Nuclear security

Fusion or Fission: What To Do About North Korea’s Bomb?

If in fact it was a hydrogen test, this means the North Koreans are advancing their nuclear weaponization program at a “faster and more efficient and deadly pace than most analysts have predicted in the past,” said Bruce Bechtol, a retired Defense Intelligence Agency senior intelligence analyst.

Bechtol said the US must confront the possibility that Iran had observers at the test. Iranians attended the last test in 2013, and if so, “this has obvious ramifications for the recent [nuclear] agreement” between Iran and the US. Bechtol is the author of several books on North Korea, including “The Last Days of Kim Jong-il.”

Chuck Downs, an expert on North Korea’s negotiating strategy, said the announcement is an “ad portraying North Korea as the leader of the world's anti-American forces … [and] aimed at the Muslim world. They are seeking to lead the world's anti-American forces. The threat of proliferation could not be clearer.”