[TigerLikesRooster]

A source close to the regime said North Korea had exploded a neutron bomb to allay doubts about its strength and deter US threats of regime change.

``It's for self-defence: the United States wants regime change,'' the source, who requested anonymity, said in Beijing, noting that Mr Bush had labelled North Korea part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iran and Iraq in 2002.

There was no independent confirmation that the device was a neutron bomb, designed to release larger amounts of deadly radiation than other nuclear weapons while leaving infrastructure intact.

I am not an expert, but I suspect that N. Koreans are bent on conning their way out of fizzled nuke at the test.

So they blew this one as well as their last long-range missile launch?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Miss Marple]

Well, if they think saying they tested a neutron bomb will make everyone less likely to institute regime change, they are following the Saddam Hussein plan for remaining in power.

Meanwhile, Fox is reporting that the Japanese and others are still ooking for traces of radioation, and so far nothing has shown up.

[AmericaUnited]

What does it really matter that North Korea test detonated a micro size nuke underground? WHOOPY... In other news... Somewhere in the remotest parts of Africa, an elephant also farted. What am I missing here?

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Interesting. Reports yesterday were all over the board as to the significance of this test. This also occurred after NK tested their long-range missile a few months ago.

[Brilliant]

Ingenious. Your nuke test doesn't work, so tell them it was a neutron bomb.

[backhoe]

Just in from the blogs:

North Korea Goes Nuclear: The Largest Roundup With Commentary In The Blogosphere

THE BELMONT CLUB ASKS: "Was North Korea testing a suitcase nuke?"

The W54 warhead used on the Davy Crockett weighed just 51 pounds and was the smallest and lightest fission bomb (implosion type) ever deployed by the United States, with a variable explosive yield of 0.01 kilotons (equivalent to 10 tons of TNT, or two to four times as powerful as the ammonium nitrate bomb which destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995), or 0.02 kilotons-1 kiloton. A 58.6 pound variant the B54 was used in the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), a nuclear land mine deployed in Europe, South Korea, Guam, and the United States from 1964-1989.
micro nukes & delivery system, forty year old technology.

The XM-388 casing (including the warhead and fin assembly) weighed 76 pounds, was 30 inches long and measured 11 inches in diameter (at its widest point).

[agere_contra]

The theory that the NKers merely set off 500 tonnes of conventional explosive is looking better and better ...

[Just mythoughts]

Bill Richardson is still claiming that we should have one on one, face to face talks with Il. Sure makes me wonder if that was not part of the agreement signed by the Clinton administration.

Bill Clinton said that alll Il wanted was respect.

[Junior]

That whole "kills people while leaving buildings intact" line is a load of crap. A neutron weapon is still a nuclear bomb, complete with the attendant fireball and blast effects. It is just a much dirtier version of a standard nuclear weapon.

[Dog]

Tiger is there any doubts being expressed in your region that this was a DUD?

I got a feeling we just witnessed a failure....just a hunch I have.

[Solamente]

Did China ever get their train back?

[Psalm 73]

"So they blew this one as well as their last long-range missile launch?"

But they have learned much through both of these failures - they will get better at it as the months/years go by.

[Tijeras_Slim]

At this point we can even speculate that Kim bought a Hush-A-Bomb from Boris and Natasha.

[VeniVidiVici]

How dare you call our test a "fizzle". It was supposed to be like that. It was a...a... neutron bomb. Yeah, that's the ticket. A neutron bomb.

[Carry_Okie]

``It's for self-defence: the United States wants regime change,'' the source, who requested anonymity, said in Beijing, noting that Mr Bush had labelled North Korea part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iran and Iraq in 2002.

As if they weren't working on it prior to that.

I noted this morning that CBS News has trotted out a "former defense department official" who says that Bush provoked NK into building a weapon with the "axis of evil" speech. A coordinated media attack?

[quesney]

Uh, we'll get back to you...after we've found some way to neuter you.

[El Gato]

A source close to the regime said North Korea had exploded a neutron bomb

Eyes roll to ceiling.

ROFLMAO.

No way Jose.

[chilepepper]

i think it was actually one of the dreaded positronic bombs they set off... much more deadly.

[SevenofNine]

OH I SEE if we don't talk to them they do Neutron bomb in my book that blackmail LOL!

[GOP_1900AD]

A lot went into the construction of the test site, a lot more than would be done for a single super critical test. There may have been several subcritical tests done there previously which we never detected (impossible to detect). This weekend's test was either a 1kT plus warhead that malfunctioned, or, it was purposely built to be only a few hundred tons. Neutron bombs (proper name, enhanced radiation weapons) are meant to also be rather small in terms of blast force and are optimized to produce maximum neutron flux, hence the nick name. We cannot rule out anything. Many Western analysts take it at face value that the DPRK is almost as much a rogue in the eyes of China and Russia as they are in ours. But what if China covertly helped, perhaps even proliferating enhanced radiation technology? In fact, most diabolical would be the outright outsourcing of a test to the DPRK so as to appear to continue complying with the NTBT while in fact cheating via the outsourcing. I would not put it past the Chi Coms (or even the Russians) to play such a game.