North Korea has developed a hydrogen bomb which can be loaded into the country's new intercontinental ballistic missile, the official Korean Central News Agency claimed today. <br/><br/>KCNA said that leader Kim Jong-Un had inspected such a device at the Nuclear Weapons Institute. It was a thermonuclear weapon with super explosive power made by the own efforts and technology. <br/><br/>North Korea triggered a new escalation of tensions in July, when it carried out two successful tests of an ICBM, the Hwasong-14, which apparently brought much of the US mainland within range. <br/><br/>After its fourth nuclear test, in January 2016, it claimed that the device was a miniaturised H-bomb, which has the potential to be far more powerful than other nuclear devices. <br/><br/>But scientists said the six-kiloton yield achieved then was far too low for a thermonuclear device. When it carried out its fifth test, in September 2016, it did not say it was a hydrogen bomb.<br/><br/>The North had further upgraded its technical performance at a higher ultra-modern level on the basis of precious successes made in the first H-bomb test, KCNA said, adding that Kim set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes. <br/><br/>Actually mounting a warhead onto a missile would amount to a significant escalation on the North's part, as it would create a risk that it was preparing an attack.