This chronology of North Korea's nuclear program took root in the 1950s and began in 1989 with the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, North Korea's main economic ally. Chronology primarily addresses the conflict between the United States and North Korea, while it includes influences from other members of the six-party talks: China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan.
North Korea's nuclear program can be roughly divided into four phases. Phase I (1956-80) is handled primarily by training and gaining basic knowledge. Phase II (1980-94) includes the growth and eventual suspension of North Korea's plutonium production program. Phase III (1994-2002) covers the period of "freezing" of the North Korean plutonium program (though North Korea pursues uranium enrichment in secret) and Phase IV (2002-present) includes the current period of renewed nuclear activity.
Nuclear weapons type
Upstream nuclear weapons designs fall into various categories.
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- The fission equipment ("commonly called" atomic bomb "or" A-bomb ") depends on nuclear fission, the separation of very heavy elements to release energy.The bomb used against Japan in World War 2 is this type. At the other end of the scale, staging a thermonuclear weapon (commonly called a "hydrogen bomb" or "H-bomb") uses one or more fission devices only as a first stage, to light a fusion warhead, where very light elements blend together lots of energy. The most massive bombs that explode are of this type, and can be up to thousands of times stronger than those used during World War 2. (All modern multi-megaton thermonuclear weapons are of this type)
- Finally, between them are various hybrids, such as "boosted" designs where the fission device is surrounded by (or contains) materials that can be used to improve the results, and "fission-fission" of the device. This can add anything from a moderate to significant increase to fission devices.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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