NK nuke test up to 8 times more powerful than Nagasaki bomb: Chinese scientists

By Bai Tiantian Source : Global Times Published: 2017/9/4 16:13:39

Chinese scientists measured North Korea's latest nuclear test on Sunday at 108 kilotons, which is three to 7.8 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb the US dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

A seismic research team led by Wen Lianxing of the University of Science and Technology of China measured Sunday's nuclear test at 108.3±48.1 kilotons, the highest of all six nuclear tests North Korea has conducted, according to an email sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Based on seismometer data, the team confirmed that the test was conducted under the same mountain of nuclear tests in September and January 2016, February 2013 and May 2009.

North Korean state television claimed on Sunday that Pyongyang had tested a hydrogen bomb, and that the test was a "perfect success" and a "meaningful" step in completing the country's nuclear weapons program, Reuters reported. It added that the bomb was designed to be mounted on its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).