Experts say North Korea‘s successful detonation of a miniaturized nuclear device is concerning because it indicates the country may be getting closer to the ability to put a nuclear device on a missile.

North Korea drew worldwide condemnation Tuesday after it announced it had successfully conducted its third nuclear test, in direct defiance to U.N. Security Council orders to shut down its atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation.

North Korea expert Andrei Lankov tells Fox News that possession of such a “miniaturized” device would be necessary to create a nuclear warhead.

“It shows they are advancing their nuclear technology,” Lankov said.

He also noted the significance of the timing of the test, which came just months after North Korea‘s successful intercontinental ballistic missile test.

“It seems they are very close to being able to put a device on a missile,” Lankov said.

Peter Beck, an expert for Asia Society, tells Fox News the blast appears to be “significantly greater” than North Korea‘s past nuclear tests. He, too, said the test “…shows a greater commitment by North Korea to marry the missile and nuclear programs.”

President Obama was one of many world leaders to speak out against the test early Tuesday, calling it a “highly provocative act” and warning that the international community would act in response.

“These provocations do not make North Korea more secure,” the president said in a statement. “Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.”

North Korea‘s official state media said the test was conducted in a safe manner and is aimed at coping with “outrageous” U.S. hostility that “violently” undermines the North’s peaceful, sovereign right to launch satellites. North Korea faced sanctions after a December launch of a rocket that the U.N. and Washington called a cover for a banned missile test. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful satellite launch.

Earlier Tuesday, South Korean, U.S. and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies said they detected an earthquake in North Korea with a magnitude between 4.9 and 5.2.

Annika Thunborg, who works for the Vienna-based UN nuclear monitoring agency the CTBTO, confirms to Fox News the blast was larger than past tests, measuring 4.9 seismically on the Richter scale. The country’s 2006 test, which was widely seen as a failure, measured 4.1 and the 2009 test measured 4.5.

Thunborg also says they are trying to find out if enriched uranium was used in this test. This would be significant as the first two tests used North Korea‘s plutonium stocks which are being depleted. Uranium could be derived from a new nuclear method and those supplies could be renewed.

The North said it used a “lighter, miniaturized atomic bomb” that still has more explosive force than past tests. North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker. However, it is not known whether North Korean scientists …read more
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