Above: How Do We Detect Secret Nuclear Tests?
North Korea just tested their 5th nuclear device, but how exactly do we know? How do we detect underground nuclear tests from so far away? North Korea just conducted a fifth nuclear test on Friday, an underground blast that Seoul (South Korea) quickly labeled its most powerful to date. Here are some key questions around the blast and the isolated North Korea’s nuclear program. What do we know so far?
North Korea said it hit the button on its fifth and potentially most powerful nuclear test Friday morning, claiming to have successfully detonated a nuclear warhead that could be mounted on ballistic rockets. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans nuclear explosions by anyone and everywhere on planet Earth: on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground.