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Confirmed: That North Korean Earthquake on Monday Was a Giant Nuke Test

Feb. 12, 2013 7:26am Jonathon M. Seidl

North Korea Nuclear Test Caused Earthquake

North Korean soldier gesture to a Chinese tourist boat as they stand guard beside the Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju after the country conducted it’s third nuclear test on February 12, 2013 across from the Chinese city of Dandong. North Korea staged its most powerful nuclear test yet on February 12, claiming a breakthrough with a ‘miniaturised’ device in a striking act of defiance to global powers including its sole patron China. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Defying U.N. warnings, North Korea on Tuesday conducted its third nuclear test in the remote, snowy northeast, taking a crucial step toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on a missile capable of striking the United States.

North Korea said its third atomic test was merely its “first response” to what it called U.S. threats, and said it will continue with unspecified “second and third measures of greater intensity” if Washington maintains its hostility.

The underground test, which set off powerful seismic waves, drew immediate condemnation from Washington, the U.N. and others. Even its only major ally, China, voiced opposition.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who was scheduled to give a State of the Union address later Tuesday, said nuclear tests “do not make North Korea more secure.” Instead, North Korea has “increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,” he said in a statement.

Pyongyang claimed the device was smaller than in previous tests; Seoul said it likely produced a bigger explosion.

The test was a defiant response to U.N. orders to shut down atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation.

Several U.N. resolutions bar North Korea from conducting nuclear or missile tests because the U.N. Security Council considers Pyongyang a would-be proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its nuclear testing a threat to international peace and stability. North Korea dismisses that as double standards, and claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defense against the United States, which has been seen as enemy No. 1 since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Tuesday’s test is North Korea’s first since young leader Kim Jong Un took power of a country long estranged from the West. The test will likely be portrayed in North Korea as a strong move to defend the nation against foreign aggression, particularly from the U.S.

“The test was conducted in a safe and perfect way on a high level, with the use of a smaller and light A-bomb, unlike the previous ones, yet with great explosive power,” North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said, confirming speculation that seismic activity near Kilju around midday was a nuclear test.

North Korea was punished by more U.N. sanctions after a December launch of a rocket that the U.N. and Washington called a cover for a banned missile test. Pyongyang said it was a peaceful, and successful, bid to send a satellite into space.

Japan’s meteorological agency officer Akira Nagai displays a chart showing seismic activity, (at L top is today’s observation result, observed in China) after a North Korean nuclear test, at the agency in Tokyo on February 12, 2013. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

KCNA said the test is aimed at coping with “the ferocious hostile act of the U.S.” – a reference to what Pyongyang calls Washington’s attempts to block its right to send satellites into space.

The timing of the test is significant. It came hours before Obama’s speech and only days before the Saturday birthday of Kim Jong Un’s father, late leader Kim Jong Il, whose memory North Korean propaganda has repeatedly linked to the country’s nuclear ambitions.

This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, and in late February South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye will be inaugurated.

In Pyongyang, where it was snowing Tuesday, North Koreans gathered around televisions to watch a 3 p.m. TV broadcast announcing the nuclear test.

Kim Mun Chol, a 42-year-old Pyongyang citizen, called it a strong message to the world.

It shows the world that North Korea is a “nuclear weapons state that no one can irritate,” he told The Associated Press in the North Korean capital. “Now we have nothing to be afraid in the world.”

The National Intelligence Service in Seoul told lawmakers that North Korea may conduct an additional nuclear test and test-launch a ballistic missile in response to U.N. talks about imposing more sanctions, according to the office of South Korean lawmaker Jung Chung-rae, who attended the private meeting. Analysts have also previously speculated that Pyongyang might conduct multiple tests, possibly of plutonium and uranium devices.

North Korea is estimated to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight bombs, according to American nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker.

It wasn’t immediately clear to outside experts whether the device exploded Tuesday was small enough to fit on a missile, and whether it was fueled by plutonium or highly enriched uranium.

In 2006, and 2009, North Korea is believed to have tested devices made of plutonium. But in 2010, Pyongyang revealed a program to enrich uranium, which would give the country a second source of bomb-making materials – a worrying development for the U.S. and its allies.

If Tuesday’s test was indeed successful, as claimed, it would take North Korean scientists a step closer to building a nuclear warhead that can reach U.S. shores -seen as the ultimate goal of North Korea’s nuclear program.

“This latest test and any further nuclear testing could provide North Korean scientists with additional information for nuclear warhead designs small enough to fit on top of its ballistic missiles,” Daryl Kimball and Greg Thielmann wrote on the private Arms Control Association’s blog. “However, it is likely that additional testing would be needed for North Korea to field either a plutonium or enriched uranium weapon.”

Uranium would be a worry because plutonium facilities are large and produce detectable radiation, making it easier for outsiders to find and monitor. However, uranium centrifuges can be hidden from satellites, drones and nuclear inspectors in caves, tunnels and other hard-to-reach places. Highly enriched uranium also is easier than plutonium to engineer into a weapon.

Monitoring stations in South Korea detected an earthquake in the North with a magnitude of 4.9 and the South’s Defense Ministry said that corresponds to an estimated explosive yield of 6-7 kilotons.

The yields of the North’s 2006 and 2009 tests were estimated at 1 kiloton and 2 to 6 kilotons, respectively, spokesman Kim Min-seok said. By comparison, U.S. nuclear bombs that flattened Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II were estimated at 13 kilotons and 22 kilotons, respectively, Kim said.

The test is a product of North Korea’s military-first, or songun, policy, and shows Kim Jong Un is running the country much as his father did, said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think tank.

The test also shows North Korea is “more confident in their military technology and their military power,” he said. “Now they will be emboldened as they focus on other goals.”

The decision to push ahead with a test will be a challenge to the U.N. Security Council, which recently punished Pyongyang for launching the December long-range rocket. In condemning that launch and imposing more sanctions on Pyongyang, the council had demanded a stop to future launches and ordered North Korea to respect a ban on nuclear activity – or face “significant action” by the U.N.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the test in a statement. Japanese officials said they expected the Security Council to meet later to take up the nuclear test.

The test will likely draw more sanctions from the United States and other countries at a time when North Korea is trying to rebuild its moribund economy and expand its engagement with the outside world.

China expressed firm opposition to the test but called for a calm response by all sides.

North Korea cites what it calls a U.S. military threat in the region as a key reason behind its drive to build nuclear weapons. The two countries fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended after three years with an armistice signed on July 27, 1953, not a peace treaty. The U.S. stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea to protect the ally.

The other part of a credible North Korean nuclear deterrent is its missile program. While it has capable short and medium range missiles, it has struggled in tests of technology for long-range missiles needed to carry bombs to the United States.

North Korea isn’t close to having a nuclear bomb it can use on the United States or its allies. Instead, Hecker said in a posting on Stanford University’s website, “it wants to hold U.S. interests at risk of a nuclear attack to deter us from regime change and to create international leverage and diplomatic maneuvering room.”

—

Associated Press writers Kim Kwang Hyon in Pyongyang, North Korea; Foster Klug, Hyung-jin Kim, Youkyung Lee and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Yuri Kageyama and Malcolm Foster in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Comments (39)

bluestate2redandliving-better
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 3:53pm
Its time to root for the bad guys. When a nation is cursed, the righteous will perish with the wicked. We founded our country on god and turned away. We can either go back and once again be blessed or sit back and watch the show. I hope they deploy one and not waste these precious gifts. Reality TV has nothing on what we are all so fortunate to witness in these troubling times.

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noslave
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 2:53pm
RELAX??obammy and susan rice really,really,really,really scolded them again??,like rice said we did the usual routine??NAADAA,BUMPKISS,O,ETC.on the bright side they’ll wipe out communist california first??

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Arshloch
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 2:28pm
One more dumb-o-crap party mistake. If General Mac had been allowed to run his battle plan to completion, there would be no ‘N. Korea’, only one Korea with a real government, instead of these weird little boys with illusions of grandure.

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AZgirl9000
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 12:48pm
These Blaze headline writers are out of control. “Giant” nuke test? REALLY? This article itself even admits that this one was less than half the yield of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombs. And even using the upper limit of 7 kiloton estimate for this North Korean test, that makes it only .00012 the size of the largest earthly thermonuclear explosion of all time–the 57,000 kiloton Soviet Tsar Bomba. But if The Blaze wants to report a truly “giant” explosion, they might look up the epic Death Star vs Alderaan blast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

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Stoic one
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 10:51am
Giant nuke? Six kilotons?

On the human scale this is giant, but on the military nuclear arsenal scale? a teeny tiny firecracker.

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- VekTor
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 1:36pm
  The most logical path for N.Korea to be following if they seek large asymmetric attack benefits is to be pursuing an EMP-optimized nuclear weapon, which could knock out the electrical grid in most of the US with only one weapon, and get almost 100% effective coverage with as few as three of them.
  
  They’ve already proven they have the ability to put such a payload in the proper place for detonation (roughly 300 miles above the chosen attack center) by successfully putting a package into polar orbit. Then they just have to wait for their target of choice to roll around under that path… which covers the entire inhabited world.
  
  What would a test of an EMP-optimized nuke look like seismically if tested underground? It would most likely appear to have a yield-equivalent of roughly six kilotons.
  
  This test is staggeringly bad news. Please review the official findings of the EMP Commission (and follow-on research by members of and contribuors to that Commission) for further details.
  
  Report this comment
- Stoic one
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 3:15pm
  Valid point… I was only considering conventional nuke use; but you are absolutely correct about the EMP implications.
  
  Thanks.
  
  Report this comment
pragmaticpatriot
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:59am
Now now, be nice, theyre just trying to stay warm AND reduce their population problem.

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Captain Morgan
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:50am
Thank you president Clinton for giving permission and Jimmy Carter who brokered the deal to give these psychotics the nuke reactor to build these things, because they “promised” not to build weapons. *sigh, face palm*

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- AbrahamsSheepdog
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 10:07am
  Carter. Jimmy really screwed us but good. HillBilly Willie got us too. And it stretches global. Why insanity is becoming a dominant gene I guess.
  
  Report this comment
- Captain Morgan
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 10:18am
  My worry is not they get one airborne but just walk one across the Mexican boder using an Islamist mule to carry it.
  
  Report this comment
- JRook
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 10:44am
  The test was a defiant response to U.N. orders to shut down atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation. So why exactly would you think N. Korea should give the UN any more respect or deference than the US does. Would we actually ever follow a UN resolution that questioned on or our actions? And given the timeframe, I doubt it was Carter or Clinton’s involvement in assisting them in developing nuclear power plants is really the catalyst here. It is more likely the 67,000 nuclear scientists that were available for hire once Russia went bankrupt. So in a sense it was Reagan who was the catalyst behind the availability of Russian scientists.
  
  Report this comment
Dismayed Veteran
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:34am
Fear not. The UN has passed a resolution barring North Korea from having nuclear weapons. If North Korea continues with weapons and weapons delivery development, the UN will issue a really, really strongly worded resolution.

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- Gonzo
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 11:07am
  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Barry pushes to further reduce our nuclear arsenal…with support on both sides of the aisle.
  
  Report this comment
AUsername
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:33am
aw bummer you neo cons can’t invade north korea soon it will be Iran and you won’t be able to invade them.

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- atechgeek
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 10:46am
  Naive.
  
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Tigress1
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:25am
I thought talking to N. Korea and Iran “without preconditions” was supposed to work? Ha!

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GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:19am
Same thing occurred in Sept of 01′, three times in the same day, in lower Manhattan.

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piper60
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:16am
The problem with North Korea is, it’s full of North Koreans. Having said that, however, I find it significant, that even China is getting tired of their antics. The last thing they need, is a nutcase satellite country, trying to start armageddon. Unfortunately, the north koreans are as aware as we are, that sanctions from the U.N. are about as meaningful as dogs barking.

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SocialistSlayer
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:43am
All the while Communist obama continues to dismantle all our Weapons and Military !

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- Charbet
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:53am
  Yes he is, he has been on a roll since he started running for office in 2008. Problem is no one was listening, sad we are all going to pay for the useful idiots who voted for him. He told all along what his plans were for his new Amerika.
  
  America, are you listening now?
  
  Report this comment
- naughtycal
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 9:02am
  How long before the game Homefront becomes reality.
  
  Report this comment
- Hobbs57
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 11:05am
  Let’s not forget all the useless idiots who helped to re-elect Obama … All our hippies.. ahmm,ahmm, I mean conspirasist… I mean, I mean, Ron Paul nut’s .. Oh wait, sorry, what was the Ron Paul wanna be’s name , Gary Ronbut or something … No, you guys at least have some logical standing to your illusions, I would lay the blame on our enemies with-in, those bigots who couldn’t see their religious leaders are so afraid the Mormons would take their money, I mean convert their flock, that they preached regularly how the Mormons were a cult, and not to vote for Romney…. That an our ” Good ol Gal”, Palin, hoot-in and a holler-in, to follow Newt Gingrich instead of Romney, a bigot in herself … Don’t tell her that on FB though, she will report you and have your account shut down for a period of time. I never felt the way I do towards those particular sect of Born Agains until just after 2010. Not until you had to start forcing your ideals upon us who had come to the calling of our nation. You couldn’t just stand beside us and support our nation together, nope, you had to take the game over, and start to lay down criteria pertaining to personal beliefs on faith. All of suddenly, the Tea Party movement, became a party of Radical Evangelical Christians, the very motion that broke it’s strength. Always talking about exclusion instead of inclusion .. Then you don’t even show up to vote, you people are something else. Just you specific sect’s, you know who you are, Than
  
  Report this comment
hauschild
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:33am
A crippling national debt, a decaying American culture and nuts with nukes.

Kinda makes a guy more at ease being north of 40.

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Ben__Franklin
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:21am
A little nuke test is a fly in the Oblamo’s SOTUA ointment. Lets see how he handles not mentioning anything to do with our enemies developing nuclear weapons and testing the ability to deliver them.

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Ben__Franklin
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:18am
“The nuke test happened many hours ago. Why does it matter now”, Hillary Clinton

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Endyr
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:08am
Did Barry O’Nero even stop playing his fiddle long enough to issue a statement?

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barber2
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:06am
Gosh. Does this mean that Obama’s Four Year Apology Tour was not effective ? That his attempt to Blame Bush and to blame America for all of the world’s problems did not produce a ” change” in the behavior of the world’s bullies ? That there was no ” Axis of Evil?” Can’t wait to see who gets the blame tonight in his State of the Disunion Speech .

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DougHuffman
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:04am
It is argued that the expense of building titanium submarines contributed to the fall of the fUSSR. Do the NorKs deny the logic as we read of starvation and cannibalism? By all means, irritate and test them into oblivion.

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DZ-015
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 7:55am
A Loco NoKo nuke rebuke to the rest of the world.

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 7:48am
Here we go again, and as usual Obama and the Useless Nations will do nothing other than issue useless ‘strongly worded’ notes.

How long until N Korea and their allies of Iran develop a deployable nuke and actually use them?

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- chucksue351
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:08am
  hope they know it would be suicide, at least until obama dis- arms our nuclear arsenal
  
  Report this comment
- stumpy68
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:55am
  Unfortunatly a nuke is going to fall into the
  hands of someone who thinks suicide is a viable or even
  desired option
  
  Report this comment
BigSky
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 7:46am
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usc000f5t0#summary

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huey6367
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 7:40am
So where is the UN on this? Aren’t they the world’s police? The UN is useless. At best, they will sanction Norht Korea resulting in the starving of its people while kim Jong Fat A** lives in luxury.

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NOBALONEY
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 7:39am
Oops there goes another nuke blast! Coming attactions to the one coming from Iran. Obama, Kerry, Hagel, and Brennan will bark, but have no bite. Senator Menendez our Senate chair on Foreign Relations will talk his way out of this predicament too. This is “Forward’.

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KevINtampa
Posted on February 12, 2013 at 7:32am
Maybe they’ll blow themselves up and save us the trouble.

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- seek.the.truth
  Posted on February 12, 2013 at 8:02am
  I like that thought! Good one to start the day with. ….positive.
  
  Report this comment

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