North Korea has carried out its fourth nuclear test as part of its “self-defence” against US aggression, according to state television.
The announcement said the Pyongyang regime had successfully tested a miniaturised hydrogen nuclear device on Wednesday morning.
The country had a “legal right” to defend itself against the US, the statement said. The authorities also claimed that, if the US did not threaten North Korean sovereignty, it would not need to use nuclear weapons.
Speculation about the nuclear test arose after seismologists from South Korea, China and other countries detected an artificial earthquake around 10am local time (1am GMT) on Wednesday in an area close to North Korea’s nuclear testing site.
The test could bring North Korea a step closer to developing a nuclear warhead small enough to be mounted on a long-range missile, and possibly bringing the US mainland within striking distance.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said North Korea had not informed China – its traditional ally – or the US that it was about to conduct a test
The tremor was a “suspected explosion”, the China Earthquake Network Centre said on its website. It gave the magnitude as 4.9.
The Pentagon was “looking into reports of a possible seismic event near North Korea’s nuclear facilities”, according to a US official.
The United States Geological Service, meanwhile, said it had detected a 5.1 magnitude quake. South Korean meteorological officials said the epicentre of the quake was 49 kms (30 miles) from Punggye-ri in North Hamgyong province, where North Korea has conducted coonducted nuclear tests in the past .
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said it had also detected unusual seismic activity in North Korea.
NK News quoted world earthquakes.com as saying the depth of the earthquake was 10km.
“We suspect a man-made earthquake and are analysing the scale and epicentre of the quake with the geoscience and mineral resource institute of South Korea,” a Korea meteorological administration official told Reuters in the South Korean capital Seoul.
In Tokyo, Yoshihide Suga, a Japanese government spokesman, said precedent suggested Wednesday’s earthquake might have been caused by a nuclear test, adding that the government had convened a meeting of its taskforce on North Korea.
North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013, drawing condemnation and rounds of UN security council sanctions banning trade and financing activities that help its weapons programme. Pyongyang is thought to have developed several crude nuclear weapons.
A fourth test could deepen North Korea’s international isolation if the UN security council decides to respond with more sanctions.
An intensity shake map released by the US Geological Survey 5 January shows the location where a preliminary 5.1 magnitude earthquake struck in North Korea. Photograph: USGS /HANDOUT/EPA
Since becoming North Korean leader in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has stepped up condemnation of joint US-South Korean military drills he believes are preparation for an invasion.
In early 2013, Kim responded to UN sanctions imposed after North Korea’s third nuclear test by unleashing a barrage of threats aimed at South Korea, the US and Japan. Wednesday’s test will again have caught Kim’s critics off-guard.
He did not mention his country’s pursuit of a nuclear deterrent in his New Year’s address – an omission some analysts said was designed to raise the prospects of a summit with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping.
China joined other countries in condemning North Korea’s 2013 nuclear test, leading to a deterioration in ties between Pyongyang and Beijing.
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