North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reported claimed that his country has developed a hydrogen bomb, representing a potential upgrade to its nuclear arsenal if proven true. Citing a report from North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, a South Korean news agency, Yonhap, said Kim made the declaration while touring a historic weapons industry site in the country, according to USA Today.
North Korea is now a "powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant A-bomb (atomic bomb) and H-bomb (hydrogen bomb) to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," Yonhap reported.
Any type of information from the highly secretive nation of North Korea is difficult to independently confirm, but the alleged development of a bomb, which is even more powerful than conventional nuclear weapons, is even more so, especially considering North Korea's tendency to lie about almost anything under the sun such as discovering unicorns, or its discovery of a cure for MERS, diabetes and gangrene.
With that in mind - backed with technical evidence, experts are skeptical about Pyongyang's latest claim, according to CNN.
John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Asia program at Chatham House, said it was "hard to see convincing technical evidence" of Kim's claim, adding that North Korea had used plutonium in nuclear tests and a leap to thermonuclear capability would be surprising.
"Since the 1980s there is some evidence to suggest a program of developing highly enriched uranium, alongside plutonium, but it's hard to see how they could have made the leap from that to evidence of a working hydrogen bomb," he said.
Jeffrey Lewis, from the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies, shared his skepticism, according to FOX News.
"I think it's unlikely that they have an H-bomb at the moment, but I don't expect them to keep testing basic devices indefinitely either," he said, adding that he believes Kim was referring to the technology of boosting the yield of a nuclear device.
North Korea has hinted at having stronger weapons in the past, but Kim's remarks are believed to be the first that explicitly mentions a hydrogen bomb.
