S. Koreans debate pre-emptive strike on N. Korean nuclear site
The chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff weighed into speculation about North Korea’s imminent nuclear test on Wednesday, guessing that the North is preparing to test a “pre-hydrogen” nuclear weapon.
Gen. Jung Seung-jo made the guess in a report to the National Assembly’s Defense Committee on Wednesday.
The weapon could be a “boosted fission weapon,” a type of nuclear bomb that uses a small amount of fusion fuel to increase the yield of a fission reaction, he said.
This could make it possible to drastically reduce the size and weight of nuclear weapons to less than one ton, small enough to fit a nuclear warhead on a missile.
“When you develop nuclear weapons, you have such a goal in mind,” Jung said. “I think the North has made a lot of progress in that regard.”