North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, with an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile causing an artificial 6.3-magnitude earthquake in the isolated country.
When the test took place, people in the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, said they felt a tremor that lasted roughly 10 seconds, followed by an aftershock.
“I was eating brunch just over the border here in Yanji when we felt the whole building shake,” said Michael Spavor, director of the Paektu Cultural Exchange, which promotes business and cultural ties with North Korea. “It lasted for about five seconds. The city air raid sirens started going off.”
The tremors felt in Yanji were captured in the video below.
Earthquakes triggered by North Korean nuclear tests have gradually increased in magnitude since Pyongyang’s first test in 2006, indicating the country is steadily increasing the destructive power of its nuclear technology.
The reaction from Steven J. Gibbons, a seismologist who monitors underground nuclear testing, spoke for many.
The test drew swift international condemnation, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, who described North Korea as a “rogue nation” and said its actions “continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States”.
Trump also appeared to rebuke ally South Korea, which faces an existential threat from North Korea’s nuclear programme.
“South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!” Trump said in an early morning tweet.
And when Trump was asked whether he planned to attack North Korea, he replied: “We’ll see.”