If the North Koreans can shrink a bomb down to that size, they would still need a long-range missile. So r the DPRK has test-flown several missiles of varying ranges. This past December, they launched a satellite, which is reportedly spinning out of control. North Korea has launched satellites before: in 2009 with the KwangmyÅngsÅng-2, which the government said was a communications satellite, and in 2006 it conducted a test of several missiles, among them the Taepodong-2, which iled seconds after lift-off.
Although none of the missiles or rockets successfully tested so r could reach the continental United States, its possible that the North Koreans could develop one. Current estimates for the range of a Taepodong-2 are as much as 6,200 miles, enough to reach the western half of the United States. That estimate is at the high-end and assumes the missile has a two-stage rocket.
A view of the launch of North Koreas Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite from the Pyongyang General Satellite Control Command Center on Dec. 12, 2012.
Hans Kristensen,education fund. director of nuclear information at the Federation of American Scientists, told Discovery News. Theyve built some devices that can go off,special education. he said. Thats not the same as a bomb.
Thursday, North Korea stated explicitly that in addition to planning a third nuclear test, it would also be targeting the United States with its nuclear program.
North Korea showed it had the fissile material when it set off two test explosions, one in 2006 andsatellite view 3 Reasons N Korea Canât Nuke the US (Yet one in 2009. Most experts consider the first a ilure, given that it was only the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT, or one kiloton. The 2009 explosion was more successful, estimated at several kilotons -- still a fraction the power of the bomb used on Hiroshima.
Setting off a nuclear explosion is one thing, but building a warhead small and light enough to fit in a plane or on top of a missile is another. For comparison, it took the United States several years to develop warheads that could fit on a rocket. The first hydrogen bomb we dropped on test sites in the Pacific was the size of a small house, Tips About How To Design Fashion Sketches said Kristensen. That was in the 1952. A missile capable of sending a bomb to the USSR wouldnt debut until 1959.
But although the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea has rockets and an active nuclear program, threats of a nuclear attack may be bluster, according to some experts â at least for now.
There are three parts to a nuclear weapon, he said. First is the fissile material -- uranium and plutonium. The second is the ability to get a bomb onto a plane or missile. Last is designing a missile that will reach targets as r away as the continental United States. North Korea has the first,definition of adenoma. has not shown it has the second and is part way towards the third.
