N Korea claims successful miniaturization of nuclear warheads

North Korea says it has successfully miniaturized nuclear warheads so they can be fit on ballistic missiles.

"The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them," the KCNA official news agency quoted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as saying on Wednesday.

“This can be called a true nuclear deterrent," he added.

Kim made the claim while supposedly inspecting a series of warheads designed for thermo-nuclear reaction - the process used in a hydrogen bomb which the North claims to have recently successfully tested.

The remarks were Kim’s first direct reference to claims made repeatedly on Korean state media concerning miniaturizing nuclear warheads, a process that has been met with skepticism from the US and South Korea.

South Korea falls prey to North hackers 

Meanwhile, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) announced that North Korean hackers have successfully gained access to sensitive information of scores of top South Korean officials over the past few weeks.

The North "has been implanting malicious codes by sending enticing text messages" to the smart phones of officials since late February, said NIS.

NIS added that officials from the Ministry of National Defense, the country's transport system, and online banking networks were among those targeted.

The cyber attackers reportedly gained access to the officials’ phone conversations, text messages, and other sensitive information by sending text messages containing links that activated a virus.

According to the Yonhap news agency, the phones of South Korean National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and Defense Minister Han Min-koo were targeted in the attacks.

The United States and the South have implicated the North in various cyber attacks over the last few years, all of which have been denied by Pyongyang.  

NIS warned that it has recently recorded an increase in North Korean cyber attacks which it suspects are in retaliation for the tough new sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

On January 6, North Korea said it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, its fourth nuclear test, vowing to build up its nuclear program as deterrence against potential aggression from the US.

A month later, Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket it said placed an earth observation satellite into orbit. However, Washington and Seoul denounced it as a cover for an intercontinental ballistic missile test.​

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