Kim Jong Un 'inspects H-bomb missile warhead'
North Korea says it has developed an advanced nuclear weapon that can fit into a long-range missile - but experts doubt its claim.
Sunday 3 September 2017 04:57, UK
Kim Jong Un is said to have inspected the loading of a hydrogen bomb into a new intercontinental ballistic missile.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency said the Supreme Leader visited the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute to inspect the device.
Pictures showed Mr Kim in a black suit with his lieutenants examining a metal casing with two bulges that was apparently the purported weapon.
It quoted Mr Kim as saying it was a "thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power" and "all components of the H-bomb were 100% domestically made".
It claimed the hydrogen bomb's power is adjustable to hundreds of kilotons and can be detonated at high altitudes.
Experts are sceptical about the claim that Pyongyang has mastered hydrogen technology, but it is almost impossible to independently confirm statements about its highly secret weapons programme.
Melissa Hanham, of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in California, said the images released by the North could not be proved real.
"We don't know if this thing is full of styrofoam, but yes, it is shaped like it has two devices," she said on Twitter.
"It doesn't need to be shaped like that on the outside, but they threw in a diagram, just so we would get the message.
"The bottom line is that they probably are going to do a thermonuclear test in the future, we won't know if it's this object though."
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However, the North's statement is raising already high tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in Washington that the North is getting closer to its goal of an arsenal of viable nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can reach the US mainland.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with US President Donald Trump by phone on Sunday and said that in face of an "escalating" situation with North Korea that close cooperation between their countries and South Korea was needed.
Last month, US media reported that US intelligence officials had concluded Pyongyang had successfully .
It prompted President Donald Trump to issue a warning of on the North, while Pyongyang threatened to fire missiles towards the US territory of Guam.
On Tuesday, the North that flew over Japan, a test considered one of the most provocative ever from the reclusive state.
Atomic or A-bombs work on the principle of nuclear fission, where energy is released by splitting atoms of enriched uranium or plutonium encased in the warhead.
Hydrogen or H-bombs, also known as thermonuclear weapons, work on fusion and are far more powerful, with a nuclear blast taking place first to create the intense temperatures required.
No H-bomb has ever been used in combat, but they make up most of the world's nuclear arsenals.