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North Korea Says It Has Detonated Its First Hydrogen Bomb

North Korea declared on Tuesday that it had detonated its first hydrogen bomb.

The assertion, if true, would dramatically escalate the nuclear challenge from one of the world’s most isolated and dangerous states.

In an announcement, North Korea said that the test had been a “complete success.” But it was difficult to tell whether the statement was true. North Korea has made repeated claims about its nuclear capabilities that outside analysts have greeted with skepticism.

“This is the self-defensive measure we have to take to defend our right to live in the face of the nuclear threats and blackmail by the United States and to guarantee the security of the Korean Peninsula,” a female North Korean announcer said, reading the statement on Central Television, the state-run network.

The North’s announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event along the country’s northeast coast.

It may be weeks or longer before detectors sent aloft by the United States and other powers can determine what kind of test was conducted. Ned Price, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement that American officials “cannot confirm these claims at this time.”

One of the things I love about the Obama administration has been how it has advanced world peace . . .

There is still some question as to whether this is a true Teller-Ulam style Hydrogen bomb, or "merely" a fusion boosted fission weapon. In either case, this, it is bad news.

This is truly scary, since there is no organization in the world that can't smuggle anything it wants into the US if it really wants to badly enough. So what happens, when in six months the Norks claim to have smuggled an H-bomb into (hopefully) New York or Washington D.C. and demand the US leave South Korea (I'm OK with that) and that we feed their hungry masses for the next 100 years. Can we afford to call their bluff?

And why would any fifth rate dictator even hesitate to try to build one with Obama in office? Kind of dated but here's ultra-liberal (you can hear his contempt for the US right off the bat) reacting to China getting the atomic bomb (the "little" fission bomb, not the bf hydrogen bomb: