North Korea nuclear H-bomb claims met by scepticism
International scepticism and condemnation have greeted North Korea's claim to have successfully carried out an underground hydrogen bomb test. If confirmed, it would be North Korea's fourth nuclear test since 2006 and mark a major upgrade in its capabilities. Read more
Recent satellite images show North Korea is digging a new underground tunnel in what appears to be preparation for a third nuclear test, according to South Korean intelligence officials. The excavation at North Koreas northeast Punggye-ri site, where nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009, is in its final stages, according to a report by intelligence officials that was shared today with the Associated Press. Read more
The US says North Korea is paving the way for a second nuclear test within days amid intelligence reports that the first may have been less than a complete success. Aerial photographs showed an unusual pattern of activity that indicated possible nuclear preparations after Pyongyang denounced UN sanctions against it as an act of war. The White House said that it would not be surprised if Kim Jong Il defied world opinion again, particularly because last week’s atomic explosion was relatively weak.
The U.S. government has said that the test conducted by North Korea was a nuclear explosion of less than one kiloton.
"Analysis of air samples collected on October 11, 2006, detected radioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion" -The director of national intelligence.
A preliminary analysis of air samples from North Korea shows "radioactive debris consistent with a North Korea nuclear test," according to a statement from the office of the top U.S. intelligence official. The statement, from the office of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, was sent to Capitol Hill but not released publicly.
Preliminary US military data now indicates that radioactive particles have been found. Earlier today it was stated that `sniffed planes` did not find any trace of any radioactive particles.
A Korean-Japanese scholar who is considered North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s unofficial spokesman said yesterday that Pyongyang has a hydrogen bomb it would test as part of a series of actions mentioned in its statement against the United States. In an interview with MBC radio, Kim Myong-chol, director of the Centre for Korean-American Peace, a Japan-based pro-North Korean research agency, said the Stalinist state is ready to test its H-bomb or conduct a nuclear test larger than its proclaimed test on Monday.
North Korea's claim to have successfully detonated a nuclear bomb on Monday sent shock waves around the world. But as scientists pore over the blast's data looking for important clues about the North's nuclear programme, one question remains unanswered - was the explosion in fact a failure, or even a fake? The doubts stem from the size of the blast which seismic monitors around the world picked up in northern North Korea on Monday morning.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum ’s Peace Watch Tower, which records the number of days since the last nuclear test, was reset on October 10, one day after North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test.
A cold war relic was last night flying above North Korea trying to answer the question the world is asking: did Kim Jong Il tell the truth about his inaugural nuclear test? The last surviving Constant Phoenix, a nuclear-test sniffing aircraft commissioned by President Eisenhower, has so far failed to detect radioactive isotopes from the atmosphere. There was still “no definitive proof” that a nuclear device had been detonated at an underground facility in northeast North Korea, according to Western intelligence sources.