What concerns me is not the specific “magnitude” of the blast - although that “is” important to rank North Korea’s nuclear bomb “engineering” (Its machining expertise in exotic alloys, its theoretical physics and transition from physics to design, its weapons material purity, its geometry of the warhead, its conventional explosive designs and machining and execution.)
The “engineering” is what builds a weapon. The “physics:” is merely the math telling the engineers and machinists what size they need.
But that the NorK’s have gone far enough in their conventional nuclear bomb technology to decide to try for a PUBLIC H-bomb explosion is what is troubling. A H-Bomb will kill 10 to 20 times the people and area a A-bomb affects. S, transporting and building an H-bomb to the detonation site is just as hard and as expensive as transporting a A-bomb.
But will kill many more.
If they could NEVER explode a A-bomb is best. Hillary and Bill gave that birth. Far better that they had aborted THAT decision. But she is for sale.
The North Koreans didn’t obtain and/or modify missiles capable of launching 10,000+ pound objects across the Pacific Ocean. They most likely have missiles (mobiles for more difficult monitoring from satellites) capable to carrying smaller nuclear warheads such distances, and several other nations have obviously helped them (old news).
Communist nations have obviously been arming their mean lapdog nations (also communist) to have those lapdogs initiate an extended, multi-stage exchange in the near future. They have been building to overwhelm defenses with many fakes (including many decoys) and do some damage to us.
Communist nations want more real estate. Expansionism is what they do.
Many of us older Americans (mostly Baby Boomers) were taught as children to see through communist propaganda, but too many among us rebelled against that and all of the better things taught to us by our elders. We were spoiled rotten.