North Korea conducts 'fifth and biggest nuclear test'

What we know so far

There has been no official confirmation from North Korea about whether it conducted its fifth nuclear test today or not. But a lot of evidence points in that direction at the moment. Here’s what we know:

• A large earthquake of magnitude 5.3 was recorded near the North’s nuclear tests site at around 9.30am local time on Friday (1.30am BST), according to US, Chinese and Japanese monitors.
• The US Geological Survey described it as an explosion rather than a tremor.
• The epicentre of the tremor was at ground level, not below ground like most naturally occurring seismic events.
• Japan and South Korea have confirmed that it was a nuclear test.

North Korea is believed to have carried out its fifth and largest ever test of a nuclear device, say South Korean military officials.

It comes after an "artificial" magnitude 5.3 earthquake was detected close to its nuclear test site on Friday morning,

Previous artificial earthquakes in the same area and of that magnitude have all been nuclear tests.

There has been no comment from the North as yet.

In a statement carried by the Yonhap news agency, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said: "We estimate the North has carried out the biggest-ever test."

It said the yield was estimated to have been 10 kilotonnes, almost twice the power of its last test in January. At that time the North said it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, but many analysts cast doubt on that claim.