If this was a nuclear explosion, it would be a case of a failed explosion
- Michele Alliot-Marie, French defence minister
Sceptism over the much-hyped allegedly North Korean nuclear bomb test abound.
"Both from a technological as well as a political analysis, you would expect North Korea to build a 10-20 kiloton bomb. The fact that it is smaller than that suggests the test was not very successful," he said.
So, will my hunch that North Korean (and USA, Japan, and China) have been over-hyping this “tiny” detonation be confirmed?
A one-off test may be a sign it has only limited quantities of weapons-grade plutonium and has some way to go on the design of a nuclear weapon. A second test would answer those doubts, and clear up the uncertainties still lingering from the first.
Really? So why not all espionage agents in the world stop plutonium from coming to North Korea? Or Iran? Or, while we’re on it, North America?
Nuclear weapons strategy, post-Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are nothing but poker players bluffs.