Tag: hydrogen bomb

Would such a test be pretext to launch a bombing strike, especially since they would have to fire over Japan to do this nuclear test?:

Hours later, Kim’s foreign minister told reporters in New York that Pyongyang could launch a nuclear missile test in response. “This could probably mean the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean. Regarding which measures to take, I don’t really know since it is what Kim Jong Un does,” said Ri.  [CNN]

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We kept hearing from the media how North Korea was going to launch an ICBM during their Foundation Day holiday and instead they used the holiday to celebrate their successful hydrogen bomb test:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hailed the latest nuclear test as “a great victory” at a celebration banquet, and praised the officials and experts for their efforts in carrying out the successful experiment, its state media said Sunday.

The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea hosted a feast to mark the North’s sixth and the most powerful test conducted last week, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Last Sunday, Pyongyang said it conducted a hydrogen bomb test at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the country’s northeast, which it claimed can fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States.

Kim appeared at the banquet hall in the Mokran House, attended by other ranking military officials, and heaped praise on the attendees for “most proudly and realistically carrying out the tasks,” the state mouthpiece said.

Although it did not specify when the banquet was held, it is presumed to have taken place Saturday, which marked the 69th founding anniversary of the regime’s establishment.

During the banquet, they played video footage on a large screen of what is presumed to be a hydrogen bomb warhead being assembled by its scientists, according to its state television network.  [Yonhap]

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It would not be surprising if this facility is in fact being built to manufacture hydrogen bomb ingredients considering the Kim regime’s state goal of building a hydrogen bomb.  With that said I think the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) may want to get a different acronym to describe themselves with:

North Korea is forging ahead with construction of a new nuclear facility believed to be designed to separate isotopes from spent fuel, such as tritium, a key ingredient for hydrogen bombs, a U.S. research institute said.

The Institute for Science and International Security said in a report released Monday that satellite imagery taken on Jan. 25 of the North’s Yongbyon nuclear complex shows “external construction signatures” at the new facility site, such as vehicles, construction material, and earth displacement activities.

“The precise purpose of this site remains unknown. However, it is of interest because the signatures visible through a historical analysis of satellite imagery are consistent with an isotope separation facility, including tritium separation,” ISIS said.

“This assessment is shared not only by an expert ISIS consulted but also by a government expert we consulted who has long experience in assessing activities at the Yongbyon site,” it said.

In September, ISIS first raised the possibility that the new facility could be an isotope separation plant.

If confirmed as such, the facility would separate isotopes from spent nuclear fuel rods from the 5-megawatt reactor, the North’s main plutonium-producing reactor, the institute said at the time. Though the reactor is not an ideal producer of isotopes, it can be used in that way, it added.  [Yonhap]

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The data inconclusive, but I would not be surprised if the North Koreans did in fact test some hydrogen bomb components:

More threats from North Korea being made against the US:

North Korea said Tuesday that it is ready to detonate hydrogen bombs capable of wiping out the United States “all at once,” claiming that it has succeeded in developing miniaturized nuclear weapons.

North Korea’s latest nuclear test helped the North “get fully armed with smaller and standardized H-bombs for ballistic rockets and get possessed of ultra-modern strike means for delivering nuclear bombs of various kinds,” the Korean Central News Agency said in its commentary.

The North threatened that its nuclear scientists and technicians are “in high spirits” to detonate hydrogen bombs capable of “wiping out” the whole U.S. territory all at once as Washington moves to stifle the North. [Yonhap]

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It is important to remember that just because the test failed doesn’t mean the North Koreans did not learn something from it to improve the bomb for a second test:

The yield, or the total energy produced by the bomb, also contradicts Pyongyang’s claim.

It is estimated that the Wednesday test generated 6 kilotons of yield, which is less than the 8-kiloton yield of the third nuclear test in 2013.

The North’s second nuclear test in 2009 had 2-kiloton yield, and the first in 2006 yielded less than 1 kiloton of total energy. A yield of 1 kiloton can be approximately compared to 1,000 tons of TNT exploding.

In an H-bomb test by the Soviet Union in 1961, the yield produced by the destructive bomb known as “Czar Bomb” was estimated at 50,000 kilotons.

One government official involved in the assessment of the test last week told the JoongAng Ilbo that the government thinks Pyongyang carried out a failed hydrogen test after reviewing various scientific data and evidence. “We have reviewed a wide range of scientific data such as the strength of the seismic event and sound wave and the detonation location before coming up with the assessment [that it was a failed H-bomb test],” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.