Does North Korea have nuclear weapons? DPRK nuclear program
Kim Jong-un, unlike his relatives and predecessors, is not blackmailing the world with nuclear developments, but is creating a real missile nuclear arsenal.
Explosion for the holiday
September 9, 2017 North Korea marked the 69th anniversary of the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with another nuclear weapons test.
First, several countries immediately recorded increased seismic activity in North Korea, which could mean a nuclear explosion.
Then the fact of nuclear testing was officially confirmed by Pyongyang. “The DPRK will continue to take measures to strengthen the national nuclear forces in quantitative and qualitative terms to ensure the country's dignity and right to exist in the face of the growing nuclear threat from the United States,” the official North Korean news agency KCNA said in a statement.
South Korea, the United States and Japan have initiated an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, at which the issue of tightening sanctions against Pyongyang is expected to be raised.
The problem, however, is that sanctions on North Korea have virtually no effect. Furthermore, North Korea's nuclear missile program is showing significant progress.
How it all began
Even in the years Korean War The US command was considering the possibility of attacking nuclear strikes across the North. Although these plans were not realized, the North Korean leadership was interested in gaining access to technologies that would allow the creation of weapons of this type.
The USSR and China, acting as allies of the DPRK, were cool about these plans.
Nevertheless, in 1965, with the help of Soviet and Chinese specialists, a nuclear research center was founded in Yongbyon, where the Soviet nuclear reactor IRT-2000 was installed. Initially, it was assumed that the reactor would be used for work exclusively on peaceful programs.
In the 1970s, Pyongyang, with the support of China, began the first work on creating nuclear weapons.
In 1985, the Soviet Union obtained the DPRK to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In exchange for this, the USSR supplied a 5 MW gas-graphite research reactor to Korea. An agreement was also signed on the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea with four light water reactors of the VVER-440 type.
President Clinton's Failed War
Decay Soviet Union changed the situation in the world. The West and South Korea expected a quick fall North Korean regime, while simultaneously conducting peace negotiations with him in hopes of liberalizing the political system and its dismantling according to the Eastern European version.
The United States, in exchange for abandoning its nuclear program, promised Pyongyang economic and technical assistance in the development of peaceful atoms. North Korea responded by agreeing to allow IAEA inspectors into its nuclear facilities.
Relations began to deteriorate sharply after IAEA inspectors suspected that a certain amount of plutonium was being hidden. Based on this, the IAEA requested a special inspection of two spent nuclear fuel storage facilities that had not been declared, but was refused, motivated by the fact that the facilities were in no way connected with the nuclear program and were of a military nature.
As a result, in March 1993, the DPRK announced its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Negotiations with the United States made it possible to slow down this process, but on June 13, 1994, North Korea not only abandoned the agreement, but also withdrew from the IAEA.
During this period, as Newsweek magazine stated in 2006, the administration of US President Bill Clinton ordered the study of a military operation against North Korea. The military report stated that the operation would require expenditures of $100 billion, and the forces South Korea and the United States will lose about a million people, with the US Army losing at least 100,000 people killed.
As a result, the United States returned to negotiation tactics.
Threats and promises
At the end of 1994, with the assistance of former US President Jimmy Carter, a “framework agreement” was reached, according to which North Korea pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons program in exchange for supplies of fuel oil and the creation of two new nuclear reactors in light water, which cannot be used for nuclear weapons work.
Stability was established for several years. Both sides, however, fulfilled their obligations only partially, but internal difficulties in the DPRK and the distraction of the United States to other problems ensured a stable situation.
A new escalation began in 2002, when President George W. Bush came to power in the United States.
In January 2002, in his speech, Bush included the DPRK in the so-called “axis of evil.” Coupled with the intention to create a global missile defense system, this caused serious concern in Pyongyang. The North Korean leadership did not want to share the fate of Iraq.
In 2003, negotiations began on the DPRK's nuclear program with the participation of the PRC, the USA, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
No real progress was achieved on them. The aggressive policy of the United States gave rise to the confidence in the DPRK that it was possible to ensure its own security only if it had its own atomic bomb.
North Korea has made no secret of the fact that nuclear research continues.
Bomb: birth
Exactly 12 years ago, on September 9, 2004, a South Korean reconnaissance satellite recorded a powerful explosion in a remote area of the DPRK (Yangang Province), not far from the border with China. A crater visible from space remained at the site of the explosion, and a huge mushroom cloud with a diameter of about four kilometers grew above the scene.
On September 13, the DPRK authorities explained the appearance of a cloud similar to a nuclear mushroom as explosive work during the construction of the Samsu hydroelectric power station.
Neither South Korean nor American experts confirmed that it was indeed a nuclear explosion.
Western experts believed that the DPRK did not have the necessary resources and technologies to create a full-fledged atomic bomb, and we were talking about a potential, not an immediate danger.
On September 28, 2004, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK said at a session of the UN General Assembly that North Korea has already turned into nuclear weapon enriched uranium obtained from 8,000 reprocessed fuel rods from its nuclear reactor. He stressed that the DPRK had no other choice in creating a nuclear deterrent force in conditions when the United States declared its goal to destroy the DPRK and threatened preventive nuclear strikes.
On February 10, 2005, the DPRK Foreign Ministry for the first time officially announced the creation in the country atomic weapons. The world treated this statement as another bluff by Pyongyang.
A year and a half later, on October 9, 2006, the DPRK announced for the first time that it had successfully tested a nuclear charge, and its preparation had been publicly announced before. The low power of the charge (0.5 kilotons) raised doubts that it was a nuclear device and not ordinary TNT.
North Korean acceleration
On May 25, 2009, North Korea conducted another nuclear test. Power underground nuclear explosion, according to Russian military estimates, ranged from 10 to 20 kilotons.
Four years later, on February 12, 2013, North Korea conducted another atomic bomb test.
Despite the adoption of new sanctions against the DPRK, the opinion remained that Pyongyang is far from creating powerful devices, which can be used as real weapons.
On December 10, 2015, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced that his country had a hydrogen bomb, which meant a new step in the creation of nuclear weapons. On January 6, 2016, another test explosion was carried out, which the DPRK declared to be a test of a hydrogen bomb.
South Korean sources call the current test the most powerful in the entire nuclear program of the DPRK. It is also noteworthy that the interval between tests was the shortest in all years, which indicates that Pyongyang has made serious progress in improving technology.
And most importantly, North Korea stated that this test was carried out as part of the development of nuclear warheads that can be placed on ballistic missiles.
If this is indeed the case, then official Pyongyang has come close to creating real military nuclear weapons, which will radically change the situation in the region.
The rockets are flying further and further
Media reports about the situation in the DPRK, often from South Korean sources, give the wrong impression of North Korea. Despite the poverty of the population and other problems, this country is not backward. There are quite enough specialists in advanced industries, including nuclear and missile technologies.
People talk about the tests of North Korean missiles with a chuckle - they exploded again, missed the target again, fell again.
Military experts monitoring the situation claim that North Korean specialists are for last years made a powerful technological breakthrough.
By 2016, the DPRK had created a mobile single-stage liquid-propellant ballistic missile, the Hwasong-10, with a firing range of about three thousand kilometers.
In the summer of this year, the Pukkyukson-1 rocket was successfully tested. This solid-fuel missile is designed to arm submarines. Its successful launch was carried out precisely from a submarine of the DPRK Navy.
This does not at all fit with the idea of North Korea as a country with rusty old Soviet planes and Chinese tanks.
Experts point out that the number of tests in the DPRK has been growing rapidly in recent years, and the technology is becoming more and more complex.
Within a few years, North Korea is capable of creating a missile with a flight range of up to 5,000 km, and then a full-fledged intercontinental ballistic missile. Moreover, it will be equipped with the real nuclear warhead.
What to do with North Korea?
There is almost no doubt that sanctions against North Korea will be tightened. But previous experience shows that this does not affect Pyongyang in any way.
Moreover, Comrade Kim Jong-un, unlike his relatives and predecessors, is not blackmailing the world with nuclear developments, but is creating a real nuclear missile arsenal.
Moreover, he is not stopped even by the outright irritation of his main ally, Beijing, which is not interested in escalating the situation in the region.
The question arises: what can be done with North Korea? Even those who have an extremely negative perception of Comrade Kim’s regime are convinced that it will not be possible to shake up the situation from within. Neither friends nor enemies can convince Pyongyang to “behave well.”
A military operation against North Korea today will cost the United States much more than in the early 1990s, when the Clinton administration made similar plans. In addition, neither Russia nor China will allow a war on their borders, which has every prospect of turning into the Third World War.
In theory, Pyongyang could be satisfied with guarantees that would ensure the preservation of the regime and the absence of attempts to dismantle it.
That's just recent history teaches that the only such guarantee in modern world is the “nuclear club” that North Korea is working to create.
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North Korea says it has nuclear weapons, but estimates of its arsenal vary widely depending on the source. Thus, Pyongyang has repeatedly announced that it has 50 nuclear warheads, the power of which is enough to destroy South Korea, Japan and the United States. Researchers from the authoritative American-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University (USA) report that the DPRK is armed with 10 to 16 nuclear warheads and bombs. The Brookings Institution (USA) reports that North Korea has only 8 charges.
Is North Korea capable of launching a nuclear strike?
Is North Korea capable of independently producing nuclear weapons?
Yes, I can. The country has not only technology, but also the necessary infrastructure: the nuclear complex in Yongbyon. However, accurate information about the amount of weapons-grade plutonium that this complex is capable of producing is limited free access No. The fact is that the North Korean authorities do not allow IAEA specialists* to enter the nuclear facility.
On June 7, 2015, the US State Department accused North Korea of creating a new underground nuclear complex, the purpose of which is to produce weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear warheads and bombs.
What is North Korea's nuclear doctrine?
North Korea's nuclear doctrine states that "nuclear weapons serve to deter the enemy and retaliate in the event of aggression." Pyongyang also notes that it needs a nuclear program to develop a system of nuclear power plants (NPP) in the country.
Can the international community somehow influence the course of the North Korean nuclear program?
International Agency for atomic energy(IAEA) (eng. IAEA, abbr. International Atomic Energy Agency) - international organization to develop cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Founded in 1957. The headquarters is located in Vienna.
the site studied expert opinions about how many nuclear missiles there are and who they could threaten.
The world's attention is focused on the confrontation between the DPRK and the United States. North Korea plans to test another ballistic missile; however, the launch apparently failed, but the main evidence of this remains only the silence of the North Korean media about the important event dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung.
The US President continues to demonstrate that he intends to act decisively on the international stage: following the bombing of Syria on suspicion of being used by government forces chemical weapons he gave the order to send warships to the shores of North Korea. Pyongyang responded by saying that if they suspect the United States of being ready to attack, they reserve the right to a preemptive strike.
In January 2003, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, which it joined in 1985. Shortly before this, the country's authorities admitted that, in violation of agreements with the United States, they continued the uncontrolled use of nuclear technologies.
One of the organizations that regularly monitors news about the DPRK nuclear program (and analyzes satellite surveillance data, among other things) is the American Institute of Science and Technology international security. In the summer of 2016, its experts assessed the amount of material for nuclear weapons at Pyongyang's disposal as sufficient to create
from 13 to 21 nuclear warheads.
Institute experts believe that over the past two years, North Korea's nuclear arsenal has increased by four to six warhead equivalents - and decreased by one since the country conducted another underground nuclear weapons test in early 2016.
The main question is whether Pyongyang has means of delivering nuclear warheads, and if so, what kind. It was the test of a medium-range ballistic missile, allegedly a failure and now hushed up by the North Korean state media, that became the reason for the aggravation of relations between the United States and the DPRK.
Earlier, sources in the DPRK reported to the South Korean press that the missile that Pyongyang planned to test the other day has a range of up to 10 thousand kilometers.
Dennis Wilder, a former adviser to US President George W. Bush, assures in a commentary to the Daily Express that, according to intelligence data, North Korea could test and acquire ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to US territory within the next four years. Another expert - Professor Siegfried S. Hacker from Stanford University - in
Since the opening of the first nuclear reactor on the territory of the DPRK in 1965, the world has been arguing about how dangerous Korea's policy is. Pyongyang regularly makes statements that weapons are being developed and tested in the republic mass destruction, which will be used in the event of a threat to the formation. However, experts disagree on how great North Korea's power really is. Questions also arise over whether the country is receiving outside help - and if so, who is the ally in creating weapons that could cause untold casualties.
Military potential of the DPRK
North Korea is one of the twenty poorest countries globe. There are many reasons for this, and one of them is the Juche political system, aimed at militarizing the country.
The needs of the army come first economically, and this is bearing fruit: North Korea’s army is the largest in the world.
But the number of soldiers is not a guarantee of success. Insufficient funding leads to the army using outdated equipment and weapons.
At the same time, the North Korean government has maintained since 1974 that the country is continuously working on the creation of nuclear weapons. Since 2004, Pyongyang has been conducting tests, and this has become an additional reason for dissatisfaction among countries trying to resolve the conflict. North Korea claims that the weapons are being created solely for defensive purposes, but it is difficult to confirm the veracity of the claims.
At a military parade in 2015 in Pyongyang, a thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, was demonstrated. The government claimed that it existed for ten years, but the world community was skeptical about the information. In January 2017, a powerful earthquake was recorded in China near the border with the DPRK. Pyongyang authorities explained this as a test of a hydrogen bomb, and then its presence was confirmed by foreign intelligence data.
Sources of financing
The question of where North Korea got its nuclear weapons is closely related to the economic state of the country. Testing requires money, with the help of which it would be possible to solve most of the humanitarian and energy problems of the peninsula. It makes me think about financial assistance from the outside. China is considered North Korea's official partner, but during Kim Jong-un's reign, relations between the countries have deteriorated. The PRC does not approve of nuclear experiments conducted by Pyongyang.
It is assumed that a new alliance – the DPRK and Russia – will enter the world political arena, but there are no solid grounds for this. Kim Jong-un shows respect to President Putin, but there are no more reciprocal “courtesy” from Moscow. This means that financing comes from internal sources.
Experts suggest that money for the development of nuclear weapons comes from the following industries:
- social;
- agricultural;
- energy;
- heavy industrial.
There are reports in the media that North Korea is facing an energy crisis. Electricity in residential buildings is turned on only for 3-4 hours a day; the rest of the time people are forced to do without electricity. Night images of the DPRK from space confirm this information. Next to the electrified territory of China and South Korea, the North looks like a solid dark spot. The beginning of this phenomenon coincided with the start of the nuclear program.
Claims that North Koreans are starving are unfounded. In the last decade, there has been economic growth in the country, which has also affected the food situation. The government has canceled the cards that previously used to issue food rations. So the information that missiles are being created at the expense of hungry Koreans is not confirmed.
North Korea's nuclear potential
The times when threats about the presence of weapons of mass destruction were considered a bluff are behind us. Availability powerful weapons North Korea has a confirmed fact. Moreover, analysts claim that Korea has enough materials to create 6 to 12 new missiles.
However, their production is associated with a number of difficulties:
- the materials required to assemble nuclear warheads are not produced in North Korea and must be imported into the country;
- even with the creation of new charges, the problem remains with the construction of carriers for them;
- waste generated during the production of nuclear fuel is not exported from the country, and the conditions for its safe storage can only be met in small volumes.
However, all these difficulties do not deter the DPRK from continuing its experiments. To date, at least six explosions have been confirmed in different parts countries, mainly on the border with Russia, China and South Korea. Pyongyang claims there are more. The government's official line is defensive. Under threat from the United States, the DPRK can only afford one position: balancing power. To Washington's latest aggressive statement, Kim Jong-un responded that the DPRK would strike if necessary.
Does North Korea have the resource base for a nuclear program?
Nuclear charges can be made from either weapons-grade plutonium (plutonium-239) or highly enriched uranium (uranium-235). The DPRK conducted its first two nuclear tests - in 2006 and 2009 - using charges made from weapons-grade plutonium, writes the American non-governmental Arms Control Association. The key nuclear facility of the DPRK, which is concentrated most of equipment, research and development of the country related to both peaceful and military nuclear activities, is the center of Yenbyon, located 90 km north of Pyongyang. In 1986, a gas-graphite reactor was launched there; experts consider it the main source of weapons-grade plutonium (capable of producing up to 6 kg per year).
How much weapons-grade plutonium the DPRK has accumulated is unknown. According to data for 2008, cited by the Nuclear Threat Initiative website, North Korea could have received 39 kg of weapons-grade plutonium. However, the head of the Center for International Security at IMEMO RAS, Alexey Arbatov, believes that as of 2017, Pyongyang has approximately 50-60 kg of weapons-grade plutonium.
In 2016, North Korea admitted that it was producing highly enriched uranium from low enriched uranium, the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said. The plant, opened back in 2010, according to the Arms Control Association, is capable of annually producing 2 tons of low-enriched uranium or about 40 kg of highly enriched uranium. Alexey Arbatov says that nuclear technology North Korea purchases materials and even specialists on the global black market. "There is a huge market nuclear materials— low-enriched uranium, uranium ore. Having certain technologies, it is possible to make highly enriched uranium from low-enriched uranium,” says Arbatov.
Total: reserves of weapons-grade plutonium - 39-60 kg, production capabilities of weapons-grade plutonium - 6 kg per year, highly enriched uranium - up to 40 kg per year.
How many ready-made nuclear warheads does North Korea have?
On September 3, North Korea announced that it had conducted a test thermonuclear bomb(the sixth nuclear test in the country’s history, the first took place in 2006). However, there is no independent confirmation of this information. International experts reported that on the day of the test, an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale occurred in North Korea. According to the Norwegian Foundation for Geophysical Research (NORSAR), the power of the underground explosion that caused it was 120 kt of TNT equivalent. It is possible to verify that it was a hydrogen bomb that was tested only by taking samples of rocks in the testing area, the researchers point out.
Regardless of what type of bomb Pyongyang tested, NORSAR notes that the power of North Korea's explosive devices increases with each new test. If the charge power during the first test in 2006 was approximately 1 kt in TNT equivalent, then ten years later, in September 2016, it reached about 20 kt, the report says.
According to SIPRI, North Korea has 10-20 nuclear warheads. Bloomberg, citing American military analysts, claims that the DPRK's arsenal includes 60 nuclear warheads.
Total: the number of nuclear warheads is at least ten, the power is at least 20 kt in TNT equivalent.
What means of delivering nuclear weapons does the DPRK have?
North Korea has been developing a missile program since the 1960s. The USSR, China, and the countries of the Middle East provided assistance in this. According to the Arms Control Association, North Korea had 15 types of ballistic missiles in August 2017.
The Nodong-1 medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) is capable of covering a distance of about 1.5 thousand km, that is, it is capable of hitting Japan and South Korea. Another MRBM, Musudan, can theoretically cover up to 4 thousand km (its tests were not successful). Tested in May 2017, the Hwasong-12 can hit targets within a radius of approximately 4.5 thousand km (American Guam is located 3.4 thousand km from the DPRK). The Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, first tested in July 2017, is capable of delivering a charge over a distance of more than 10 thousand km, that is, it can reach the United States. According to some reports, missiles of these modifications are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
In addition, the DPRK is developing KN-08 and KN-14 missiles, the flight range of which can be up to 11.5 thousand km.
The exact number of missiles in the composition strategic forces unknown to the North Korean army. According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative website, North Korea has about 200 Nodong missiles. , however, independent experts consider this number to be overestimated.
Alexey Arbatov, in a conversation with RBC, said that North Korea has from 80 to 100 ballistic missiles of different ranges (from 100-200 km to 1000-1500 km).
As noted by Vasily Kashin, senior researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies High school economy, according to the most conservative estimates, the DPRK has only a few Hwasongs and it is unlikely that their number reaches even ten. These missiles are still in the development and testing stage, which means they have not yet been put into service and are not ready for mass production. In addition, the DPRK simply will not be able to support more than 20-30 Hwasong-12 and Hwasong-14 missiles, even if tests are completed and mass production begins. The maintenance of such missiles is very expensive: in addition to production, they require a certain infrastructure for maintenance and safety, explains Kashin. The DPRK has about 100 missiles of the Nodon family, the expert believes.
Total: about 100 missiles with a flight range of up to 1.5 thousand km, less than ten missiles with a flight range of more than 4 thousand km.
Are North Korea's neighbors capable of defending themselves?
In response to the continuing threat from the DPRK, South Korea began deploying an American missile defense THAAD. The US began to deploy THAAD complexes in South Korea in March of this year and deployed two of at least six planned.
THAAD in South Korea is not yet capable of covering the Seoul agglomeration, where 25 million people live, that is, half of the country’s population, notes Kashin. “It covers 60% of the territories of South Korea, so its usefulness has always raised certain doubts,” says the expert. Considering the fact that only two of the six complexes have been deployed so far, Seoul’s vulnerability is obvious, but if the remaining four complexes are deployed closer to the demilitarized zone, that is, to the border between the DPRK and South Korea, then the chances of minimizing the North Korean threat will increase, Kashin believes.
Japan, after the July tests of the DPRK, also decided to strengthen its defense. Tokyo is considering the possibility of acquiring new installations for the sea-based American missile defense system"Aegis" and the deployment of its sister system "Aegis Ashore" on the coast to strengthen defense capabilities.
Japan already has a two-level missile defense system - the naval Aegis and the Patriot complexes (Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3), equipped with surface-to-air missiles to hit targets at an altitude of 12 km. The Patriot complex will be used if the Aegis system fails to intercept flying objects; Aegis Ashore increases the likelihood of successful interception of missiles.
If the American missile defense system is able to intercept a missile with a nuclear warhead, it will simply collapse, but at the same time a radioactive substance will be released, explains Kashin. “A very complex process must take place for a nuclear charge to detonate. If the charge and rocket are destroyed, a release of radioactive material will occur. The interception itself occurs at an altitude of several tens of kilometers, so the consequences of this release will be insignificant. The contamination of the area will not be very strong,” the expert concludes.
However, the likelihood of intercepting North Korean missiles American systems Missile defense in Japan and South Korea even with ideal conditions“It won’t be one hundred percent, because most of the tests were carried out in an environment far from combat,” Kashin believes. North Korea can launch dozens of missiles at a time, and intercepting such a salvo is unlikely. “Determine among the missiles coming in this salvo which one has a nuclear combat unit, and which one is ordinary is impossible. Accordingly, the likelihood that you will intercept a nuclear missile is small,” the expert concludes.
Even if Pyongyang hits Japan, the country will not cease to exist and will not turn into ashes despite the threats of the DPRK, notes Japanese specialist Dmitry Streltsov, head of the department of Oriental Studies at the faculty. international relations MGIMO. However, in his opinion, in the event of an attack on Japan, “we can talk about major damage” and colossal casualties, given the high population density. However, this does not mean that “the islands will drown in the sea,” as Kim Jong-un promised.
South Korea is in a more difficult position: the DPRK can use conventional weapons. For example, the heavy artillery of North Korea, deployed near the border, is capable of causing irreparable damage to Seoul in the very first hours of the war. However, we are not talking about the immediate destruction of South Korea. Finally, there are reasonable doubts about the ability of the DPRK to use nuclear missile weapons to inflict at least some damage on the island of Guam or the continental United States, not to mention “wipe the United States into ashes and darkness.”
North Korea nuclear tests
North Korea conducted its first nuclear tests, the power of the explosion was about 1 kiloton of TNT. The tests triggered an earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale.
The power of the explosion is about 5 kt in TNT equivalent. The magnitude of the earthquake after testing was 4.7 on the Richter scale.
The power of the third underground nuclear explosion was 10-15 kt, the tests caused an earthquake with a magnitude of about 5 on the Richter scale. North Korean authorities said they have tested a miniature nuclear warhead that can be placed on ballistic missiles of various ranges.
Pyongyang announced its fourth nuclear test - a hydrogen bomb. Its power, according to various sources, ranged from 15 to 20 kt. The explosion triggered an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale.
The power of the fifth test was, according to the American Arms Control Association, 20-25 kt of TNT equivalent. The magnitude of the earthquake after the explosion reached 5.2 on the Richter scale.
North Korean authorities said that a hydrogen bomb was used again during the sixth nuclear test. According to the NORSAR Foundation, the explosion, with a yield of about 120 kt of TNT, led to an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale.
Sources: Norwegian Foundation for Geosciences, American Arms Control Association
