Why North Korea’s latest nuclear test is about 1000 times scarier than usual

NORTH Korea has tested nuclear weapons before, but this time is different. This time, it’s about 1000 times scarier. Here’s why.

N Korea gets 1000 times scarier

NORTH Korea claims to have “successfully” tested a hydrogen bomb for the first time.

If true, that’s very bad news for the rest of the world, because an H-bomb’s destructive power dwarfs even the nuclear weapons that were dropped on Japan in 1945.

This is North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. The first three, which took place between 2006 and 2013, involved atomic bombs with roughly the same firepower as the ones that devastated Hiroshima and Nagaski and killed more than 20,000 people.

According to experts, the “superbomb” Kim Jong-un’s regime claims to have tested this time can be 1,000 times more powerful.

MORE: What you need to know about North Korea’s nuclear test

MORE: Security Council responds to North Korea’s “clear violation”

This is what an atomic bomb did to Nagasaki. Multiply by 1,000 and you have the destructive power of a hydrogen bomb.

FUSION VS FISSION

Atomic bombs have been around since World War II. They rely on the collision of a neutron with the nucleus of an atom in a process called fission, which releases more neutrons — and huge amounts of destructive energy.

A hydrogen (or thermonuclear) bomb starts off in much the same way, but at very high temperatures. The extreme heat reaches tens of thousands of degrees, causing isotopes of hydrogen to join together in a process called fusion. This is the same kind of reaction that powers stars.

The second fission stage that occurs as a result creates an explosion many times the size of an atomic bomb’s. It must be measured in megatons — equivalent to a million tonnes of TNT — instead of the much smaller kiloton ranges seen in 1945.

An atom bomb blast seen during a test at the Maralinga Range in 1957.

“Think what’s going on inside the sun,” said Takao Takahara, professor of international politics and peace research at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo. “In theory, the process is potentially infinite. The amount of energy is huge.”

That amount of energy requires more sophisticated, controlled and accurate technology than you’ll find in an atomic bomb, even though both types use uranium and plutonium for their explosive material.

Here’s the scariest part: each hydrogen weapon can be made small enough to fit on the head of an intercontinental missile.

“That the bomb can become compact is one characteristic, and so this means North Korea has the United States in mind in making this H-bomb announcement.”

North Koreans watching the news broadcast that announced the nation’s H-bomb test.

HISTORY OF THE H-BOMB

The first thermonuclear test, “Ivy Mike”, was conducted by the United States in 1952, on the Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands. The Soviet Union responded with “Joe 19” in 1955.

Britain and France have both also tested nuclear weapons with yields exceeding two megatons, in 1957 and 1968 respectively.

The largest bomb ever tested was Russia’s “Tsar Bomba” in 1961, which created a 50 megaton explosion, according to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation. That blast was 3,800 times more powerful than the 13 kiloton explosion at Hiroshima.

Now, hydrogen bombs are the “global standard” for the five main nuclear powers: the US, UK, France, Russia and China.

Hans Kristensen, who’s the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, believes India, Israel and Pakistan have also achieved single-stage fission capability, meaning they have access to atomic bombs.

Officers from the Korea Meteorological Administration point at the epicentre of seismic waves in North Korea as a result of the test.

IS NORTH KOREA LYING?

Seismic data from a 5.1 magnitude earthquake indicates a large explosion did indeed take place, but there’s no way to confirm it was a hydrogen bomb. Experts are suspicious.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defence analyst with the Rand Corporation, said if it was an H-bomb, the detonation clearly failed, at least the fusion stage.

“If it were a real H-bomb, the Richter scale reading should have been about a hundred times more powerful,” Bennett said.

Robert Kelley, a former US nuclear weapons scientist, said North Korea might have built a “boosted” bomb. That’s basically “just a fission bomb with a little bit of a boost from a tiny amount of fusion” to create a bigger yield.

“This was almost certainly a boosted bomb but the premier of North Korea can get up and say it was a hydrogen bomb and who is going to correct him?” Kelley asked.

“It does not meet the criteria for a true thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb.”

Is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fibbing? It seems so.

Australian nuclear policy and arms control specialist Crispin Rovere said that “the seismic data that’s been received indicates that the explosion is probably significantly below what one would expect from an H-bomb test”.

“So initially it seems to be that they’ve successfully conducted a nuclear test but unsuccessfully completed the second-stage hydrogen explosion.”

South Korean intelligence officials and several analysts however also questioned whether the explosion was indeed a full-fledged test of a hydrogen device.

The device had a yield of about six kilotonnes, according to the office of a South Korean MP on the parliamentary intelligence committee — roughly the same size as the North’s last test, which was equivalent to 6-7 kilotonnes of TNT.

“Given the scale, it is hard to believe this is a real hydrogen bomb,” said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defence and Security Forum.

“They could have tested some middle stage kind (of device) between an A-bomb and H-bomb, but unless they come up with any clear evidence, it is difficult to trust their claim.”

North Korea’s last test of an atomic device, in 2013, also registered at 5.1 on the Richter scale.

A ballistic missile is paraded in Pyongyang, North Korea.

WHY TEST THE DEVICE NOW?

Kim Jong-un, who has carried out numerous purges of senior officials since becoming North Korea’s dictator after the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011, is believed to be solidifying his power base.

The announcement came just two days before his birthday, and in advance of an expected congress of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party — the first such gathering in 35 years.

“The purpose of this is firstly to display to the world that it has acquired a new technology as to the nuclear weapons program,” said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo and an expert on North Korea.

“Secondly, with the (claimed) development of hydrogen nuclear weapons, Kim Jong-un now has a ‘great achievement’ that even Kim Il-Sung or Kim Jong-il could not realise.”