The nuclear age is 70 years old and while relatively few nations possess the power, the potential consequences of North Korea upping its nuclear game from a basic atomic bomb to a hydrogen bomb has caught the world’s attention.
Advertisement
An answer may be found in U.S. or South Korean analysis of the atmosphere for “trace elements [of] radiation”, though Mike Chinoy, a fellow at the University of Southern California’s U.S.-China Institute, noted that “we may never know 100%”.
North Korea needs nuclear tests for practical military and political reasons.
– February 29, 2012: North Korea announces a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests in food aid deal with U.S.
The White House says it can’t confirm the test, but says the US would condemn any violations of UN Security Council resolutions.
Public opinion among many ordinary Chinese has hardened against the North, although support remains strong for the government to continue to prop up the North rather than risk chaos and a possible US presence along China’s border.
Shoppers stand near TV screens which report that North Korea said it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test, at an electronics store in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.
North Korea hadn’t conducted a nuclear explosion since early 2013, and leader Kim Jong Un did not mention the country’s nuclear weapons in his New Year’s speech.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, called North Korea’s announcement “profoundly destabilizing for regional security”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country that willingly gave up the world’s fourth largest nuclear arsenal that it inherited from the Soviet Union and is known for its nonproliferation stance, released a statement strongly condemning the test.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye called the test a “grave provocation” at an emergency meeting of the Country’s National Security Council (NSC) convened immediately after the news broke.
Russian Federation on Wednesday slammed the claimed testing of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea as a clear breach of worldwide law that could enflame tensions across the region.
A test would further North Korea’s global isolation by prompting a push for new, tougher sanctions at the United Nations and worsening Pyongyang’s already bad ties with Washington and its neighbors.
“North Korea’s nuclear test is a serious threat to our nation’s security and absolutely can not be tolerated.
We won’t use the nuclear weapon as long as there’s no invasion of our autonomy”, the announcement said. The sanctions are aimed at reining in the North’s nuclear and missile development, but Pyongyang has ignored them and moved ahead with programs to modernize its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
Nuclear weapons based on fission typically have a yield of around 10 kilotons, while nuclear weapons employing fusion can have a yield measured in megatons.
But North Korea goes to great lengths to hide its tests by conducting them underground and tightly sealing off tunnels or other vents through which radioactive bomb residue could escape.
Advertisement
That’s when USA forces used atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II.
