North Koreas Nuclear Program

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North Koreas Nuclear Program

• By Alex Hlavaty and Sean Scott

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Pre-nuclear Testing

• On October 3, 2006, North Korea announced that it
  would "in the future conduct a nuclear test",
  though no date was specified.
• Though no location was specified, the North
  Korean announcement followed August 2006 reports
  of suspicious activity outside P'unggye-yok, an
  underground facility in northeast North Korea,
  including vehicle movement and unloading of large
  reels of cable.

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The Tunnel

• In late September 2006, a member of the
  intelligence committee of South Korea's National
  Assembly reported on the construction of a tunnel
  at Mount Mantap in North Hamkyong Province.
• According to South Korea's National Intelligence
  Service, the tunnel is approximately 700 meters
  deep beneath the surface of Mount Mantap and is
  situated near a horizontal tunnel. 
• Early estimates on the yield of the test vary
  greatly.

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Location of the Test
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The Result

• The lack of yield reports from the DPRK result in
  yield estimations based on seismic activity as
  monitored by station all around the world.
• The Korea Earthquake Research Centre reported the
  yield is approximately equivalent to 800 tons of
  dynamite, based on Richter scale readings from
  the explosion.
• The Yonhap news agency said the blast was
  equivalent to about 550 tons of TNT, based on the
  seismic tremor.
• Gary Gibson, senior seismologist at Australia's
  Seismology Research Centre, said a 4.2 magnitude
  quake would be the result of a one kiloton
  explosion.

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Failure?

• The possible low yield of the shot (low kiloton)
  could be an indication of a failed or fizzled
  test. France's Atomic Energy Commission estimated
  the North Korean blast at around 1 kiloton or
  less - equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000
  tons of TNT.
• For a nuclear device, that would be so weak that
  the French defense minister Xavier Clement
  suggested that "there could have been a failure"
  with the North Korean reported test. 

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Kim Jung Il
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Reason for Bad Information

• The reason for such inconsistent information is
  because of the dictatorship of Kim Jung-il
• The primary information that is leaked out of the
  country has to be authorized by government
  officials.