North Korea's strictly unauthorized nuclear test has drawn sharp criticism from around the world, with even China joining the outcry against its ally.

The US, North Korea's so-called "arch enemy," led the condemnation. In a statement, President Barack Obama called North Korea's third successful nuclear test a "threat to US national security," and hinted at action by the international community.

Obama also called the underground explosion — registered by US seismologists as a 4.9-magnitude earthquake — a "highly provocative act" that "undermines regional stability."

On the other side of the border, South Korea condemned the test as an "unacceptable threat" and a "head-on challenge to the international community."

"North Korea won't be able to avoid grave responsibility," the government warned in a statement, after an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.

Meanwhile China, North Korea's most powerful ally, summoned the country's ambassador to lodge a formal protest.

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The heightened seismic activity came at 11:57 a.m. near the Chinese border. The South Korean Defense Ministry estimates the detonated bomb to have weighed six to eight kilotons.

According to monitors at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation in Vienna, the resulting blast was twice as powerful as North Korea's last nuclear test in 2009.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry said the latest test was "only the first action," and threatened more could follow.

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