North Korea has confirmed it has conducted its fifth nuclear test, announcing it is now capable of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic rockets, the North Korean news agency reported on Friday.

The statement came just hours after a powerful explosion was reported near the country's secretive nuclear test site.

"The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable North Korea to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power," a statement from Pyongyang, posted on the website of the Korean Central News Agency, reads.

Pyongyang also claimed that no leakage of nuclear material had occurred in the test, and that there was no negative environmental impact.

Source: MEAN