N. Korea vows to boost arms programmes after sanctions

Seoul, Sept. 13: North Korea vowed on Wednesday to accelerate its weapons programmes in response to “evil” sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council following its latest and most powerful nuclear test.

The respected 38north .org website in the US raised its estimate for the yield from the explosion, which Pyongyang says was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit onto a missile, to around 250 kilotons — more than 16 times the size of the device that devastated

◗ 38north.org website of US raised its estimate for the yield from N. Korea’s recent test to 250 kilotons, 16 times largen than Hiroshima bomb

Hiroshima in 1945.

Government estimates of the yield from its sixth nuclear test vary from South Korea’s 50 kilotons to Japan’s 160, but 38 North, which is linked to Johns Hopkins University in the US, raised its estimate to “roughly 250 kilotons”, in line with upward revisions for the magnitude of the resulting tremor.

South Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said on Wednesday that it had collected a small amount of xenon-133 — a radioactive isotope of the inert gas that does not occur naturally —that was “linked to the latest nuclear test”.

But the commission said in a statement that it was “unable to confirm what type of nuclear test was conducted”.