PYONGYANG, Feb 12: Defying UN warnings, North Korea on Tuesday conducted its third nuclear test in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step towards its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the United States.

North Korea said the atomic test was merely its “first response” to what it called US threats, and said it would continue with unspecified “second and third measures of greater intensity” if Washington maintained its hostility.

The underground test, which set off powerful seismic waves, drew immediate condemnation from Washington, the UN and others. Even its only major ally, China, summoned the North’s ambassador for a dressing-down.

The test was a defiant North Korean response to UN orders that it shut down its atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation. It will likely draw more sanctions from the United States and other countries at a time when North Korea is trying to rebuild its moribund economy and expand its engagement with the outside world.

“The test was conducted in a safe and perfect way on a high level, with the use of a smaller and light A-bomb, unlike the previous ones, yet with great explosive power,” North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

In Pyongyang, where it was snowing on Tuesday, North Koreans gathered around televisions to watch a 3pm TV broadcast announcing the nuclear test.

The test showed the world that North Korea was a “nuclear weapons state that no one can irritate”, Kim Mun Chol, a 42-year-old Pyongyang citizen, said in the North Korean capital.

“Now we have nothing to be afraid of in the world.”—AP