It will take some time for international experts to analyze North Korea’s latest nuclear test. This is the fourth time the country has tested a nuclear device….in a period stretching back nearly a decade. HPR’s Bill Dorman has some background in today’s Asia Minute.
North Korea’s first nuclear test surprised the world in October 2006, when Kim Jong-il was in his twelfth year as ruler of the country. As with the other tests, it was held underground—and this initial explosion was relatively small. Experts put it under one kiloton less than a tenth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. North Korea’s second nuclear test came in May 2009. The size -or yield - was bigger than the first.
While there’s disagreement on its precise size, a near consensus is several kilotons. The first two explosions were fueled by plutonium…the third may have used enriched uranium—which would represent a technological advance. Kim Jong Un had been in power less than a year when North Korea tested its third nuclear device in February 2013.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-ban Treaty Organization confirmed the presence of radioactive isotopes…but was unable to say whether they came from plutonium or uranium. The other tests that concern international observers are rocket launches---devices that could be used to deliver a nuclear payload. Since 1998, North Korea has carried out at least five tests of long-range rockets…its most recent focused on a launch from a submarine.
