Live feed
Topics What we know so far:
Pádraig Collins
Share 6.34am 06:34
An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 was recorded inside North Korea, hours after the regime boasted it had built a new, more advanced nuclear warhead .
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says it detected a seismic wave from 12.34 to 12.36pm around Punggyeri, North Korea.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quotes military officials as saying they believe
North Korea has conducted its sixth nuclear test.
China’s Earthquake Administration said it detected a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in
North Korea that was a “suspected explosion”.
The same body said it detected another quake in
North Korea of magnitude 4.6, which it termed as a “collapse”.
A statement from the administration’s said the second quake, measured at a depth of zero kilometres, came eight minutes after the first quake, which it said was a “suspected explosion”.
Witnesses 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.
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, says “If North Korea has indeed gone ahead with a nuclear test, it is completely unacceptable and we must lodge a strong protest.”
The Japanese government shortly after determines that
North Korea has conducted its sixth nuclear test, the country’s foreign minister, Taro Kono said.
Japan confirms nuclear test
Justin McCurry
The Japanese government has determined North Korea on Sunday conducted its sixth nuclear test, the country’s foreign minister, Taro Kono said, according to Kyodo news.
Share 6.14am 06:14
(@AkikoFujita)
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono: Gov’t has concluded North Korea conducted a nuclear test
September 3, 2017 Akiko Fujita
(@mhanham)
North Korea's nuclear tests have never posed a radiation risk to Japan before. If cave in, watch wind patterns. https:///2VchJCzvLB
September 3, 2017 Melissa Hanham
Updated at 6.17am BST
Paul Karp
At a doorstop in Sydney, Australia, the deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, has called conflict on the Korean peninsula “the greatest threat to peace and stability in our region”.
“It is absolutely vital that we continue to see pressure from the international community to support peace and de-escalation of conflict on the Korean peninsula. Right across our region governments have been watching North Korea’s actions with a great deal of concern and trepidation.”
Asked about North Korea’s claim it is capable of fitting a hydrogen bomb to an intercontinental ballistic missile , Plibersek said it was “very difficult to know how much of the North Korean regime’s propaganda is true” and said that reports differed on the likelihood of that claim being true.
“What we know for certain is that the North Korean regime is behaving irresponsibly, aggressively and in a way that threatens peace and security in our region ... [and] that the people most likely to influence with the North Korean regime is China and we continue to urge China to do all it can to urge the North Korean regime to stand down.”
Share 6.02am 06:02
For those just joining us, it appears North Korea has just launched its biggest nuclear test to date at a test site in the north-east of the country. The suspected test comes hours after leader Kim Jong-un said his country had developed an advanced hydrogen bomb. The Guardian has just posted this backgrounder on how we got to this point:
Share 6.01am 06:01
Timeline: North Korea’s nuclear weapons development
Read more
Updated at 6.04am BST
Shinzō Abe, the prime minister of Japan, is responding to news of the suspected test
Japan’s government said it would lodge a “strong protest” if the nuclear test was confirmed. “If North Korea has indeed gone ahead with a nuclear test, it is completely unacceptable and we must lodge a strong protest,” Abe told reporters on Sunday.
The US president, Donald Trump, had just spoken with Abe on Saturday. According to a statement from the White House: “The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of close cooperation between the United States, Japan, and
South Korea in the face of the growing threat from North Korea”.
Share 5.53am 05:53
(@AFP)
#BREAKING A North Korea nuclear test would be 'absolutely unacceptable', says Japan PM Abe
September 3, 2017 AFP news agency
Updated at 6.04am BST
North Korea earthquake points to largest nuclear test
Share 5.46am 05:46
(@SinaZerbo)
Unusual #Seismic signal larger than prior declared tests #DPRK . Auto-Detection by 34 #IMS stations so far: Work in progress
#CTBT Analysts.
September 3, 2017 Lassina Zerbo
Updated at 5.46am BST
Here’s where the explosion occurred, based on information from the United States Geological Survey:
NK locator map
Share 5.44am 05:44
Share 5.39am 05:39
(@martyn_williams)
Japan has an aircraft up collecting air samples, monitoring radiation, reports NHK
September 3, 2017 Martyn Williams
Reuters has filed this take on the latest developments:
A shallow, 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook North Korea on Sunday, suggesting it had detonated a sixth nuclear device, hours after it said it had developed an advanced hydrogen bomb that possesses “great destructive power”.
The earthquake struck 75 km (45 miles) north northwest of Kimchaek. Previous recent tremors in the region have been caused by nuclear tests, which if the case this time round, is bound to increase the tension hours after U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talked by phone about the “escalating” nuclear crisis.
The quake was only 10 km deep, the U.S. Geological Survey said, again suggesting a nuclear device.
Eight minutes later China’s Earthquake Administration said it has detected another quake in North Korea of magnitude 4.6, which it termed as a “collapse” and a “suspected explosion”.
The coordinates of the two quakes were almost identical, according to figures provided by the administration.
Witnesses 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.
The hydrogen bomb report by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency comes amid heightened regional tension following Pyongyang’s two tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in July that potentially could fly about 10,000 km (6,200 miles), putting many parts of the mainland United States within range. Under third-generation leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea has been pursuing a nuclear device small and light enough to fit on a long-range ballistic missile, without affecting its range and making it capable of surviving re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
North Korea, which carries out its nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions, “recently succeeded” in making a more advanced hydrogen bomb that will be loaded on to an ICBM, KCNA said.
“The H-bomb, the explosive power of which is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds kiloton, 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,” KCNA said.
“All components of the H-bomb were homemade and all the processes ... were put on the Juche basis, thus enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.
Juche is North Korea’s homegrown ideology of self-reliance that is a mix of Marxism and extreme nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather. It says its weapons programmes are needed to counter U.S. aggression.
North Korea offered no evidence for its latest claim, and Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University*s Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, was sceptical.
“Referring to tens to hundreds of kilotons, it doesn*t appear to be talking about a fully fledged H-bomb. It’s more likely a boosted nuclear device,” Kim said, referring to an atomic bomb which uses some hydrogen isotopes to boost explosive yield.
A hydrogen bomb can achieve thousands of kilotons of explosive yield - massively more powerful than some 10 to 15 kilotons that North Korea*s last nuclear test in September was estimated to have produced, similar to the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
Share 5.39am 05:39
Second quake reported
According to Reuters in China, China’s Earthquake Administration said it has detected another quake in
North Korea of magnitude 4.6, which it termed as a “collapse”.
A statement on the administration’s website said the second quake, measured at a depth of zero kilometres, came eight minutes after the first quake, which it said was a “suspected explosion”.
The coordinates of the two quakes were almost identical, according to figures provided by the administration.

North koreais making progress..........qoute me anywhr

Tsun tsun da ya ja ruwa, shi ruwa kan duka.
Pickin wey say im mama no go sleep, imself no go sleep...

Say No war cos everybody will loss