"Reports of unusual seismic activity near a nuclear test site in North Korea tonight led many to speculate that the country had conducted another nuclear test.
Later in the evening, the country appeared to confirm those suspicions, claiming that it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb for the first time, according to the Associated Press.
This doesn't mean that North Korea has actually detonated a real hydrogen bomb, however, and experts are already suggesting that it's unlikely the country has done what it claims.
At least one U.S. official has already told ABC News that the U.S. does not believe North Korea has developed hydrogen bomb tech yet. North Korea has been a nuclear power for almost a decade now, exploding its first nuclear weapons in 2006, and it last conducted a nuclear test in 2013.
But a hydrogen bomb would represent a step up from the less-powerful nuclear technology it had relied on previously.
The quake generated by the explosion registered about 5.1 in magnitude, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and the blast appears to have been centered about 20 miles away from a facility where North Korea conducted three previous nuclear tests, according to The Washington Post..."
No comments:
Post a Comment