It seems this nuclear test is still only partially success, but it is getting close.
North Korea Appears to Test Nuclear Device - WSJ.com
By EVAN RAMSTAD
SEOUL—North Korea appeared to have exploded a nuclear device Tuesday, its third experimental detonation in a long effort to build weapons of mass destruction that the U.S. and other countries consider a serious threat.
An "artificial earthquake" was detected at 11:57 a.m., according to authorities in South Korea who attributed the seismic activity to the northeastern area of North Korea where it previously detonated nuclear devices in October 2006 and May 2009.
North Korea made no immediate statement. Its authoritarian regime gave several explicit warnings since Jan. 24 that it was planning to detonate a nuclear explosive.
A South Korean passenger watches TV news reporting an earthquake in North Korea.
Even before those statements, diplomats and observers in other countries had considered such an explosion likely as Pyongyang appeared to be repeating a pattern of provocative actions seen before the previous explosions.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it detected seismic activity with a magnitude of 4.9, bigger than the seismic activity produced in North Korea's previous two blasts. A report by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said the quake registered a magnitude of 5.1.
Both of the previous detonations were considered small by the standards of nuclear testing in other countries.
The first one in 2006 produced a tremor that measured a magnitude 4.1, and analysts in the U.S. later estimated its explosive force at less than one kiloton. The second one in 2009 produced a seismic tremor of 4.7 and an explosive force of about two to six kilotons, according to estimates by U.S. seismic and geological experts.
Estimates are in both cases are constrained by limited information about the geology of the mountains where the explosions took place. By contrast, the first nuclear bomb tested by the U.S. in 1945 had an explosive force of approximately 18 to 20 kilotons.
North Korea Appears to Test Nuclear Device - WSJ.com
By EVAN RAMSTAD
SEOUL—North Korea appeared to have exploded a nuclear device Tuesday, its third experimental detonation in a long effort to build weapons of mass destruction that the U.S. and other countries consider a serious threat.
An "artificial earthquake" was detected at 11:57 a.m., according to authorities in South Korea who attributed the seismic activity to the northeastern area of North Korea where it previously detonated nuclear devices in October 2006 and May 2009.
North Korea made no immediate statement. Its authoritarian regime gave several explicit warnings since Jan. 24 that it was planning to detonate a nuclear explosive.
A South Korean passenger watches TV news reporting an earthquake in North Korea.
Even before those statements, diplomats and observers in other countries had considered such an explosion likely as Pyongyang appeared to be repeating a pattern of provocative actions seen before the previous explosions.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it detected seismic activity with a magnitude of 4.9, bigger than the seismic activity produced in North Korea's previous two blasts. A report by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said the quake registered a magnitude of 5.1.
Both of the previous detonations were considered small by the standards of nuclear testing in other countries.
The first one in 2006 produced a tremor that measured a magnitude 4.1, and analysts in the U.S. later estimated its explosive force at less than one kiloton. The second one in 2009 produced a seismic tremor of 4.7 and an explosive force of about two to six kilotons, according to estimates by U.S. seismic and geological experts.
Estimates are in both cases are constrained by limited information about the geology of the mountains where the explosions took place. By contrast, the first nuclear bomb tested by the U.S. in 1945 had an explosive force of approximately 18 to 20 kilotons.
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