Bloomberg and Reuters reported earlier that a man-made 5.1-magnitude earthquake was detected 49 kilometers (around 30 miles) from North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site on Jan. 6, indicating that N. Korea likely carried out a fourth nuclear test. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake took place at a depth of 10 kilometers. A nuclear bomb test in the same area and at a similar depth in 2013 triggered a 5.1-magnitude quake. The South Korean Meteorological Agency confirmed that the tremor was man-made, and Chinese earthquake monitors said it was caused by a suspected explosion. Pyongyang later confirmed that it has successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test, which is the fourth test carried out by North Korea http://www.reuters.com/article/us-n...dType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter
I think the word should be "alleged" rather than "confirmed", seeing that the source is Pyongyang. I also see that most experts doubt that it was an H bomb: too small. It rather looks as if either they are lying to keep their spirits up or that the bomb has gone off half-cocked, like one of their previous tests. When you add that to their missile that keeps swerving off course and crashing, this is not something we should lose a lot of sleep over. It's just a sort of military masturbation, by a crappy little regime that wishes it were significant.
If one only adds a small amount of H2 to boost the yield of a fision bomb, It would seem to me to declare it was not a hydrogen bomb, based on the yield, is not a valid agument. Keeping yield small would seem to be wise for under ground tests. How does one outside the country determine if part of the yield was hydrogen or not? - That seems really tough to do, but what do I know?
It was detected outside North Korea, so something definitely happened. But I agree with exchemist in taking North Korean claims with a grain (a boulder) of salt. One of their motivations in building nuclear weapons is clearly to punch above their weight and to become one of the big-dogs. So they are going to have a tendency to exaggerate their own prowess. I believe that their first nuclear test was something of a fizzle. This one may not have gone off as planned too. North Korea scares me. It's probably the world's closest approximation to George Orwell's 1984. It seems to me to be run by certifiable psychotics whose thought processes seem bizarre in the extreme. It has nuclear weapons and is trying to develop ICBMs. Their incessant war-rhetoric and their periodic military provocations, such as sinking South Korean warships and shelling South Korean islands, suggest that they have an obsession with pushing the envelope. If mushroom clouds ever sprout here in Silicon Valley, they will be the first ones I suspect. (Iran would be #2)
There is a part of me that wants to take him out, and be done with it. He wouldn't know what hit him. Baring that he needs to have a come to Jesus with his neighbor and sponsor The Peoples Republic of China. China needs to rein the little man.
Actually my contention is that nuclear weapons are utterly useless as an offensive weapon. I do not think even N Korea is mad enough to invite annihilation by first use of them. Iran most definitely will not do so, whatever hysteria to the contrary the US Israel Lobby tries to whip up. However, as a defensive weapon they are first class. Iraq and Afghanistan got invaded, while N Korea has not been. Iran can see that very keenly, I suspect. And that of course is why the British government is keen to renew Trident. With people like Putin around (for example), who might conceivably try some sort of conventional aggression, it is a useful thing to have a nuke or two.
