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  • So North Korea claims it's a hydrogen not an atomic bomb that it's tested.

  • The regime is only known to have produced an atomic bomb so far.

  • But what exactly is the difference between the two, and how likely is it that North Korea

  • has produced an H-bomb? Kwon Jang-Ho explains.

  • Atomic bombs, or A-bombs, are also known as fission bombs, as they use a nuclear fission

  • chain reaction to set off the explosion. Enriched pieces of uranium or plutonium are

  • smashed together, in order to release huge amounts of energy.

  • Hydrogen bombs, or thermonuclear weapons, are also know as fusion bombs, because they

  • require a fusion reaction between hydrogen isotopes.

  • But a fusion reaction requires an enormous amount of energy to trigger it.

  • That energy produced from an A-bomb. So in essence, an H-bomb requires an A-bomb

  • inside it to set it off. The Hiroshima A-bomb dropped on Japan in 1945

  • was recorded to have released about 15 kilotons in energy and carried a blast radius of 1.6km.

  • The minimum yield an H-bomb produces is 1 megaton and has a blast radius of around 30km.

  • There is also no limit of how big an H-bomb can be, unlike the A-bomb.

  • But compared to its potential power, it is said to be quite easy to develop, once an

  • atomic bomb has been produced.

  • "China first tested an atomic bomb in 1964. They tested their first H-bomb in 1967. It

  • only took 2 years and 8 months to develop...It's been three years since North Korea last tested

  • a atomic bomb, and we can safely assume that they have been trying to develop a thermonuclear

  • weapon."

  • But despite North Korea's announcement, it looks like the regime has not quite yet developed

  • an H-bomb.

  • "If you look at size of the seismic activity, there's been not much difference with their

  • atomic bomb tests... Just by looking at the size, we can be sure it wasn't a full H-bomb."

  • Kwon Jang-ho, Arirang News.

So North Korea claims it's a hydrogen not an atomic bomb that it's tested.

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