Why the Kind of Bomb North Korea Tested Matters

By Greg Scoblete
February 12, 2013

If North Korea tested a uranium bomb, we're all screwed.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies' Victor Cha and Ellen Kim explain why it matters whether North Korea tested a uranium-based weapon or a plutonium bomb:

'A uranium-fueled test would suggest several disturbing new problems in the effort to denuclearize North Korea. First, it would mean that the DPRK has not one, but two ways to make a bomb which doubles the problem. Second, highly-enriched uranium is much easier to hide than plutonium. It can be made in from centrifuges operating in buildings the size of a warehouse unlike the big and easily identifiable footprint of a plutonium nuclear plant facility. Third, the North can potentially produce a lot more uranium than it can plutonium and proliferate horizontally to others (like Iran) who may not need to test a device and feel confident that it has acquired a working device. Moreover, if this is proven to be a test of a miniaturized device as the North claims, then they will have crossed another technological threshold in mating a nuclear warhead with a long-range ballistic missile that could threaten U.S. security and that of its allies. Basically, none of this is good at all.'

(AP Photo)

View Comments

you might also like
Kim Jong Un Finds Himself in a Bind of His Own Making
Greg Scoblete
Two years ago, Kim Jong Un's nuclear gamble seemed to have paid off by bringing the United States to the negotiating table;...
Popular In the Community
Load more...