PUNGGYE-RI, NORTH KOREA — North Korea claimed it successfully conducted the underground test of its first hydrogen bomb on Wednesday morning, Reuters reported.
Pyongyang says the test was the successful explosion of a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device.
The U.S. Geological Survey detected a 5.1 magnitude artificial earthquake that South Korean officials said was 49 kilometers (30 miles) from North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in the east of the country, at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
If the claims are true, this would be North Korea's fourth nuclear test and its first hydrogen bomb test.
Unlike an atomic bomb, a hydrogen bomb does not use fission of heavy atoms but fusion of hydrogen isotopes, which leads to a chain reaction that makes the weapon hundreds of times more destructive than an atomic bomb.
Observers cited by the BBC agree that an explosion has taken place in the country but it wasn't nearly big enough to be a thermonuclear explosion caused by an hydrogen bomb as North Korea claims.
According to the office of a South Korean lawmaker on the parliamentary intelligence committee quoted by Reuters, the device was roughly the same size as the one used in North Korea's previous test, which was equivalent to 6 to 7 kilotons of TNT.
Nevertheless, the test could still mark an advance in North Korea's nuclear technology, Reuters reported.
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