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| The site of explosion was about three kilometers away from the nuclear facilities in Punggye-ri. / Yonhap |
Doubts rise over Pyongyang's claims
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Suspicions are rising over whether North Korea really successfully tested a "miniaturized hydrogen bomb" near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in North Hamgyong Province on Wednesday.
The North's state media Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that the H-bomb test was a "complete success" which propelled the country into the "rank of advanced nuclear states."
If the claim turns out to be true, it would be the first time that North Korea has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.
The South Korean military, however, said the device tested is not likely to be an H-bomb.
"It doesn't seem like a hydrogen bomb test," said a military official. "The energy released during hydrogen bomb tests conducted by the U.S. and the former Soviet Union was between 20 and 50 megatons of TNT. Today's test was only 6 kilotons, which is unlikely from an H-bomb."
He said the military suspects it was a boosted fission bomb, a prior stage to an H-bomb.
A National Intelligence Service (NIS) report to the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee backed it up.
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"The energy released during the North's last nuclear test in 2013 was 7,900 tons of TNT. Today's test produced only 70 percent of the previous test," an NIS official was quoted as saying. "If their claim was true, released energy from the test would be at least dozens of kilotons."
The weather agency said the test on Wednesday caused a 4.8-magnitude earthquake, while North Korea's third nuclear test caused a 4.9-magnitude quake.
Other experts also say an H-bomb would have caused a much greater impact.
"H-bombs are generally 100 to 1,000 times stronger than general atomic bombs," a military expert said under condition of anonymity.
"Such tests could never be conducted in the country's territory. Due to its destructive power, even the U.S. did its H-bomb testing in the Pacific."
Hydrogen bombs are often referred to as thermonuclear weapons because they use energy from a primary nuclear fission reaction to compress and ignite a secondary nuclear fusion reaction.
Having a primary explosive stage to trigger a much more powerful "secondary" explosive, the hydrogen bomb is said to be the most powerful weapon of mass destruction (WMD) known to mankind, dozens of times stronger than atomic bombs.
While general atomic bombs use a single fission reaction of nuclear materials likes uranium or plutonium to produce energy, hydrogen bombs rely on both fission and fusion reactions between such materials.
The amount of energy produced by fission bombs can be equivalent of up to 500 kilotons of TNT whereas hydrogen bombs using both reactions can release energy equivalent to over 50 megatons.
It is known that three previous nuclear tests conducted by the North in 2006, 2009 and 2013 used fission bombs that were less advanced than an H-bomb.
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