North Korea carried out its third and largest nuclear test since 2006 on Tuesday, drawing international condemnation and a rebuke from China, the nation’s closest ally.

According to The Guardian, the nuclear test may have been planned to coincide with President Obama’s State of the Union address, or it may have been a commemoration of the late Kim Jong Il’s birthday. Regardless, North Korea now claims to have achieved a more advanced nuclear capability.

The test was first detected in the form of a 4.9 magnitude earthquake.

North Korean state media later confirmed the test with a propagandistic flair that defies imitation, as quoted by the BBC:

Confirmation of the test came three hours later in a statement from state-run KCNA news agency.

“It was confirmed that the nuclear test, that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect manner using a miniaturised and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously, did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment,” it said.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer.

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#kim jong un#north korea#nuclear arms#state of the union