SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

North Korea claims to have successfully developed and tested a hydrogen bomb [cnn.com]. Observers have detected tremors associated with a blast several times larger than previous underground nuclear bomb tests. North Korea also claimed to have developed a hydrogen bomb [wikipedia.org] capable of being fitted on a missile:

North Korea carried out its most powerful nuclear test to date [cnn.com] on Sunday, claiming to have developed an advanced hydrogen bomb that could sit atop an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The bomb used in the country's sixth-ever nuclear test sent tremors across the region that were 10 times more powerful than Pyongyang's previous test a year ago, Japanese officials said. While the type of bomb used and its size have not been independently verified, if true, the pariah state is a significant step closer to being able to fire a nuclear warhead to the US mainland, as it has repeatedly threatened it could if provoked.

[...] The device was more than eight times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, according to NORSAR, a Norway-based group that monitors nuclear tests. Based on the tremors that followed the test, NORSAR estimated [norsar.no] it had an explosive yield of 120 kilotons. Hiroshima's had 15 kilotons. But South Korean officials gave a more modest estimation, saying that Sunday's bomb had a yield of 50 kilotons.

がんばれ! 你能行的!! 화이팅!!!

Also at BBC [bbc.com], Reuters [reuters.com], and NYT [nytimes.com].

Original Submission