North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said recently that the country has developed a hydrogen bomb.
The official Korea Central News Agency carried a report that Kim made the admission during a tour of the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, a historic place that commemorates the work of his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung, according to NBC News.
The state news agency quoted Kim as commenting during then tour that the feats of Kim Il Sung "turned [North Korea] into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a self-reliant [atomic] bomb and [hydrogen] bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation."
A hydrogen bomb is significantly more powerful than an atomic bomb.
A spokesperson for South Korea’s Defense Ministry said that its military had no intelligence to back up the claim.
"We are closely monitoring and tracking any and all of North Korea’s nuclear activities. So far, we have not noticed any unusual movements or activities," the spokesperson stated.
China, an ally to North Korea, would not say whether it believed the claim to be credible.
"The situation on the Korean peninsula is very delicate, complex and fragile. We hope all concerned will make effort that contributes to peace and stability," a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
An expert on North Korea working at China’s Central Party School expressed doubt that the country has the ability to develop a hydrogen bomb.
"They have not even conducted any single test and now they make this claim--there’s no way for us to believe it is true," Zhang Liangui, the expert, said. "Their purpose could be to pressure the international community. Their main aim is to demand the international community to recognize the country as a nuclear state, and to further stress they will not abandon the nuclear weapons."
North Korea has been slapped with United Nations sanctions for carrying out nuclear tests in past years. Despite U.N. sanctions, North Korea has pressed forward with its missile and nuclear programs.
Most recently, the country botched a submarine-launched ballistic missile test, damaging its submarine in the process. U.S. officials have said that such tests violate U.N. sanctions.