A magnitude 6.3 earthquake in North
Korea early Sunday was likely the result of the country's sixth nuclear
test, media reports said.
North Korean state media claimed early Sunday that the blast was a test of a hydrogen bomb.
The test was estimated to have a yield of 100
kilotons, meaning a blast that was four to five times more powerful than
the explosion in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, a South Korean defense
official told the country's Yonhap News Agency.
Pentagon officials told Fox News early Sunday that
the U.S. government would have no official response until after the U.S.
fully assesses what happened.
South Korea's presidential office says the security
chiefs for Seoul and Washington have spoken. The office says U.S.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster spoke with his South Korean
counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, for 20 minutes in an emergency phone call
about an hour after the detonation.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency initially pegged the
earthquake at magnitude 5.6, but the 6.3 reading came from the U.S.
Geological Survey.
The epicenter was determined to be near a well-known
North Korean test site, according to media reports. U.S. intelligence
agencies have been closely watching the test site
since at least March, when initial signs of test prepartions were visible.
U.S. officials at the time told Fox News to expect a
nuclear test in the near future. Now, more than five months later, the
rogue communist regime appears to have followed through.
In his New Year's address, Kim Jung Un said his
nation had entered the "final stage" preparing for the test launch of an
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In July, North Korea
successfully test-fired two ICBMs.
Now just hours after photos emerged showing the North
Korean dictator inspecting a new thermonuclear warhead in a lab, North
Korea claims to have conducted its sixth nuclear test and first since
September 2016.
The U.S. Air Force has WC-135 "sniffer" planes in
Japan that will be measuring the air samples near the Korean Peninsula
to confirm the presence of radioactive particles in the atmosphere and
confirm the nuclear test. The Japanese military also has radiological
detection equipment in some of its jets as well.
On Thursday Fox News asked Defense Secretary James
Mattis if the Pentagon was seeing evidence of an upcoming nuclear test
in North Korea. He declined to comment.
The previous day, before sitting next to his South Korean counterpart, Mattis said "We are not out of diplomatic options."
The quake was detected at 12:36 p.m. in North Korea’s
North Hamgyeong province, Yonhap reported, citing information from the
Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).
Reuters gave the location
as 55 kilometers north northwest of Kimchaek, citing U.S. Geological
Survey information. There were no immediate reports of damage or
casualties, the news agency said.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had recently said North Korea was showing "restraint" in its recent actions.
"Pyongyang has certainly demonstrated some level of
restraint that we’ve not seen in the past," he said at the State
Department.
President Trump, at a rally in Phoenix in late
August, said North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un was starting to "respect"
the United States.
In April, Tillerson told Fox News' Bret Baier that China had asked North Korea not to conduct any more nuclear tests.
“We’re asking a lot of the Chinese,” Tillerson said
at the time. “We are going to test China’s willingness to help address
this serious threat.”
'Absolutely unacceptable'
Early Sunday, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
quickly commented that if the quake was indeed a nuclear test by North
Korea, it would be "absolutely unacceptable."
The quake came just hours after the regime of leader Kim Jong Un bragged of developing a more advanced nuclear warhead, Britain’s Guardian reported. The epicenter of the quake was estimated to be at 10 kilometers underground, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The Kim regime has been engaged in a heated
rhetorical battle with the United States in recent months – largely
because of missile tests North Korea has conducted.
Shortly after the initial quake, Yonhap said a second
quake was detected with a magnitude 4.6, but South Korea's weather
agency denied another quake occurred. There was no word from the
military in Seoul about the possible second quake.
North Korea conducted its fifth test last year in
September. In confirmed, the latest test would mark yet another big step
forward in North Korean attempts to obtain a nuclear-armed missile
capable of reaching deep into the U.S. mainland.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate reaction.
South Korea's presidential office said it will hold a National Security
Council meeting chaired by President Moon Jae-in.
Torrid pace
North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year and
has since maintained a torrid pace in weapons tests, including
flight-testing developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles and
flying a powerful midrange missile over Japan.
Earlier Sunday, photos released by the North Korean
government showed Kim talking with his lieutenants as he observed a
silver, peanut-shaped device that was apparently the purported
thermonuclear weapon destined for an ICBM. What appeared to be the nose
cone of a missile could also be seen near the alleged bomb in one
picture, which could not be independently verified and which was taken
without outside journalists present. Another photo showed a diagram on
the wall behind Kim of a bomb mounted inside a cone.
Aside from the factuality of the North's claim, the
language in its statement seems a strong signal that Pyongyang will soon
conduct its sixth nuclear weapon test, which is crucial if North Korean
scientists are to fulfill the national goal of an arsenal of viable
nuclear ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland. There's speculation that
such a test could come on or around the Sept. 9 anniversary of North
Korea's national founding, something it did last year.
As part of the North's weapons work, Kim was said by
his propaganda mavens to have made a visit to the Nuclear Weapons
Institute and inspected a "homemade" H-bomb with "super explosive power"
that "is adjustable from tens (of) kiloton to hundreds (of) kiloton."
Jump in progress
North Korea in July conducted its first ever ICBM
tests, part of a stunning jump in progress for the country's nuclear and
missile program since Kim rose to power following his father's death in
late 2011. The North followed its two tests of Hwasong-14 ICBMs, which,
when perfected, could target large parts of the United States, by
threatening to launch a salvo of its Hwasong-12 intermediate range
missiles toward the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in August.
It flew a Hwasong-12 over northern Japan last week,
the first such overflight by a missile capable of carrying nukes, in a
launch Kim described as a "meaningful prelude" to containing Guam, the
home of major U.S. military facilities, and more ballistic missile tests
targeting the Pacific.
Vipin Narang, an MIT professor specializing in
nuclear strategy, said it's important to note that North Korea was only
showing a mockup of a two-stage thermonuclear device, or H-bomb. "We
won't know what they have until they test it, and even then there may be
a great deal of uncertainty depending on the yield and seismic
signature and any isotopes we can detect after a test," he said.
To back up its claims to nuclear mastery, such tests
are vital. The first of its two atomic tests last year involved what
Pyongyang claimed was a sophisticated hydrogen bomb; the second it said
was its most powerful atomic detonation ever.
It is almost impossible to independently confirm
North Korean statements about its highly secret weapons program. South
Korean government officials said the estimated explosive yield of last
year's first test was much smaller than what even a failed hydrogen bomb
detonation would produce. There was speculation that North Korea might
have detonated a boosted fission bomb, a weapon considered halfway
between an atomic bomb and an H-bomb.
Invaluable information
It is clear, however, that each new missile and
nuclear test gives the North invaluable information that allows big
jumps in capability. A key question is how far North Korea has gotten in
efforts to consistently shrink down nuclear warheads so they can fit on
long-range missiles.
"Though we cannot verify the claim, (North Korea)
wants us to believe that it can launch a thermonuclear strike now, if it
is attacked. Importantly, (North Korea) will also want to test this
warhead, probably at a larger yield, to demonstrate this capability,"
said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
North Korea is thought to have a growing arsenal of
nuclear bombs and has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage,
long-range missile to eventually carry smaller versions of those bombs.
South Korea's main spy agency has previously asserted
that it does not think Pyongyang currently has the ability to develop
miniaturized nuclear weapons that can be mounted on long-range ballistic
missiles. Some experts, however, think the North may have mastered this
technology.
The White House said that President Donald Trump
spoke with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan regarding "ongoing efforts
to maximize pressure on North Korea." The statement did not say whether
the conversation came before or after the North's latest claim.
A long line of U.S. presidents has failed to check
North Korea's persistent pursuit of missiles and nuclear weapons.
Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in
exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.
'Great destructive power'
The North said in its statement Sunday that its
H-bomb "is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive
power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful
EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack according to strategic goals."
Kim, according to the statement carried by the
state-run Korean Central News Agency, claimed that "all components of
the H-bomb were homemade ... thus enabling the country to produce
powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants."
In what could be read as a veiled warning of more
nuclear tests, Kim underlined the need for scientists to "dynamically
conduct the campaign for successfully concluding the final-stage
research and development for perfecting the state nuclear force" and
"set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes."
The two Koreas have shared the world's most heavily
fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an
armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed
in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and Jennifer Griffin and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
