North Korea Announces That It Has Detonated First Hydrogen Bomb
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/world/asia/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-test.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
WASHINGTON — North Korea declared Wednesday that it had detonated its first hydrogen bomb.
The test, if true, would dramatically escalate the nuclear challenge from one of the world’s most isolated and dangerous states.
In a brief announcement, North Korea said that the test had been a “complete success.” But it was difficult to tell whether the announcement was true. North Korea has made repeated claims about its nuclear capabilities that outside analysts have greeted with skepticism.
The North’s announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event along the country’s northeast coast.
It may be weeks or longer before detectors sent aloft by the United States and other powers can determine what kind of test was conducted.
The tremors occurred at or near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where three previous tests have been conducted over the past nine years.
In recent weeks, the North’s aggressive young leader, Kim Jong Un, has boasted that the country has finally developed the technology to build a thermonuclear weapon — far more powerful than the low-yield devices tested first in 2006, then in different configurations months after President Obama took office in 2009 and again in 2013.
For the Obama administration, which only six months ago defused the Iranian nuclear threat with an agreement to limit its capabilities for at least a decade, the announcement rekindles the another major nuclear challenge – one that the administration has never found a way to manage. With the latest detonation, three of the North’s four tests will have occurred during the Mr. Obama’s term in office. Combined with the North’s gradually increasing missile technology, it poses a larger and larger threat to the region — though it is still not clear the North knows how to mount a nuclear weapon on one of its missiles.
The United States did not develop its first thermonuclear weapons — commonly known as hydrogen bombs — until 1952, seven years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons in wartime, against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Russia, China and other powers followed suit.
Such weapons essentially use two separate nuclear explosions: A primary fission reaction, which compresses a second nuclear mass and ignites a fusion reaction. That two-stage approach tremendously increases the power of the bomb.
WASHINGTON — North Korea declared Wednesday that it had detonated its first hydrogen bomb.
The test, if true, would dramatically escalate the nuclear challenge from one of the world’s most isolated and dangerous states.
In a brief announcement, North Korea said that the test had been a “complete success.” But it was difficult to tell whether the announcement was true. North Korea has made repeated claims about its nuclear capabilities that outside analysts have greeted with skepticism.
The North’s announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event along the country’s northeast coast.
It may be weeks or longer before detectors sent aloft by the United States and other powers can determine what kind of test was conducted.
The tremors occurred at or near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, where three previous tests have been conducted over the past nine years.
In recent weeks, the North’s aggressive young leader, Kim Jong Un, has boasted that the country has finally developed the technology to build a thermonuclear weapon — far more powerful than the low-yield devices tested first in 2006, then in different configurations months after President Obama took office in 2009 and again in 2013.
For the Obama administration, which only six months ago defused the Iranian nuclear threat with an agreement to limit its capabilities for at least a decade, the announcement rekindles the another major nuclear challenge – one that the administration has never found a way to manage. With the latest detonation, three of the North’s four tests will have occurred during the Mr. Obama’s term in office. Combined with the North’s gradually increasing missile technology, it poses a larger and larger threat to the region — though it is still not clear the North knows how to mount a nuclear weapon on one of its missiles.
The United States did not develop its first thermonuclear weapons — commonly known as hydrogen bombs — until 1952, seven years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons in wartime, against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Russia, China and other powers followed suit.
Such weapons essentially use two separate nuclear explosions: A primary fission reaction, which compresses a second nuclear mass and ignites a fusion reaction. That two-stage approach tremendously increases the power of the bomb.
NYC 06/24/08-Auckland 11/27/09-Chch 11/29/09-Newark 05/18/10-Atlanta 09/22/12-Chicago 07/19/13-Brooklyn 10/18/13 & 10/19/13-Hartford 10/25/13-Baltimore 10/27/13-Auckland 1/17/14-GC 1/19/14-Melbourne 1/24/14-Sydney 1/26/14-Amsterdam 6/16/14 & 6/17/14-Milan 6/20/14-Berlin 6/26/14-Leeds 7/8/14-Milton Keynes 7/11/14-St. Louis 10/3/14-NYC 9/26/15
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"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22537682-a-kim-jong-il-production
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Nevertheless, here's an interesting perspective:
http://www.wired.com/2016/01/science-can-tell-if-north-koreas-test-was-really-an-h-bomb/