North Korea has just tested their first hydrogen bomb

Doubt he'd use them - having a credible nuclear device and delivery mechanism is a massive bargaining chip when used in the right way and potential to get you pre-emptively nuked when not. (I believe this is more why the US/Israel go to such lengths to stop Iran getting them due to the leverage rather than fear of actual use).

No one would want to willingly invade NK. Their armed forces might be under-resourced, etc. but a large number of soldiers even with decades old firepower in a country that is a maze of bunkers, tunnels and other features that give a big advantage to the defenders is not one most countries would want to get bogged down in an invasion of.

EDIT: Its a curious one though - if NK can demonstrate a viable device and delivery system that could for instance potentially hit US bases in the region i.e. the ones in the direction of Japan it would leave the US in an awkward position.
 
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Rroff said:
EDIT: Its a curious one though - if NK can demonstrate a viable device and delivery system that could for instance potentially hit US bases in the region i.e. the ones in the direction of Japan it would leave the US in an awkward position.
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I think the North Korea sabre rattling is just that. All bark and no bite. NK is so isolated and insular. China will whip them up if they ever became bellicose.
 
Maybe I'm being ignorant(well definitely) but isn't the hardest part over? Surely the production of a hydrogen bomb far outweighs the technicality of delivery?
 
In terms of missile delivery systems NK's track record doesn't inspire much but that isn't the only way the payload could be delivered.
 
They may say they have, but I very much doubt they have. If anything it's probably just another small yield atomic bomb or a massive pile of explosives detonated in order to look like a nuclear test.

Their first test back in 2006, which was basically a 'fizzle' which was calculated as having the equivalent yield of a mere 1000t, showed up as a magnitude 4.7 quake. This one shows up as a magnitude 5.1 and, whilst that is quite a bit larger on the Richter scale, I'd expect to see a far larger quake being registered if this was a thermonuclear test.
 
NK have no response to a well choreographed dance move.


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Malevolence said:
They may say they have, but I very much doubt they have. If anything it's probably just another small yield atomic bomb or a massive pile of explosives detonated in order to look like a nuclear test.

Their first test back in 2006, which was basically a 'fizzle' which was calculated as having the equivalent yield of a mere 1000t, showed up as a magnitude 4.7 quake. This one shows up as a magnitude 5.1 and, whilst that is quite a bit larger on the Richter scale, I'd expect to see a far larger quake being registered if this was a thermonuclear test.
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If I have the maths right that would be >3300tons of TNT equivalent so on balance not unlikely to be a smaller scale nuclear device.
 
Wiki suggests hydrogen bombs to be in the 50+ kilo tonne magnitude so I guess it really is just more rubbish.

Good I guess :).
 
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LOL, North Korea. Totalitarian fantasy land. Hydrogen bomb? I doubt it. These jokers barely know how electricity works.
 
Hmm, sceptical about this to be honest.


Casting further doubt on North Korea’s claims, South Korea’s intelligence agency says the device tested on Wednesday may not have been a hydrogen nuclear bomb, Yonhap news agency reports.

South Korea’s meteorological agency said separately that it has not detected any radiation after North Korea said it successfully conducted a hydrogen nuclear test.
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Carlson, who headed Australia’s safeguards office for more than two decades, said it was possible Pyongyang had actually produced a lower-yield “boosted explosion”, in which the hydrogen isotope tritium undergoes partial fusion, allowing them to describe the device as a hydrogen bomb.
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Rroff said:
If I have the maths right that would be >3300tons of TNT equivalent so on balance not unlikely to be a smaller scale nuclear device.
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Not sure it's that simple...

Can't be bothered to do the maths but

[QUOTEOne last point. The largest underground thermonuclear tests conducted by the US were detonated in Amchitka at the western end of the Aleutian Islands and the largest of these was the 5 megaton codename Cannikin test which occurred on November 6, 1971. Cannikin had a body wave magnitude of 6.9 and it did not trigger any earthquakes in the seismically active Aleutian Islands.][/QUOTE]

http://www.usgs.gov/faq/node/3339

I doubt multiplying them together works. As an example rock type and the coupling would probably make.a significant difference.
 
Sliver said:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...t-suspected-as-artificial-earthquake-detected

Testing a thermo nuclear weapon is one thing. Being able to strap it to a rocket and threaten the West is another thing altogether. If this turns out to be legitimate I'd expect some rapid and severe sanctions from the UN.
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They have heavy sanctions already and they managed to develop this. Why wait until they develop one that is strapped to a missile. It inevitably going to happen regardless of sanctions. The UN really only have one option here and this is the window of opportunity before they develop greater capability.
 
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