Outrage, skepticism greet North Korea’s claim of hydrogen bomb test

The world reacted with outrage and skepticism Wednesday after North Korea claimed that it had successfully tested a “miniaturized” hydrogen bomb.

 

The announcement, which could not immediately be confirmed by outside sources, was made by a state television anchor who read a typically propaganda-heavy statement calling the test a “perfect success” that elevated the country’s “nuclear might to the next level” and provided it with a weapon to defend itself against the United States and other enemies.

 

The United Nations Security Council quickly announced an emergency meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning.

 

However, Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert based in Seoul, South Korea, told Fox News he was “seriously skeptical” that Pyongyang had tested a hydrogen bomb. According to Lankov, North Korea would have needed to divert a large amount of scarce funds to construct such a device, saying it would have been “mission overkill.”

 

“I believe it did not have the ‘signature’ of a Hydrogen bomb,” said Lankov, who added that he had “absolutely no doubt” the blast was an atomic test, the fourth carried out since 2006 in definance of international and United Nations sanctions.

 

South Korean lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo told the Associated Press that the country’s National Intelligence Service had expressed in a private briefing that they believed North Korea had tested an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb.

 

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