North Korea has added the hydrogen bomb to its arsenal, a development that, if true, would represent a major leap in its nuclear weapons capabilities.But outside observers were skeptical, saying that such an advance in the country's nuclear technology seemed unlikely.
Analysts in recent years have believed that North Korea may have been working toward -- but didn't yet have the capability to produce -- a thermonuclear bomb, which can be hundreds of times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
North Korean leader Kim
PudgeJong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
made the claim, according to state media outlet KCNA, while touring a historic weapons industry site in the reclusive communist country.
Will China protect North Korea?
North Korea had become "a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate [a] self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its illusory sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," Kim said, according to the KCNA report.