US Military to Conduct Large-Scale Drills to Counter 'Strategic Threats'

© AP Photo/ Ted S. Warren

A massive exercise involving many, if not all, of nine US combatant commands will target an array of strategic threats facing the United States and its allies, the Department of Defense’s US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) announced in a press release on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Beginning Saturday, the drill entitled "Global Lightning 2016" will integrate "nearly every conceivable strategic threat to our nation to ensure the resilience, redundancy and survivability of our strategic deterrent forces, while stressing the STRATCOM capabilities provided to geographic combatant commanders in a crisis or contingency," the release noted.

While the release did not name specific threats, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter lists five targets for US military deterrence in nearly every public speech. They are: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Islamist-inspired terrorist attacks.

"To deter strategic threats and defend the nation, our forces must be ready and prepared to execute all assigned missions and provide our unique capabilities to the joint and combined force," STRATCOM Commander Admiral Cecil D. Haney said in the release.

STRATCOM, one of nine commands that direct US military operations worldwide, is in charge of overall strategic deterrence, space operations, cyberspace operations, joint electronic warfare, missile defense, intelligence, and combating weapons of mass destruction, the release explained.

Most of the eight remaining commands are specific to geographic regions such as the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia. For example, US Central Command (CENTCOM) is responsible for the battle against terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.



Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20160422/1038459564/us-drills-strategic-threats.html#ixzz46nfVnjGd

News From "CERN" Data Just Released

In 1 Out Of Every 5 American Families, Nobody Has A Job

If nobody is working in one out of every five U.S. families, then how in the world can the unemployment rate be close to 5 percent as the Obama administration keeps insisting? The truth, of course, is that the U.S. economy is in far worse condition than we are being told. Last week, I discussed the fact that the Federal Reserve has found that 47 percent of all Americans would not be able to come up with $400 for an unexpected visit to the emergency room without borrowing it or selling something. But Barack Obama and his minions never bring up that number. Nor do they ever bring up the fact that 20 percent of all families in America are completely unemployed. The following comes directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics…

In 2015, the share of families with an employed member was 80.3 percent, up by 0.2 percentage point from 2014. The likelihood of having an employed family member rose in 2015 for Black families (from 76.4 percent to 77.7 percent) and for Hispanic families (from 85.9 percent to 86.4 percent). The likelihood for White and Asian families showed little or no change (80.1 percent and 88.6 percent, respectively).

For purposes of this study, families “are classified either as married-couple families or as families maintained by women or men without spouses present” and they include households without children as well as children under the age of 18.

Digging into the numbers, we find that there were a total of 81,410,000 families in America during the 2015 calendar year.

Of that total, 16,060,000 families did not have a single member employed.

So that means that in 19.7 percent of all families in the United States, nobody has a job.

And of course there are lots more families that are “partially employed”. In other words, maybe the wife has a job but the husband does not.

So based on these numbers, it would appear to me that the true rate of unemployment in this country is vastly higher than 5 percent, and John Williams of shadowstats.com agrees with me. According to his calculations, the broadest measure of unemployment in the U.S. would actually be sitting at 22.9 percent if honest numbers were being used.

But let’s not just focus on where we are.

Let’s take a look at where we are going.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, job cut announcements by big companies in the United States were up 32 percent during the first quarter of 2016 compared to the first quarter of 2015, and it appears that the job losses are going to continue to mount as we roll into the second quarter. For instance, late last week Intel announced that it is going to be laying off 12,000 workers…

As it navigates its path into the future, Intel, the 47-year-old corporation best known for making microprocessor chips that power personal computers, has announced significant changes to its business.

On Tuesday, Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich said in a letter to employees that the company over the next year will cut its 107,300-person global workforce by 12,000 people, or 11 percent.

Those are good middle class jobs, and they are exactly the kind of jobs that we cannot afford to be losing.

Meanwhile, the “retail apocalypse” appears to be accelerating once again.

Bloomberg is reporting that teen clothing chain Aeropostale is preparing to file for bankruptcy.  Aeropostale currently operates more than 800 stores across the nation, and it is unclear if any of them will be able to stay open as this process plays out. But of course it isn’t just Aeropostale that has gone bankrupt lately. Here are a few more examples of major retailers that have recently filed for bankruptcy…

April 16, 2016: Vestis Retail Group, the operator of sporting goods retailers Eastern Mountain Sports (camping, hiking, skiing, adventure sports), Bob’s Stores (family clothing and shoes), and Sport Chalet (general sporting goods), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It will close all 56 stores and stop online sales.

In the filing, it blamed the going-out-of-business sales at “certain Sports Authority locations,” plus the weather, which had been too warm, and trouble with switching to a new software platform. It’s owned by private equity firm Versa Capital Management LLC.

April 7, 2016: Pacific Sunwear of California, clothing retailer with nearly 600 stores and derailed ambitions of skate-and-surf cool, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. PE firm Golden Gate Capital, a lender to the company, agreed to convert over 65% of its loan into equity of the reorganized company and add another $20 million in financing. Wells Fargo agreed to provide $100 million of debtor-in-possession financing.

March 2, 2016: Sports Authority filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It said it would close 140 of its 450 stores, including all stores in Texas.

Just because the stock market has been doing well in recent weeks does not mean that the crisis has passed.

In fact, many experts believe that the crisis of 2016 is just getting started.  Albert Edwards of Societe Generale is one of them…

But what I do know is when in the last few weeks I have heard that Janet Yellen sees no bubble in the US, when Ben Bernanke hones and restates his helicopter money speech, and when Mario Draghi says that the ECB’s policy of printing money and negative interest rates was working, I feel utterly depressed (I could also quote similar nonsense from Japan, the UK and China). I have not one scintilla of doubt that these central bankers will destroy the enfeebled world economy with their clumsy interventions and that political chaos will be the ugly result.The only people who will benefit are not investors, but anarchists who will embrace with delight the resulting chaos these policies will bring!

All over the world, the underlying economic fundamentals continue to deteriorate. Here in the U.S., retail sales have been extremely disappointing, total business sales have been steadily falling, corporate revenues and corporate profits continue to plunge, and corporate debt defaults have soared to their highest level since the last financial crisis.

All of these numbers are screaming that a major economic downturn is here, and with each passing week things look even more ominous for the second half of 2016.

Credit to Economic Collapse

Robert Kiyosaki: Why the Ultimate Stock Market Crash Will Begin in 2016

"Reanimation" firm is looking for ways to bring brain-dead people back to life

To be declared officially dead in the majority of countries, you have to experience complete and irreversible loss of brain function, or 'brain death.'

And although this sounds final and absolute, a company in the US believes it doesn't have to be.

Bioquark, a healthcare company set up to look into so-called 'repair' and 'reanimation' technologies claims death may not be 'irreversible' and we have reached a point to 'push the envelope' and test if this is really the case.




The complete and irreversible loss of brain function, or 'brain death', is the legal definition of human death in most countries around the world. But one company believes brain death may no longer be the end of the line

'We are repeatedly told through the medical establishment that brain death is "irreversible" and should be considered the end of the line,' Ira Pastor, boss of Bioquark said.

'Or is it? Have we come to a technological point where we are able to 'push the envelope' to see if this is truly the case?

Confirming death used to be straightforward, according to the NHS. It was said to occur when the heart stopped beating and a person was unresponsive and no longer breathing.

The lack of oxygen, which occurred as a result of no blood flow, quickly led to the permanent loss of brain stem function.

But now confirming death is more complicated, because it's possible to keep the heart beating after the brain stem has permanently stopped functioning.

This can be done by keeping a person on a ventilator, which allows the body and heart to be artificially oxygenated, for example.

In the UK and the US, among other countries, a person is confirmed as being dead when their brain stem function is permanently lost. Being brain dead is widely accepted to be just as final as cardiac death.

Mr Pastor, along with Dr Sergei Paylian, the founder of Bioquark, is on the advisory board of a project called ReAnima.

The ReAnima project website describes the project as 'exploring the potential of cutting edge biomedical technology for human neuro-regeneration and neuro-reanimation.'



A salamander (pictured) is part of a group of amphibians that can repair, regenerate and remodel substantial portions of their brain and brain stem even after critical life-threatening trauma. A study in 2007 showed that after a portion of their brains were removed, the animals managed to grow it back

'The mission of the ReAnima Project is to focus on clinical research in the state of brain death, or irreversible coma, in subjects who have recently met the Uniform Determination of Death Act criteria, but who are still on cardio-pulmonary or trophic support - a classification in many countries around the world known as a "living cadaver"' Mr Pastor told MailOnline.

He said the project has an 'ultimate goal of inducing epimorphic, intercalary, regenerative and remodeling events that can begin to restore CNS form and function.'

Mr Pastor added that 'epimorphic' in this context refers to the ability of cells to erase their history and re-start life again.

'To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining certain biologic regenerative tools, with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of patients with other severe disorders of consciousness,' he explained.

'We just received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for our first 20 subjects and we hope to start recruiting patients immediately.'

The first stage, named 'First In Human Neuro-Regeneration & Neuro-Reanimation' will be a non-randomised, single group 'proof of concept' study.

The team will examine individuals aged 15-65 declared brain dead from a traumatic brain injury using MRI scans, in order to look for possible signs of brain death reversal.

They will use techniques involving peptides, lasers, stem cells and median nerve stimulation to try and bring about the reversal of brain death, whilst monitoring the patients using MRI scans.

'We hope to see results within the first two to three months,' he said.




The team will examine individuals aged 15-65 declared brain dead from a traumatic brain injury using MRI scans, in order to look for possible signs of brain death reversal. False colour of an MRI scan of a human brain shown. They will use techniques involving peptides, lasers, stem cells and median nerve stimulation

A positive initial result would be 'an epimorphic event upwards at the intersection of the upper spinal cord, the highest part still "alive" in a living cadaver subject, and the lowest region of the brain stem, the lowest area of brain stem death and the source of independent breathing / and subsequently heart beat.

But this research is likely to be years from any stage where it could be applied widely.

A non-randomised single group study is far from the randomised control trial, which is seen as the gold standard of clinical trials.

'While there have been numerous demonstrations in recent years that the human brain and nervous system may not be as fixed and irreparable as is typically assumed, the idea that brain death could be easily reversed seems very far fetched, given our current abilities and understanding of neuroscience,' Dr Dean Burnett, neuroscientist at the Cardiff University Centre For Medical Education told MailOnline.

'The brain is a very demanding and vastly complex organ, but this also means it's very fragile.'

He said even a brief interruption of blood supply could cause permanent damage to the active parts of the brain.

'It's true some brain areas may be more durable, or have a more reliable blood supply, but a person, despite the myth, needs all of their brain working. It's not just the brain cells that are important, it's the incredibly intricate ways they're connected to many other areas.

'Saving individual parts might be helpful but it's a long way from resurrecting a whole working brain, in a functional, undamaged state. There's been nothing to suggest we're even close to that point yet.'

But Mr Pastor thinks the trials could lead to results by as early as next year.

'We believe we are quite close to a point in time where the delineation between coma, and irreversible coma or brain death will become "blurred" and hope to have such promising insights by 2017,' Pastor told MailOnline.

'Because 50,000 of the 150,000 people who die daily do not die from aging, but from various acute traumas that lead rapidly to brain death, we think even this modest dynamic will have a major impact.'


Credit to dailymail.co.uk

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3553644/Could-death-soon-REVERSIBLE-Reanimation-firm-looking-ways-bring-brain-dead-people-life.html#ixzz46cHNKmbf

47 Percent Of Americans Cannot Even Come Up With $400

If you had to make a sudden visit to the emergency room, would you have enough money to pay for it without selling something or borrowing the funds from somewhere?  Most Americans may not realize this, but this is something that the Federal Reserve has actually been tracking for several years now.  And according to the Fed, an astounding 47 percent of all Americans could not come up with $400 to pay for an emergency room visit without borrowing it or selling something.  Various surveys that I have talked about in the past have found that more than 60 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck, but I didn’t realize that things were quite this bad for about half the country.  If you can’t even come up with $400 for an unexpected emergency room visit, then you are just surviving from month to month by the skin of your teeth.  Unfortunately, about half of us are currently in that situation.

Earlier today someone pointed me toward an excellent article in The Atlantic that discussed this, and I have to admit that The Atlantic is one of the last remaining bastions of old school excellence in journalism that you will find in the mainstream media.  Of course I don’t see eye to eye with them on a lot of things philosophically, but there are some really hard working journalists over there.

The article where I found the 47 percent figure comes from The Atlantic, and it is entitled “The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans“.  It was authored by Neal Gabler, and he says that he can identify with the 47 percent of Americans that don’t have $400 for an unexpected emergency room visit because he is one of them…

I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to have to swallow my pride and constantly dun people to pay me so that I can pay others. I know what it is like to have liens slapped on me and to have my bank account levied by creditors. I know what it is like to be down to my last $5—literally—while I wait for a paycheck to arrive, and I know what it is like to subsist for days on a diet of eggs. I know what it is like to dread going to the mailbox, because there will always be new bills to pay but seldom a check with which to pay them. I know what it is like to have to tell my daughter that I didn’t know if I would be able to pay for her wedding; it all depended on whether something good happened. And I know what it is like to have to borrow money from my adult daughters because my wife and I ran out of heating oil.

To me, this is yet more evidence that the middle class in America is dying.

Last year, it was reported that middle class Americans make up a minority of the population for the very first time in our history.

But back in 1971, 61 percent of all Americans lived in middle class households.

So what happened?

Well, the big corporations started shipping millions of good paying manufacturing jobs overseas.  Millions of other good paying jobs were replaced by technology, and the competition for the good jobs that remained became extremely intense.

During the good times, the U.S. economy still created new jobs, but most of those jobs were low paying service jobs.

At this point, a majority of American workers have jobs that would be considered low paying.  In fact, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year according to the Social Security Administration.

And once you account for inflation, the truth is that our incomes have been going down for years.  According to a study that was released by Pew Charitable Trusts, median household income in the United States decreased by 13 percent between 2004 and 2014.

That isn’t “progress” any way that you slice it.

If you go all the way back to 1970, the middle class took home approximately 62 percent of all income in the United States.

Today, that number has fallen to just 43 percent.

So the fact that 47 percent of Americans can’t even pay for an unexpected emergency room visit is not exactly a surprise.  To be honest, a whole host of other surveys have come up with similar numbers.  Here is more from Neal Gabler…

A 2014 Bankrate survey, echoing the Fed’s data, found that only 38 percent of Americans would cover a $1,000 emergency-room visit or $500 car repair with money they’d saved. Two reports published last year by the Pew Charitable Trusts found, respectively, that 55 percent of households didn’t have enough liquid savings to replace a month’s worth of lost income, and that of the 56 percent of people who said they’d worried about their finances in the previous year, 71 percent were concerned about having enough money to cover everyday expenses.

What all of these numbers tell us is that the middle class is disappearing.  I tend to compare it to a game of really bizarre musical chairs.  With each passing month more chairs are being pulled out of the circle, and those members of the middle class that haven’t fallen into poverty yet are just hoping that a chair will still be there for them when the music stops.

Even during the “Obama recovery”, we have seen poverty in America absolutely explode.  In fact, some brand new numbers just came out that are quite startling.  The following comes from another author for The Atlantic named Gillian B. White…

Recently, the Brookings Institution published a report looking at the same idea but giving it a different name. The paper, builds on research from the British economist William Beveridge, who in 1942 proposed five types of poverty: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease. In modern terms, these could be defined as poverty related to housing, education, income, employment, and healthcare, respectively. Analyzing the 2014 American Community Survey, the paper’s co-authors, Richard Reeves, Edward Rodrigue, and Elizabeth Kneebone, found that half of Americans experience at least one of these types of poverty, and around 25 percent suffer from at least two.

To underscore this point, let me just run five quick facts about the growth of poverty in this country by you…

–The number of Americans that are living in concentrated areas of high poverty has doubled since the year 2000.

–In 2007, about one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps. Today, that number is one out of every five.

–46 million Americans use food banks each year, and lines start forming at some U.S. food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning because people want to get something before the food supplies run out.

–The number of homeless children in the U.S. has increased by 60 percent over the past six years.

–According to Poverty USA, 1.6 million American children slept in a homeless shelter or some other form of emergency housing last year.

That last number really gets me every time.

How can “the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet” have more than a million homeless children?

This is one of the reasons why I hammer on our ongoing economic collapse over and over and over.  It is affecting real families with real children that have real hopes and real dreams.

This is not the way our country is supposed to work.

It is supposed to be “the land of opportunity”.

It is supposed to be a place where anyone can live “the American Dream”.

But instead it has become an economic wasteland where the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world is being systematically eviscerated.

So no, the U.S. economy is not doing “just fine” – anyone that tries to tell you that lie is simply peddling fiction.

Credit to Economic Collapse

If Draghi's Latest Doesn't Scare You? You Just Aren't Paying Attention

To say central banks have intervened far too long within the financial markets would be an understatement. However, what can not be overstated is just how far down the “rabbit hole” of lunacy they are continuing to push all measures of fundamental business understandings such as, competitive advantage, governance, price discovery, viability, and a whole lot more. Not withstanding, the devastating effect these disruptions are placing upon the population’s at large that rely on these very businesses for both their own general welfare (as in employment) but also, the taxes they pay that go into general funds of all sorts whether it be local, state, federal et al.

Today, everything (and I do mean everything!) one thought they understood about free market capitalism has been thrown into the wastebasket of history and replaced with edicts and dictates set forth by an un-elected gaggle of economic theorists who’ve decided the world of business is theirs to control. How do they control it? Hint: The courage to print!

Whether you’re a solo-practitioner or CEO of a global concern one thing should be making you very, very, very (did I say very?) concerned: The recent proclamations, as well as, delivery from the ECB’s Mario Draghi.

Mario Draghi not only openly stated, but did so in a manner which many put into the “defiantly so” camp, that he has the right, the means, and wherewithal to purchase corporate debt as he see’s fit. If that doesn’t shake you down to your business core – you just aren’t paying attention.

I’m not trying to be bombastic or hyperbolic just for the fun of it. I’m absolutely stunned at just how openly brazen Mr. Draghi’s comments, as well as, retorts when asked about not only if he would, but rather, if he should intervene (e.g. purchasing) into the differing stratum of corporate bonds. I must state this again: “If that doesn’t shake you down to your business core – you just aren’t paying attention.”

So why is this of such concern some will ask. After all as the thinking will go: “Didn’t we do something similar with GM™?”

Well, yes we did – and the ramifications of that intervention are still yet to be felt. (i.e., as to how the rules of financial law play out, or applied from here on out) However, as large as GM is and the ancillary companies that were both helped, as well as, hurt by the government’s intervention. There are two distinct differences in both application as well as scale. First…

Whether you approve or disapprove of the decision, at the very least, it was made by elected officials. In other words (like it or not) people voted for those whom made the decision. It’s not a distinction without a difference. Nor, should that fact be lost. (please save the emails – this isn’t about who currently holds or, will hold the title. This is about what is, plain and simple.)

Yet, with that said it’s in the second part where concerns should manifest…

GM was in many ways an isolated event. Draghi’s proclamation of both his intention, as well as, surety turns the volume of that in both size and scale up to 11!

Let me make it clear just how brazen central banker’s are increasingly becoming as to their function and purpose when it comes to their interpretation of what their “mandate” is using Mr. Draghi’s latest words in response to the “should” idea. Ready?…

“We have a mandate to pursue price stability for the whole of the eurozone, not just Germany,” he said. “We obey the law, not the politicians.”

Ponder that statement transposing Mr. Draghi with any other central bank and you can see just how concerning this is all rapidly devolving. Today it’s Draghi. Tomorrow?

This and more is referred to as a “lament” by the WSJ™. Personally, I never thought of someone giving the middle finger while proclaiming like it or not, this is what they’re going to do as a “lament.” But that’s just me I guess.

So with this newly professed (as interpreted) “mandate” Mr. Draghi will now have the power (as by decree) of corporate life and death (via their bonds) using the business acumen and economic theory residing within that bastion of business acuity The ECB as to buy or sell corporate bonds at a pace, or rate, it has deemed “appropriate.”

And where will this new-found “purchase power” come from? Hint: A keystroke which fills a bank balance sheet with funds created ex nihilo. Am I the only one that sees an issue here?

Let me put this into more blunt terms as well as examples…

Does anyone think for a moment that the leaders of let’s say, oh I don’t know: China, are going to sit idly by as Mario Draghi decides which companies will be able to compete with an unfair advantage (such as buying their bonds) against them? China would love nothing more than to return “the finger” to their own printing presses all the while pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of the ECB’s monetary policy. Can you say Yuan devaluation? And that’s just for starters.

Mr. Draghi boldly proclaims “We obey the law, not the politicians.” Well, that may be how he currently views the dynamic. However: how many politicians from not only the Euro-zone but from across the globe will just sit back idly as their once touted symbols of free enterprise make a mad dash to reorganize their corporate structure to become headquartered in the EU as to “get a seat at the table” when Draghi begins dishing out the monetary equivalent of corporate sustenance?

If you thought corporations liked tax inversions – just wait till you see how they react to the idea of unlimited financing of their bonds! And yes, “unlimited” is accurate because as we now have proof. “whatever it takes” means just that – “whatever.”

The ECB’s latest “lament” turns everything about business dynamics onto its head. No more is it “build a better mousetrap.” Mr. Draghi is now the one deciding who will “live or die” as to build one. There’s another term for that: it’s called playing economic god.

Again, the only differentiation as to whether or not many a company will live, or perish, via their bond funding will be whether Mr. Draghi believes they should. All via a nod and a keystroke. And maybe you thought the “god” reference was a little over the top at first blush. Not so when put under this light. is it?

What an absolute debacle this will create in more ways than there is digital ink to describe it all. It’s an absolute abomination to anything related to business and free enterprise and it should be denounced boldly, firmly, and vociferously by not only politicians – but by the business community itself. For as I stated: It’s an abomination of everything once thought of as free market competition. So much so it makes the BoJ or even Krugman look fiscally responsible by comparison.

Let’s use some real world hypothetical examples. (these are meant to be overly simplistic)

Who gets to build a “better” jet engine: the better company and/or design team with limited access to funds? Or, the company whose headquarters (whether newly configured or original) is located within the ECB’s purview as to purchase their corporate debt?

How about a car company? Software company? Phone maker? Retailer? ____________(fill in the blank.)

Competitive edge? Who cares! All that will matter is whether or not your company has access to the ECB’s bond program. And if so? Bottom line inefficiencies, or product advancements be damned.

Competition? Forgettaboutit! Unless they’re on Mario’s list – there is no competition. The only competition one needs to be concerned with is whether or not the ECB has a bond ticket with your name on it. Period.

If you think this is bad, just wait – it’ll get worse. A lot worse. Why?

Do you think for one moment other central bankers are going to allow themselves to be out done via “The Full Monty?” I sincerely doubt it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if not only the BoJ, but the Fed. and others decide to reciprocate in kind and offer similar lunacy into their economic structures – soon. After all, it’s all made possible via decree and a keystroke. And what’s even more concerning?

Not only don’t they need to ask for permission. You can forget about them ever begging for forgiveness if, and when, this all blows up. As a matter of fact, if former officials give us any clue – they’ll demand you pay $250K for the privilege to hear them proclaim how they “saved the world” from economic collapse which they, more than any one else, helped facilitate.

And that alone is concerning enough.

Credit to Zero Hedge

North Korea 'will halt' nuclear tests if US stops S Korea exercises

North Korea has said it will suspend its nuclear tests if the US stops its annual military exercises with South Korea.

Foreign minister Ri Su-yong also told the Associated Press news agency that his country would not be cowed by international sanctions.

A US official has defended the drills as a sign of commitment to South Korea.

Meanwhile, the North said Saturday's submarine-launched ballistic missile testwas a "great success".

"It fully confirmed and reinforced the reliability of the Korean-style underwater launching system and perfectly met all technical requirements for carrying out... underwater attack operation," the North Korean news agency KCNA said.

It added that the test gave the country "one more means for powerful nuclear attack".

North Korea is banned from nuclear tests and activities that use ballistic missile technology under UN sanctions dating back to 2006.

Credit to BBC