N. Korea may learn to miniaturize nuclear warhead for ICBMs in few tests: researcher

Yonhap News ^ | 09/25/2013 | Yonhap

[TexGrill]

SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea may be one test shy of developing a technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on its long-range ballistic missile, a nuclear policy researcher said Wednesday.

"In the last (third) nuclear test, they could not finish the task of miniaturization ... but if they have a chance for more nuclear tests, maybe one more, they would be able to have small and more reliable device for their missile," Li Bin, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a professor at Tsinghua University, said during an international forum on North Korea, hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

In its first nuclear test in 2006, "(the North) began with a small device with a small amount of explosives, and it was not so successful," the Chinese expert said. "Then they had to add more chemical explosives because the yield was not good enough. Eventually they got full yield (in the third test), but the device is not small enough," according to Li, who also joined the Chinese delegation on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty negotiations.

The analysis came as China is moving quickly to revive the long-stalled six-party talks aimed at persuading the communist country to stop its nuclear weapons program.

After the disarmament dialogue held their last meeting in late 2008, the North conducted two more nuclear tests including one in February and several rocket launches, which the international community believes were to test the country's long-range missile technology.

Pyongyang is believed to be developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and the country has repeatedly threatened nuclear attacks on the continental United States and South Korea.

[TexGrill]

Global business tip

[logic101.net]

To the best of my knowledge the best they can come up with is a dirty bomb; now someone is talking about miniaturization? You need to learn to stand before you can run a marathon.

[Mr. Quarterpanel]

I dunno.

The NorKs built their nukes from drawings that they bought, and not from any home-grown effort. It is known in intelligence circles that the blueprints that they got (from A.Q.Khan) were an old Chinese design that was doctored to the point that any device built from them would fail.

The first test proved this out. Note that no country in history has ever had a nuke test fail.

This means that they would need several tests just to work out the bugs that are built in to the plans, much less miniaturize it. The last test was a brute force effort to make it work, and the efficiency and reliability are suspect at best.

Constructing a test device in a cave is a long...LONG way from installing a device on a missile and delivering it accurately, reliably, and successfully to a target.

[mj1234]

possibly—

but they are working with Iran-

and these 2 loser countries may be able to
solve all the problems with creating a nuclear
bomb and delivering it-
My 2 cents- Iran is letting the Norks be the test site
so that they are not attacked