Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying briefs media on the DPRK nuclear test issue during a daily press briefing in Beijing, Jan 6, 2016. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY

Beijing urges neighbor 'to halt actions that will deteriorate the situation'

OVERVIEW OF TESTING SITE AFP/CHINA DAILY

Beijing stated its "resolute opposition" on Wednesday after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced earlier in the day that it had successfully carried out its first hydrogen bomb test.

Countries and international organizations said they were still examining the test's details and impact, since some key facts were believed missing in the official statement released through the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.

The nuclear test, the fourth by the DPRK, was conducted at a site close to the Chinese border. Previously, the DPRK conducted three nuclear tests－in 2006, 2009 and 2013－drawing fierce international objections and sanctions.

On Wednesday morning, the China Earthquake Network Center said a magnitude-4.9 quake jolted the DPRK at 9:30 am Beijing time "at a depth of 0 km".

Then the state-run Korean Central News Agency said DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un had ordered the hydrogen bomb test on Dec 15 and signed the final order on Sunday. The test was a "total success" and was conducted "in a safe and perfect manner", it said.

In response, Beijing issued a rare written statement in the afternoon, in which the Foreign Ministry said: "We strongly urge the DPRK to honor its denuclearization pledges and stop taking any action that will deteriorate the situation."

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection is "monitoring the data and will conduct an all-out radiation emergency test in the border area", Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

By 1 pm, local readings of gamma radiation had been normal, the environmental ministry said.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that "China firmly champions the international nuclear nonproliferation system".

The United Nations Security Council has planned an emergency meeting on Wednesday in New York. US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Washington will respond appropriately to any "provocations".

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it hadn't been confirmed that the DPRK had carried out an actual nuclear test, and that all sides should "preserve maximum restraint", AFP reported.

People at a railroad station in Seoul watch a news report on Wednesday after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced that it had conducted its first hydrogen bomb test. JUNG YEON-JE/AFP

Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye said on Wednesday that Seoul "should closely cooperate with the international community", ROK's Yonhap news agency reported.

Yu Meihua, director of the Center for Korean Peninsula Peace Studies of the China Reform Forum, said the United States and its allies Japan and the ROK will take Pyongyang's test as an excuse to "initiate the next arms race in the region" by having more military cooperation and deployment in the region.

Yu said fresh UN sanctions might be imposed and "DPRK's pace of economic cooperation with foreign countries will possibly see a slowdown".

Zhang Liangui, an expert of Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said the nuclear test was "not a surprise", as Pyongyang has renewed commitment to its nuclear plans in recent years.

AFP and Xinhua contributed to this story.