WASHINGTON: The head of the US military’s Strategic Command is “assuming” North Korea’s nuclear test earlier this month was of a hydrogen bomb, Defense News reported Thursday.
Pyongyang insisted the September 3 nuclear test was a hydrogen bomb but western powers have been reluctant to verify the claim.
The reported acknowledgement is the nearest the US has come to confirming it was an H-bomb, with a senior official previously saying only that there was nothing inconsistent with North Korea’s claim.
“I saw the event, I saw the indications that came from that event,” General John Hyten said. “I saw the size, I saw the reports and therefore, to me, I am assuming it was a hydrogen bomb.”
Experts had said the blast had the hallmarks of a two-stage hydrogen bomb, which work on fusion, with a nuclear blast taking place first to create the intense temperatures required.
“The size of the weapon shows that there clearly was a secondary explosion,” Hyten told reporters visiting the command with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, according to the outlet Defense News.
