North Korea Confirms 5th Nuclear Test; Claims It Tested A Miniaturized Warhead
|The Chinese will probably talk that they will do something in response to this nuclear test, but I doubt anything of real consequence will happen to North Korea. At this point the only way I see China doing anything to stop the North Korean nuclear program is if South Korea and Japan get the green light to begin developing their own nukes:
North Korea confirmed its fifth nuclear test explosion early Friday, its largest yet. The provocation brought instant condemnation from the country’s neighbors and a call from President Obama for “serious consequences.”
Pyongyang also said it has made strides that could bring it closer to mounting a warhead on one of its ballistic missiles and launching a long-distance nuclear strike.
“We successfully conducted a nuclear explosion test to determine the power of [the] nuclear warhead,” a female anchor announced on North Korea’s state television. “We will continue to strengthen our nuclear capabilities to protect our sovereignty. We have now standardized and minimized nuclear warheads … We can now produce small nuclear warheads any time we desire.”
South Korea’s defense ministry said the yield of the blast is estimated to be 10 kilotons, the largest ever conducted by Pyongyang. Its first nuclear test in 2006 yielded less than one kiloton, and the country has been steadily increasing its atomic capacity ever since. [Good Morning America]
You can read more at the link.
No matter how bad it gets with North Korea, I think it would tough for the Japanese gov’t to get the ball rolling on building nuclear weapons because the vast majority of Japanese people are intensely adverse to nuclear weapons because of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And that has now been extended to nuclear power since the meltdown at Fukushima.
Between Carter, Clinton, and Obama, the norks seem to be getting all the cash they need… Trump might be able to deal with China and knock fatboy down a peg or three…
Stop the talks drop the nuke’s