North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been on quite a tear lately. He’s only just banned sarcasm after reportedly executing a man for having bad posture. Now it appears that the country’s up to its old nuclear tricks again with its fifth such test. In fact, experts are almost certain that’s why a 5.3 earthquake was detected in a spot very close to the nation’s previous tests.
If this test is confirmed to be a nuke, this would qualify as a violation of UN sanctions. The quake was felt near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, which is located in northeastern North Korea. South Korea detected the vibrations, and the BBC reports that heightened activity at the site — detected by both intelligence and satellite imagery — had tipped off suspicions that a new test was on the way. Another major clue? The quake occurred at a depth of zero, which means there’s virtually no chance that this explosion could be anything other than a nuclear test.
According to CNBC, the 5+ magnitude quake would match up to a 10 kiloton explosion, which would qualify as the country’s largest nuclear test yet. Yet there may not be cause for true alarm. Even if North Korea is testing nukes, they still need to be able to strap them to a missile that’s capable of going the distance. However, the nation claimed (a few weeks ago) that the U.S. is now in striking range of its missiles, but still, folks gotta take into account how Kim Jong-un claims a lot of stuff that never turns out to be true.
