The initial U. S. intelligence assessment of Sunday' s test indicates the underground explosion measured 140 kilotons
North Korea’s most recent nuclear test produced an explosion almost 10 times larger than the blast from the bomb dropped over Hiroshima in 1945, U. S. officials tell CBS News’ David Martin.
The initial U. S. intelligence assessment of Sunday’s test indicates the underground explosion measured 140 kilotons. The Hiroshima explosion yielded a blast of 15 kilotons. One kiloton is equivalent to the force produced in an explosion of 1,000 tons of TNT.
North Korea says Sunday’s explosion came from a hydrogen bomb capable of fitting on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) , which would represent a significant advance in its nuclear program. Hydrogen bombs are much more powerful than atomic bombs, like those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. U. S. intelligence officials have not determined whether Sunday’s test was the result of a hydrogen bomb.
The explosion was North Korea’s sixth nuclear test since 2006 and its largest yet. The U. S. Geological Survey said the blast registered as a magnitude 6.
