[Gandalf_The_Gray]

BTW, I STILL BELIEVE that these “nukes” are just a few thousand tons of urea based fertilizer that South Korea gave NK. South Korea has given them 1,000,000 tons in the last 10 years, nitrate and urea based.

I've been saying that since the first "fizzle", their results are nothing but a bluff. A chemical explosion of sufficient magnitude, spiked with the appropriate isotopes and noble gasses is a lot cheaper then actually going nuclear. Do you remember a couple of years ago, the Norks had an "industrial accident" that damn near erased one of their cities? A train loaded with "fertilizer" exploded as it was passing through a rail yard. There were rumors that it was sabotage and the plot was to take out Kimm the elder who's private train was scheduled to pass through the same rail yard. Kimm's train was delayed. I have satellite pictures of before and after and they show the city as decimated.

I'm guessing they bought the technology from the Pakistanis but couldn't afford to follow through with producing the hardware. A gun type design is simple, crude and easy to build but it is large and heavy, requiring a heavy bomber to carry it. If they faked a plutonium implosion device it would lend credibility to their threats of a missile attack.

The Red Chinese would give the Norks the whole package if they wanted them to have it. The Chinese will not do so because they do not want the crazy Koreans to start WWIII just when they have achieved economic ascendancy over the US and their "Manchurian candidate" is gutting our military. Why go to war and spoil all that real estate when all they need do is wait and the apple will fall right off the tree into their hands.

Regards,
GtG

[Steely Tom]

I thought it was a train consisting of hundreds of cars of LNG. I remember studying the before and after pictures closely. There was a boarding school near the station that was reduced to a cinder field. News reports were that thousands of people had been very badly burned, including many children. Medical aid and expertise was offered by many countries including the US; all was declined by NK.

The Dear Leader's private train had passed through the same switchyard hours (or maybe minutes) before the explosion.

[struggle]

Agreed, and as a reminder, South Korea DONATED (not sold) 1 MILLION TONS of urea and nitrate fertilizer.

They potentially could explode thousands of “nukes”. Maybe they could put a bunch of fertilizer in a warhead.