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North Korea appear to have detonated a nuclear device. The US Geological Survey say they didn't pick anything up, but the South Koreans reckon that they picked up a 3.9 tremor from a remote region of North Korea.
Probably not a very big one, and most likely a partial detonation (fizzle). But not particularly great news...
Edit: USGS confirmed 4.2 on the Richter scale, which puts the detonation (extrapolating from published data on US nuclear tests in Nevada) of the order of 10-15 kilotons, so it is just about possible that they are pulling a fast one and it wasn't nuclear at all, but it's also in the same range as the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs from WW II, so it's credible that it may have been a for-real, probably fairly unsophisticated, A-bomb.
Edit: MSNBC are saying 550 ton equivalent, about a third of my estimate. That might be wishful thinking -- it doesnt sound like enough te generate a 4.2 tremor.
Probably not a very big one, and most likely a partial detonation (fizzle). But not particularly great news...
Edit: USGS confirmed 4.2 on the Richter scale, which puts the detonation (extrapolating from published data on US nuclear tests in Nevada) of the order of 10-15 kilotons, so it is just about possible that they are pulling a fast one and it wasn't nuclear at all, but it's also in the same range as the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs from WW II, so it's credible that it may have been a for-real, probably fairly unsophisticated, A-bomb.
Edit: MSNBC are saying 550 ton equivalent, about a third of my estimate. That might be wishful thinking -- it doesnt sound like enough te generate a 4.2 tremor.