North Korea's got the Bomb!

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by CraigD

This may indicate a profound design flaw, and at least a partial “back to the drawing board” for N.Korean engineers. Given that N.Korea lacks a strong national science establishment, this could be a big problem. Much of their nuclear weapon engineering know-how is likely “stolen” via espionage from established nuclear nations. While some design elements can be obtained this way, “making it work” knowledge requires more deep technical and scientific knowledge. N.Korea may lack this.

It makes me hopeful that one of our strategies in dealing with the NK nuke program is to use counter intelligence to provide misleading stolen technical data, forcing them to spend their precious resources on dead end solutions because of their faith in the quality of the data they think they stole. Wouldn't that be cool?

Bill

[InfiniteNow]

Recent news:

NPR : N. Korea Shuts Reactor, Calls for End to Sanctions

North Korea is ready to start dismantling its nuclear programs following the shutdown of its sole operating reactor, a North Korean diplomat said Sunday, as long as the United States lifts all sanctions against the communist nation.

Kim Myong Gil, minister at the North's mission to the United Nations in New York, confirmed the reactor was shut down Saturday after receipt of a South Korean oil shipment, and said U.N. inspectors would verify the closure Sunday.

Kim noted that the next steps included the North making a declaration of its nuclear program and disabling the facilities.

But he said that would happen only if Washington takes actions "in parallel," including removing wider economic sanctions and striking the country from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.

International negotiations on the issue have snagged on a variety of issues, including the North's anger over comments by U.S. officials about its government and financial restrictions placed on a bank where North Korea held accounts.

[Pyrotex]

Can anyone remember what the YIELD of NK's nuke was? I seem to remember it was less than one kiloton.

That's important. The easiest cheapest nuke you can make (like our first three, two of which we used in war) are around 5 to 10 kTon. It gets harder and harder to make them go pop -- with a smaller bang. Tactical nukes around 1 or 2 kTon can be carried into a hostile state on the backs of several Marines, and planted next to a bridge or dam, but the technology, precision and cost of those devices are huge.

But burying 500 tons of properly fused High Explosives deep in a mine, and blowing it up all at the same time, while throwing a half cup of powdered radioactive waste into the blast so the USA unmanned vehicles will get their counters ticking, doesn't sound very difficult.

[Boerseun]

To the best of my knowledge, the blast yielded around 800-900 tons. But the seismic signal of TNT going off and a nuclear explosion is markedly different, and the blast was indeed identified as being nuclear through seismic records, amongst others.

[Qfwfq]

The main problem for getting the full potential out of a fission bomb is that of keeping the stuff together as long as possible, after the critical mass has been formed. The explosion itself otherwise tends to disperse the fissile material. In short, an ill-designed fission bang will put itself out soon after it starts.

A tacticle nuke meant to be placed by saboteurs in enemy territory, carried by stealth past guards etc. can't exactly be ill-designed and clumsy and the low power is a choice, a specification the designer must reliably comply with. It's bound to be expensive. But perhaps Kim Jong II spent even more, much more but his boys simply didn't get it as well as hoped.