The North Korea hiccup may be a hopeful sign

Submitted by Sully (United States), Nov 2, 2006 at 16:48

North Korea labored for more than a decade on it's bomb, and it had unlimited time to set up as massive a device as it wanted in the test site. Yet in the end it achieved a hiccup.

It may be that plutonium implosion devices are more difficult to design and produce than has been assumed. And, unless I misunderstand, uranium 235 devices are easy to make work but difficult or impossible to make small enough for missile warheads. An Iranian bomb suitable for a shipping container is a very different sort of threat than a bomb suitable for an intermediate range missile.

I won't be glad to be proved wrong re this, but I would be appreciative if someone technical on such matters would post on this point.

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