North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test around 9:30 a.m. Friday at its Punggye-ri test site in the country's northeastern region, a move that has been strongly condemned by South Korea and the international community.

In a statement announced by Seoul’s First Deputy Director Cho Tae-yong of the presidential National Security Office, South Korea said the North must realize that it has nothing to gain with such a pursuit, and warned the regime will face stronger global sanctions and further diplomatic isolation.

The statement said that in the end, the North Korean economy will collapse and the regime will be on the road to self-destruction.

The statement also urged the North to immediately dismantle its nuclear and missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.

The Seoul government also stressed that it will make all necessary efforts to devise stronger sanctions against Pyongyang.

A five-point-three magnitude artificial tremor was detected Friday morning originating from the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Hamgyong Province where the country’s fourth nuclear test in January was also conducted.

The South Korean military estimated the explosive yield of the test at some ten kilotons, the most powerful yet.

According to North Korean media, the North's nuclear weapons institute issued a statement saying the test conclusively examined and confirmed the structure, movement, performance and force of a nuclear warhead that has been standardized to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets.

The North conducting a fifth nuclear test was anticipated as simply a matter of when.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has publicly called for further nuclear development and the recent series of ballistic missile launches have been deemed successful.

If the North goes on to succeed in miniaturizing warheads to be mounted on ballistic missiles, the threat becomes even more substantive and real.

The international community has condemned the latest provocation in unity.

The UN Security Council is expected to deliver stronger sanctions on the North.

It's also to be seen whether China will step up sanctions on North Korea. In recent summit talks with Seoul, Beijing stressed the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while expressing opposition to South Korea’s deployment of the U.S. THAAD missile defense system.