may have been a QC problem, which is why NK is hinting at another test.

Small bombs can also be used against aircraft carrier groups or where enemy is close to friends and where less contamination is desired or where it can be launched from any plane or as an artillery shell to Seoul.

A nuclear bomb with quality problem does NOT make it a tactical nuclear bomb!

We have a piece of paper signed by North Korea over champagne and a smile and a handshake from Madelaine Albright herself that says that North Korea won't even work on a bomb with the nuclear capabilities that Bill Clinton was giving them.

 

Why worry?

Or that they only have a very small amount of fissile material and don't want to waste too much of it on tests. Also remember North Korea is small country, so they don't have vast sparsely populated areas like Siberia, Xinjiang, Western Australia, southern New Mexico, or the South Pacific in which to test nuclear weapons and thus have to be very concerned about the amount of fallout produced.

Seoul is a viable target--a small dirty bomb might do a lot of damage there--but I seriously doubt it would do much to a CBG.  For one thing, any of the DPRK's antique bombers would never live long enough to get close, and the accuracy of the DPRK's missiles are extremely questionable.  It's odds on if they can hit a fair-sized city, let alone a relatively small target like a carrier.

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Anyone have any insight as to whether or not you could conduct such a test without the radiation being detected? Japan today is saying that's military planes haven't detected any radiation yet.

 

Don't see why you couldn't do it.  If it's detonated in a cave that has been sealed shut and the bomb is small enough that it doesn't open any new fissures don't see why radiation would escape.  But with the way the littleone made such a big deal about announcing it to the world, I doubt that secrecy was part of his plan.

Suspect he is going to be sensitive about "how small it is" ;)

We might be able to drive him up the wall by insinuating things in the press.

Shades of Crocodile Dundee - "You call that a nuke?  This is a nuke"  and send him pictures of a W-88....

 

 

I suspect if it was a dud, we'll see another test.  They'll want to get the full bang for their buck (pardon the pun).

If it was a hoax, there's no point.  The bang will never get big enough to top the sensation of the first one.  It will just look lame.