Does North Korea have a nuclear bomb, and if so, why?

Western scientists doubt new claims of success, but each test will increase the country’s knowledge, until it has a long-range warhead, says Sharon Squassoni

NUCLEAR weapons tests are no longer common, so they are a little shocking when they happen. It may even be shocking to the country that conducts it — most recently, North Korea. The famously secretive regime broadcast news of its “safe and perfect” test of an H-bomb to spectators standing in the massive Kim Il Sung Square, in the capital, Pyongygang, shortly after the event.

According to the Korean Central News Agency: “There took place a world-startling event to be specially recorded in the national history… The DPRK proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear-weapons states possessing the H-bomb.”