NORTH KOREA CONFIRMS HYDROGEN NUCLEAR BOMB TEST

North Korea has conducted a sixth nuclear test, the Japanese government said, a move the United States and its allies in the region are likely to view as a major provocation. Seismological data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) showed that an explosion caused a 6.3-magnitude tremor in the country's northeast, not far from the country's Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

If the initial data holds, it would make it the most powerful weapon that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the country is officially known, has ever tested. "After analyzing data provided by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Japanese government concluded that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said in a live television broadcast.

NORTH KOREA JUST CONFIRMED THAT THEY CONDUCTED A SUCCESSFUL H-BOMB TEST

North Korea’s state-run TV broadcaster said that Pyongyang carried out the sixth nuclear test in a special announcement hours after an artificial earthquake was detected near its nuclear test site.

NORTH KOREA'S KIM JONG-UN OBSERVING THERMONUCLEAR WARHEAD FOR HWASONG-14 ICBM

South Korea and Japan are gathering and analyzing data to confirm details of the test, which Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe said could not be tolerated. South Korean scientists say the possible explosion was far more powerful than previous tremors recorded after Pyongyang’s tests. “The power is 10 or 20 times or even more than previous ones,” Kune Y.

Suh, a nuclear engineering professor at Seoul National University, said, as quoted by Reuters. “That scale is to the level where anyone can say a hydrogen bomb test.” "If North Korea did indeed conduct a nuclear test, we absolutely cannot tolerate and must protest firmly. We will convene a National Security council meeting to gather and analyze the information," Abe said in a live television broadcast prior to Kono's announcement.

South Korea is currently holding a National Security Council meeting to discuss the incident, presided by President Moon Jae-in, according to South Korea's Presidential office.

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