Technical Analysis of Oct. 9 North Korean Nuclear Test Now Available in Arms Control Today

For Immediate Release: October 19, 2006

Press Contacts: Daryl G. Kimball, (202) 463-8270 x107 and Miles Pomper, (202) 463-8270 x108

(Washington, D.C.): On Oct. 9, North Korea announced that it had carried out an underground nuclear test. An independent analysis of the test based on publicly available information by two of the world's leading nuclear weapons physics experts, Richard L. Garwin and Frank von Hippel is now available on the Arms Control Association's web site.

In their article, which will appear in the forthcoming issue of Arms Control Today, the authors judge, on the basis of publicly available data, that the yield of the explosion was below 1 kiloton (TNT equivalent). The authors write that "while the test did not succeed as planned, North Korea might have been testing a lower-yield design than many commentators have assumed. This imperfect test may well lead North Korea to test again."

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The Arms Control Association (ACA) is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting effective arms control policies. ACA publishes the monthly journal Arms Control .