SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said on Friday he believes the North could consider a hydrogen bomb test on the Pacific Ocean of an unprecedented scale, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

Ri was speaking to reporters in New York when he was asked what North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had meant when he threatened in an earlier statement the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the United States.

North Korea could consider a hydrogen bomb test, Ri said, although he did not know Kim’s exact thoughts, Yonhap reported.