20/10/2021
North Korea has long sought the
means to deliver an atomic warhead
to the United States , its sworn enemy,
and its latest nuclear test followed
reports it could load a hydrogen bomb
onto an intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM).
Hydrogen bombs, or H-bombs, are far
more powerful than the relatively
simple atomic weapons North Korea
was believed to have tested so far.
As opposed to the atomic bomb – the
kind dropped on Japan by the US in
the closing days of World War II – the
hydrogen bomb can be 1,000 times
more powerful.
North Korea’s first three nuclear tests
from 2006 to 2013 were atomic bombs
on roughly the same scale as the ones
used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
which together killed more than
200,000 people.
However, the latest test is estimated to
have a yield of about 100 kilotons, 10
times stronger than last year’s test that
caused a 5.3 magnitude quake.
A jubilant North Korean newsreader
hailed the “unprecedentedly large”
blast on state television, adding it
“marked a very significant occasion in
attaining the final goal of completing
the state nuclear force“.
The hydrogen bomb, also called a
thermonuclear bomb, uses fusion – or
atomic nuclei coming together – to
produce explosive energy. Stars also
produce energy through fusion.
Atomic bombs rely on fission, or atom-
splitting, just as nuclear power plants
do.
The technology of the hydrogen bomb
is more sophisticated, and once
attained, it is a greater threat. It can
also be made small enough to fit on a
head of an ICBM.
“Such a device could evaporate the
entire city of New York completely – no
one would stay alive,” Andrei Lankov,
a professor of Korean studies at
Kookmin University in Seoul, told Al
Jazeera.
“With an atomic bomb, you can kill
half of Manhattan, at most.”
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While much more potent, H-bombs are
also much more costly.
“For the North Koreans to have such a
powerful and expensive [device] is a
bit of overkill – it simply does not
mak