ABSTRACT
On 9 October 2006, North Korea conducted its first ever nuclear test in defiance of the international community and the countries involved in the Six Party Talks. This event culminated a three-decade-long effort by North Korea to develop nuclear weapons. The US confirmed the test on 16 October 2006, based on atmospheric and seismological data, and estimated that the yield was less than one kiloton (kt). 1 While this yield is much smaller than the primitive 21 kt bomb—dubbed ‘Fat Boy’—that the US detonated over Nagasaki, its political impact is nonetheless significant: North Korea has attained the ability to develop fissile material and the basics of nuclear weaponization. 2
