North Korea has developed a new, more advanced hydrogen nuke that is small enough to be fitted on a new intercontinental ballistic missile, state media KCNA has claimed.
According to the KCNA report, North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Institute has created a “more developed nuke,” bringing about a “signal turn” in the country’s nuclear arsenal. Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, inspected the new weapon during his visit to the nuclear facility.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency © KCNA / Reuters
Scientists “further upgraded its technical performance at a higher ultra-modern level on the basis of precious successes made in the first H-bomb test,” KCNA said, boasting about the progress of the domestic weapons program.
“The Nuclear Weapons Research Institute has recently achieved a higher level of research and production of nuclear weapons,” in accordance with the country’s strategic plan of nuclear weaponization, KCNA said.
“Our hydrogen fuel, which can be arbitrarily adjusted from tens of to hundreds of kilotons depending on the target of the nuclear strike, not only exerts enormous destructive power,” but can also explode at a high altitude, producing a “super powerful EMP [electromagnetic pulse] against a vast region,” it said.
“It is a multifunctional thermonuclear combat unit,” KCNA said, adding that all of its elements are “100% localized and all processes necessary for the production of nuclear weapons are integrated.”
