Kim Jong-un reportedly inspects new nuclear weapon with ‘great destructive power’ built from components produced within the country

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

North Korea says it has developed a more advanced nuclear weapon that has “great destructive power”, and that leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a hydrogen bomb that will be loaded on to a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The report by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency comes amid heightened regional tension and global concern following Pyongyang’s test launch of two ICBM-class missiles in July that potentially had a range of about 10,000km (6,200 miles), putting the mainland United States within reach.

Under its leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea has pursued work at an unprecedented pace to building nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles to deliver them, defying UN sanctions and international pressure.

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Experts and officials have said North Korea has kept its nuclear test site ready to conduct a sixth test at any time.

The KCNA news agency said the hydrogen bomb’s power was adjustable to hundreds of kilotons and it could be detonated at high altitudes, with its indigenously produced components allowing the country to build as many nuclear weapons as it wants.

Kim visited the country’s Nuclear Weapons Institute and “watched an H-bomb to be loaded into new ICBM”, 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,” he said.



Juche is North Korea’s homegrown go-it-alone ideology that is a mix of Marxism and extreme nationalism preached by state founder Kim Il-sung, the current leader’s grandfather.

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Kim Jong-un “set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes”, KCNA said, but it made no mention of plans for a sixth nuclear test.

North Korea last year conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests, saying the fourth in January 2016 was a successful hydrogen bomb test, although outside experts questioned whether it was a fully fledged hydrogen bomb.

The fifth nuclear test in September 2016 was measured to be possibly North Korea’s biggest detonation ever, but the earthquake it caused was still not believed to be big enough to indicate a thermonuclear test.

USofficials said that while North Korea has had parts in place for a nuclear detonation going back several months, no new activity has been seen recently at its known nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in its north-eastern region.