Further, my contention is that "the smaller the yield, the more sophisticated the device" - another thing to give us pause. Yet the ill-informed press is trumpeting "no radiation escaped, so was it a nuke? No need for sanctions here!" Well, I'd ask them, "in an underground test, is radiation supposed to leak??? How can you take comfort that the test went as designed?"
Do not discount the possibility that Kim was / is acting under orders and is allowed to run his own "Neverland Ranch" to indulge his fantasies while appearing bizarre to the outside world. What should he care? He's getting his! Meanwhile, certain other nations can conduct their real research in plain sight. After all, there are plenty of stolen designs from the 1990's to test out and sales demos to conduct.
Excellent comment !
Designs are one thing. Being able to manufacture it to spec, then assembling it properly are 2 other factors.
You may be right (that this is a physically small warhead, small enough to fit a Taepo-Dong 2), but I tend to believe that the easiers bomb to manufacture (for a first-timer) is still 4X to heavy for that missile to loft.
Targeting a Carrier Strike Group, or an Amphibious Ready Group would require some pretty fancy real-time intelligence -- even when using a Nuke. I don't think that is possible for the Chinese, much less the NK's.