North Korea nuclear test: Merkel and Macron condemn ‘new dimension of provocation’ after H-bomb ‘detonated’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have responded to North Korea’s claims it has successfully tested a powerful hydrogen bomb.

Merkel and Macron condemned the latest nuclear test, stating it is a “new dimension of provocation”.

The secretive communist state said it had tested a weapon which could be loaded on to a long-range missile, hours after seismologists detected an earth tremor.

Pyongyang claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb, a device much more powerful than an atomic bomb.