North Korea shakes world with hydrogen bomb

North Korea said it detonated a hydrogen bomb designed for a long-range missile on Sept. 2 and called its sixth and most powerful nuclear test a "perfect success," sparking world condemnation and promises of tougher U.S. sanctions.

Pyongyang residents threw their arms aloft in triumph as a jubilant television newsreader hailed the "unprecedentedly large" blast.

It "marked a very significant occasion in attaining the final goal of completing the state nuclear force", she added.

But world reaction was swift and angry. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter Pyongyang's "words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States".

The U.S. leader refrained from direct threats but branded the North "a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success".

South Korea, Trump added, "is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!"  
 
The U.S. Treasury Department will prepare a package of sanctions that would "cut off North Korea economically", said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Hours before the test the North had released images of leader Kim Jong-Un at the Nuclear Weapons Institute, inspecting what it said was a miniaturised H-bomb that could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

China, the North's sole remaining major ally, issued a "strong condemnation" of the test, which overshadowed the opening of the BRICS summit in Xiamen by leader Xi Jinping.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described it as "absolutely unacceptable" while Russia's foreign ministry expressed "strongest condemnation"...