Nuclear weapons testing

Dozens of countries signed a treaty to ban nuclear weapons on Wednesday amid tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, although the United States, Britain, France and others boycotted the event at the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders, reported Reuters. 

The United Nations Security Council passed a new round of sanctions in retaliation for North Korea's most powerful nuclear test every conducted on September 3. The resolution bans Pyongyang from exporting textiles while capping how much crude oil and refined petroleum products can be imported.

North Korea's recent nuclear test appears to have triggered several landslides, according to what are believed to be the first satellite images of the aftermath, reported BBC.

Sunday's test took place underground at the mountainous Punggye-ri site.

Analysis group 38 North published pictures which show "more numerous and widespread" disturbances than before.

North Korea is readying the launch of a ballistic missile, military leaders in South Korea believe after launching rockets in live-fire drills in response to the test of a nuclear bomb at the weekend.

North Korea announced it has carried out a hydrogen atom bomb test and called it "absolute success," the BBC reported. The Communist State Television has already broadcast footage to which Kim Jing-nun signs a nuclear warrant.

South Korea and Japan have confirmed that Pyongyang has done its most powerful nuclear experment so far, Reuters reports.

President Donald Trump said on June 20 that Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear program have failed, ratcheting up the rhetoric over the death of an American student who had been detained by Pyongyang.

North Korea is ready to launch a nuclear test at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, the 38 North monitoring group reported on Wednesday.

The 38 North analysis group described the test site as “primed and ready.”

Because of their top secret status, about 10,000 reels of film recording the 210 above-ground nuclear tests conducted by the United States between 1945 and 1962 were allowed to rot in high-security vaults across the country.

Concerns have spread in Europe about a potential nuclear “incident” following a recent report by a French nuclear watchdog agency – the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), the French national public expert in nuclear and radiological risks – that radioactive Iodine-131 had been observed across much of northern and central Europe.

North Korea claimed on Sept. 9 it has successfully tested a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on a missile, drawing condemnation from the South over the "maniacal recklessness" of young ruler Kim Jong-Un.