January 6, 2016

North Korea’s state-run media announced today that the country had conducted a successful test of a hydrogen bomb. Although international affairs experts believe the country conducted a nuclear test, many were skeptical of the claims of a hydrogen bomb.

North Korea, which covers the northern half of the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, has a Communist government headed by the Korean Workers’ Party. This photograph shows an elaborate festival in Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, celebrating the country’s history and government. Credit: © Shutterstock

Seismological centers, including the United States Geological Survey, reported a 5.1-magnitude seismic event in the region of North Korea’s nuclear testing facilities. This was the same intensity as the country’s last nuclear test (claimed to be an atomic bomb), which was conducted in February 2013. Experts note that, because hydrogen bombs can be hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than atomic bombs, it is unlikely that this explosion came from a hydrogen bomb. Over the next few days, monitoring agencies will analyze the atmosphere in the region of North Korea for traces of telltale gases that could confirm the claim.

World leaders widely condemned the test, which was the latest in a long series of North Korean nuclear provocations. In 1994, the North Korean government signed an agreement with the United States promising to halt all nuclear weapons-related activities in return for energy assistance. In 2002, however, the country revealed that it had a secret program to develop nuclear weapons. In late 2002 and early 2003, North Korea expelled international atomic energy inspectors from the country and reactivated its nuclear facilities.

North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, leading the United Nations to impose economic sanctions on the country. Over the following decade, North Korea several times expelled nuclear energy inspectors and halted and restarted its nuclear program. North Korea tested additional explosive nuclear devices in 2009 and 2013.

Other World Book articles: 

•  United States, Government of the (1995) – A Back in Time article
• Asia (2003) – A Back in Time article
• North Korea (2003) – A Back in Time article
• North Korea (2004) – A Back in Time article
• United States, Government of the (2010) – A Back in Time article
• North Korea’s Missile Launch a Bust (April 13, 2012) – A Behind the Headlines article
• North Korea Conducts Third Nuclear Weapons Test (Feb. 12, 2013) – A Behind the Headlines article

February 12, 2013

North Korea has confirmed that it has conducted a nuclear weapons test, its third. According to the North Korean state news agency, the North used a “miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously” and the test “did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment.”

The director of U.S. National Intelligence Agency, James R. Clapper, Jr., issued a statement that North Korea was, in fact, producing nuclear devices with substantial explosive power: “The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons.” North Korea’s first test, in 2006, had a yield of less than one kiloton. By comparison, the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, ending World War II in 1945, had an explosive yield of 15 kilotons.

An atomic blast fills the sky over Nagasaki. The United States dropped the first atomic bombs used in warfare on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, during World War II. (© Getty Images)

Today’s test is the first under North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un, and was, according to international affairs experts, conducted in open defiance of China. The Chinese government has warned Kim that setting off nuclear weapons risks confrontation with South Korea, Japan, and the West. (North and South Korea never agreed to a peace treaty after the Korean Conflict ended in 1953 and, officially, remain at war.) In response to the test, China issued a statement expressing its “staunch opposition” but calling for “all parties concerned to respond calmly.” In New York City, members of the United Nations Security Council were called into an emergency meeting.

Kim Jong-un became the leader of North Korea in 2011. (© EPA/KCNA/Alamy Images)

Additional World Book articles:

• Kim Jong-il
• North Korea 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• North Korea 2009 (a Back in Time article)

• North Korea 2011 (a Back in Time article)