http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061009/ap/d8kl919g0.html

Scientists Probe North Korea Nuke Test

North Korea sets off an earthshaking explosion _ and claims it was
nuclear. Was it? For scientists, that was not a quick and easy question
to answer.

Like earthquakes, large explosions send out shockwaves that can be
detected on seismographs. Big nuclear bombs make big waves, with clear
signatures that make them fairly easy to detect, analyze and confirm
that they were caused by splitting atoms. But smaller blasts _ as North
Korea's appears to have been _ are trickier to break down.

The natural sound of the Earth, with its constant seismic activity of
tectonic plates grinding together, complicates the task of trying to
determine whether a smaller blast was caused by conventional explosives
or a nuclear device, said Xavier Clement of France's Atomic Energy
Commission.

He likened the problem to trying to "detect the violins or a flute in a
symphony orchestra when you are playing the cymbals."

EXCERPTS from various sources

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/10/world/asia/10detect.html?

hp&ex=1160539200&en=8327018d4faaaf77&ei=5094&partner=homepage

October 10, 2006
Blast May Be Only a Partial Success, Experts Say
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and MARK MAZZETTI

The North Korean test appears to have been a nuclear detonation but was
fairly small by traditional standards, and possibly a failure or a
partial success, federal and private analysts said yesterday.

Throughout history, the first detonations of aspiring nuclear powers
have tended to pack the destructive power of 10,000 to 60,000 tons -
10 to 60 kilotons - of conventional high explosives.

But the strength of the North Korean test appears to have been a small
fraction of that: around a kiloton or less, according to scientists
monitoring the global arrays of seismometers that detect
faint trembles in the earth from distant blasts.

A senior Bush administration official said he had learned through Asian
contacts that the North Koreans had expected the detonation to have a
force of about four kilotons.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061012-115954-4140r.htm

Korean test seen as only partial blast
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published October 13, 2006

Four days after North Korea tried to set off its first nuclear
bomb, U.S. intelligence agencies think the blast detected by seismic
sensors was a plutonium-fueled device that did not fully explode.

"The working assumption is that what happened, more likely than
not, was an attempted nuclear test that fell far short of being
successful," said one U.S. official familiar with the latest
intelligence assessment.

There is still no confirmation that North Korea succeeded in
creating a nuclear explosion, and so far no radioactive particles that
would confirm a successful nuclear test have been detected. The
Washington Times first reported Tuesday that U.S. officials were having
doubts, based on preliminary data, about North Korea's boasts about
having successfully tested its first nuclear device.

In article
<8d39682ff0248dba25242357dc762899@msgid.frell.theremailer.net>,
Fafnir spamexpire-200610.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> wrote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301572....

U.S. Detects Signs of Radiation Consistent With Test
By Dafna Linzer and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 14, 2006; A14
[EXCERPT]

Initial environmental samples collected by a U.S. military aircraft
detected signs of radiation over the Sea of Japan, possibly confirming
North Korea's nuclear test, intelligence officials said yesterday.

Officials said the positive radiation result was consistent with an
atomic test and would make it possible to rule out the possibility that
Monday's test had been conducted with conventional explosives alone.
But intelligence and administration officials were cautious about
reaching a conclusion before reviewing all incoming data. "The
intelligence community continues to analyze the data," said Frederick
Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council. "When the
intelligence community has a determination to present, we will make
that public."

http://www.dni.gov/announcements/20061016_release.pdf

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE
WASHINGTON, D.C.
20511
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ODNI News Release No. 19-06
October 16, 2006

Statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
on the North Korea Nuclear Test

Analysis of air samples collected on October 11, 2006 detected
radioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted an
underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P'unggye on October 9,
2006. The explosion yield was less than a kiloton.

Translation- North Korea has no working nuclear weapons designs and hence no
nuclear weapons, even though RepubliKKKans and NeoCon's have for the last 2
decades been lying that they had several to several dozen nuclear weapons.

RepubliKKKan = NeoCon = Liar.

Allen Thomson wrote:

It's absolutely a lie.

But it's not as big a lie as those told by RepubliKKKans and NeoCons who for
two decades claimed that North Korea had nuclear weapons. The recent North
Korean test proves that they still don't have a working design and hence
don't have any nuclear weapons.

RepubliKKKans = NeoCons = Perpetual Liars.

In alt.war.nuclear Scott Nudds foo.com> wrote: