I don't believe it, but, perhaps they found that building a nuke is a lot more difficult than they thought and are trying to salvage as much of their pride and political advantage as possible.
I don't believe it, but, perhaps they found that building a nuke is a lot more difficult than they thought and are trying to salvage as much of their pride and political advantage as possible.
Take it a step further -- I saw a post some time ago that revealed that if you let uranium rods cook too long in a reactor, the plutonium 242(?) absorbs additional neutrons to make it a more stable plutonium 244 (?), which will absorb additional neutrons and stop a chain reaction before it starts. This was hypothesized as a reason why the underground test fizzled.
If true, the North Koreans are being punished for something they can no longer do, and they might like to get out from under.