japanese counterparts on ways to deal with North Korea’s claimed nuclear test.

“We have seen reports that DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) has conducted a nuclear test today”, external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said in response to a question.

The US Geological Survey measured an quake with a magnitude of 5.1 – bigger than the three previous bombs in 2013, 2009 and 2006.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye immediately convened an emergency security meeting after the test.

Regardless of the nature of the test, if confirmed it could strain North Korea’s relations with China, its closest ally.

A note signed by North Korea leader Kim Jong-un authorising the test said 2016 should begin with the “stirring explosive sound” of a hydrogen bomb, according to BBC.

Russian Federation on Wednesday slammed the claimed testing of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea as a clear breach of worldwide law that could enflame tensions across the region.

“They have total control over North Korea, and China should solve that problem”, he said Wednesday.

A hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb uses fusion in a chain reaction that results in a far more powerful explosion than the fission blast generated by uranium or plutonium alone. A statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the continued development by North Korea of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and its inflammatory and threatening rhetoric.

Clement also noted the continued imprisonment of a Canadian in North Korea, Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim.