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US Military Believes North Korea Has A Hydrogen Bomb

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Ryan Pickrell China/Asia Pacific Reporter
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The bomb North Korea tested earlier this month was a hydrogen bomb, according to the U.S. military.

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3, detonating a suspected staged thermonuclear device. In the aftermath, Pyongyang claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb for its new Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, which can strike parts, if not most, of the continental U.S.

The seismic data indicates the bomb was significantly larger than anything the North has tested before. The blast was so powerful that it literally moved mountains.

Where as the bomb tested last September had an explosive yield of roughly 15 kilotons, the most recent test had an explosive yield potentially in excess of 300 kilotons.

“The size of the weapon shows that there clearly was a secondary explosion,” Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command, said Thursday afternoon before being pulled away to deal with the latest North Korean missile test, according to Defense News.

“I saw the event, I saw the indications that came from that event,” he told reporters. “I saw the size, I saw the reports. and therefore, to me, I am assuming it was a hydrogen bomb.”

“The change from the original atomic bomb to the hydrogen bomb for the United States changed our entire deterrent relationship with the Soviet Union,” Hyten explained. “It changes the entire relationship because of the sheer destruction and damage you can use, you can create with a weapon that size.”

“That has the capability to destroy a city,” he stated.

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