N Korea nuclear test on UN agenda

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the test as a "clear and grave violation" of UN resolutions and a "deeply destabilising" provocation.

It is North Korea's third and most powerful nuclear test.

Describing it as a response to US "hostility", the North said "even stronger" action might follow.

Nuclear test monitors in Vienna say the underground explosion had double the force of the last test, in 2009, despite the use of a device said by the North to be smaller.

If a smaller device was indeed tested, analysts say this could take Pyongyang closer to building a warhead small enough to arm a missile.

UN sanctions on the North were expanded after the secretive communist state launched a rocket in December, in a move condemned by the UN as a banned test of missile technology.

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