North Korea claims it developed new H-bomb

North Korea claimed on Saturday it has developed a hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) which can be loaded into the country's new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), AFP reported, citing the official Korean Central News Agency.

Questions remain over whether Pyongyang has successfully miniaturized its weapons, and whether it has a working H-bomb, but KCNA said that leader Kim Jong-Un had inspected such a device at the Nuclear Weapons Institute.

It was a "thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by our own efforts and technology", KCNA cited Kim as saying, and adding that "all components of the H-bomb were 100 percent domestically made".

Pictures showed Kim in black suit examining a metal casing with two bulges.

In January of 2016, North Korea claimed it tested a hydrogen bomb, but experts cast doubts on those claims, saying the evidence points to a far smaller explosion.

North Korea triggered a new escalation of tensions in July, when it carried out two successful tests of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14, which apparently brought much of the U.S. mainland within range.

This past week, it launched a ballistic missile which flew over Japan broke into three pieces and fell into the waters off Japan's Hokkaido.

U.S. President Donald Trump later said “all options are on the table” following the missile launch.

Kim later boasted that the missile launch was just the first step of a military operation that would include Guam.

The North had "further upgraded its technical performance at a higher ultra-modern level on the basis of precious successes made in the first H-bomb test,, KCNA said in its report on Saturday night, adding that Kim "set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes."