North Korea Claims It Loaded H-Bomb on ICBM

The U.S. military was able to shoot down a medium-range missile off the coast of Hawaii in a successful test Wednesday, two days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a new, "super explosive" hydrogen bomb meant to be loaded into an intercontinental ballistic missile, Pyongyang's state media said Sunday, a claim that raised suspicion that the country was conducting another nuclear test.

Photos released by North Korea showed Kim talking with his lieutenants as he observed a silver, peanut-shaped device that was apparently the purported thermonuclear weapon destined for an ICBM.

Aside from the factuality of the North's claim, the language in its statement seems a strong signal that Pyongyang will soon conduct another nuclear weapon test, which is crucial if North Korean scientists are to fulfill the national goal of an arsenal of viable nuclear ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland. There's speculation that such a test could come on or around the Sept. 9 anniversary of North Korea's national founding, something it did last year.

As part of the North's weapons work, Kim was said by his propaganda mavens to have made a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and inspected a "homemade" H-bomb with "super explosive power" that "is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds (of) kiloton," the state run Korean Central News Agency said.