North Korea Admits It Built 3 - 8 Nuke Bombs
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“Missing” Plutonium Causes Angst
North Korea’s nuclear declaration, turned over to China on June 26, revealed that North Korea has used 26 kilograms (KG) of plutonium to manufacture nuclear weapons, according to a Japanese newspaper report. That amount is enough to make three to eight nuclear bombs given that one weapon could be made with roughly 4 to 8 kgs of weapons-grade plutonium.
The U. S. Bush administration accused North Korea of have 50 kgs which it at first denied and now says it did indeed have about 40 kilograms and used about six for its October 2006 nuclear bomb test. The amount actually refined by North Korea has never been confirmed, and there are grave concerns about the disputed 10 kg, where it is, who has it and what is it being used for.- the only practical use for Plutonium is nuclear weapons and very limited research.
North Korea’s technique and technology is what had been transferred to Syria before the facility -financed by Iran - was destroyed by a Israeli lightening raid in 2007. The same techniques and technologies are being used by Iran.
North Korea went full speed ahead in the 1990s developing the facilities to refine and refining plutonium. The Nagasaki bomb was a plutonium fusion bomb. Fusion bombs are geometrically more difficult to built compared to the AQ Khan techniques which are based on a U-235 (enriched uranium), Little Boy type (like the bomb dropped at Hiroshima) fission weapon, which requires more fissionable material, but is much easier to make. Since 2000 a six party coalition has worked to contain and finally dismantle North Korea’s nuke program.