North Korea says it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb that can ben mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile, in an extraordinary show of defiance by leader Kim Jong-un against US President Donald Trump.
The test, ordered by Kim, was a "perfect success" and was a "meaningful" step in completing the country's nuclear weapons program, state television said.
More World News Videos
- Video duration
- 00:52
US revises South Korean missile treaty
US revises South Korean missile treaty
US President Donald Trump agrees with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in to revise a treaty limiting the development of the South's ballistic missiles, as tensions rise over North Korea's weapons testing.
Up Next
North Korea has conducted it's 6th nuclear test
- Video duration
- 00:58
- Video duration
- 00:58
North Korea has conducted it's 6th ...
North Korea has conducted it's 6th nuclear test
A significant earthquake's been registered near North Korea's nuclear site, raising fears it has carried out its sixth test.
Up Next
Hundreds evacuate largest fire in LA history
- Video duration
- 01:03
- Video duration
- 01:03
Hundreds evacuate largest fire in LA ...
Hundreds evacuate largest fire in LA history
A wildfire on the northern edge of Los Angeles rapidly grew on Saturday into what the mayor called the largest blaze in the city's history, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of people and the closure of a major highway.Â
Up Next
Trump praises 'wonderful' relief effort
- Video duration
- 01:51
- Video duration
- 01:51
Trump praises 'wonderful' relief effort
Trump praises 'wonderful' relief effort
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hand out meals at a relief centre for flood victims in Houston Texas.
Up Next
Base jumping accident claims life
- Video duration
- 00:21
- Video duration
- 00:21
Base jumping accident claims life
Base jumping accident claims life
A man from Western Australia has died after hitting a mountain while BASE jumping in Italy's Trentino region.
Up Next
Kenya's presidential vote declared invalid
- Video duration
- 02:03
- Video duration
- 02:03
Kenya's presidential vote declared invalid
Kenya's presidential vote declared invalid
Kenya's Supreme Court has nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta's election win, citing "irregularities," and ordered a new poll within 60 days after last month's voting was followed by protests and sporadic violence that killed at least 28 people.
Up Next
DACA reform: Decision imminent
- Video duration
- 01:18
- Video duration
- 01:18
DACA reform: Decision imminent
DACA reform: Decision imminent
President Donald Trump says he expects to make a decision by the end of the weekend on whether or not to rescind an Obama administration policy that protects from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants who as children entered the country illegally.
US revises South Korean missile treaty
US President Donald Trump agrees with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in to revise a treaty limiting the development of the South's ballistic missiles, as tensions rise over North Korea's weapons testing.
Sunday's announcement came hours after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake that appeared to be man-made was detected at 12.36pm Seoul time, near the North's known nuclear test site, indicating that the reclusive country had conducted its sixth nuclear test.
ANU international security professor John Blaxland said if the blast was confirmed to be a hydrogen bomb, it would represent a "quantum leap" in North Korea's lethal potential.
"If that's the case, we are seeing North Korea enter into a super league of the thermonuclear club - there are only a handful of nations that operate at this level.
"This is also a real slap in the face to President Trump in the US, who has spoken about fire and fury. Here Kim is, basically going back to President Trump and saying 'Go on, I dare you.' "
The test "presents a really significant threat not only to South Korea but to the world," Professor Blaxland said.
Japan and South Korea concluded on Sunday afternoon that the tremor had been caused by a nuclear test. China's Earthquake Administration said it had detected a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in North Korea that was a "suspected explosion", conducted at zero depth.
Residents in the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock.
South Korea has convened a national security council meeting to discuss the crisis.
Hours before the test, North Korea's official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency, said North Korean scientists had built an advanced hydrogen bomb that could be mounted onto an inter-continental ballistic missile and had an explosive power that was adjustable up to "hundreds" of kilotons.
Later on Saturday, it said a test of the bomb had taken place at 12.36pm Seoul time, to "examine and confirm the accuracy and credibility" of the country's technology.
The nuclear test was the sixth and largest conducted by North Korea.
In July, North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles which experts said could reach parts of the United States.
In response the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to impose increased sanctions on the regime worth over $US1 billion ($1.25 billion).
Last week, North Korea fired a test missile that flew over Japan, prompting the US and its allies to send fighter jets and bombers over the Korean Peninsula in a so-called "show of force" operation.
In response to the latest suspected test, Australian Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek said it was vital the international community continued to assert pressure for peace and a de-escalation of the situation.
"The greatest threat to peace and stability in our region at the moment is the conflict that is emerging on the Korean Peninsula.
"Right across our region, government would be watching North Korean actions with a great deal of concern and trepidation. We know that really the only friend North Korea has is China ... We do ask the government of China to continue to make extra efforts to reduce the likelihood of a very dangerous situation emerging."
In August, Trump threatened to unleash "fire and fury" against North Korea if Kim continued issuing threats against the US.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump told reporters at his golf club in New Jersey during a working holiday.
"They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.
"He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said, they will be met with fire and fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before."
The comments, which were later reported to have been made off the cuff, stoked fears of the possibility of nuclear war, not least because they appeared to change US policy on North Korea, which has been only to respond to force with force.
Trump's rhetoric also marked a departure from the firm measured language on the regime used by his predecessors.
Senator John McCain, the chairman of the powerful Armed Services Committee, said he feared the rhetoric would only increase tension.
"All it's going to do is bring us closer to some kind of serious confrontation."
Undeterred by the comments, North Korea responded by saying it would create "an enveloping fire" around Guam, the western Pacific island which is home to a major US Air Force base.
Various US attempts to address the North Korean situation have all ended in failure. At the start of his administration, Trump declared the policy of "strategic patience" - a reference to Barack Obama's approach - was over.
So far, though, the new administration's harder line has met with no more success.
In an unguarded interview he gave shortly before he resigned as Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon said that there was "no military solution" to nuclear threats posed by North Korea.
"Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don't know what you're talking about; there's no military solution here, they got us."
Experts and officials have said North Korea could conduct its sixth nuclear test at any time, and that the reclusive country has maintained a readiness at its nuclear test site to conduct another detonation test at any time.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the stand-off between North Korea and the United States is close to spilling into a large-scale conflict, and said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile program.
After the missile launch over Japan, Trump dismissed the idea of negotiating with Kim's regime but his defence chief said the US hadn't exhausted its diplomatic options.
After suggesting that North Korea's leader "is starting to respect us", Trump on Wednesday returned to his tougher line.
"The US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!" he said in a Twitter post.
South Korea, the US and Japan are pressing China to impose stronger economic measures to stop Kim's nuclear ambitions.
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously voted to tighten sanctions that targeted about a third of North Korea's $US3 billion in exports.
The UN has banned North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and imposed sanctions after past tests.
Kim's regime has said it won't give up its nuclear weapons and missile program until the US drops its "hostile" policies such as joint military drills with South Korea that ended last week.
North Korea and South Korea, along with its allies including the United States and Australia, have technically been at war since Korean War hostilities ended with an armistace in 1953.
with agencies
More to come