the site studied the opinions of experts about how many nuclear missiles they have and who they can threaten.

The attention of the whole world is riveted to the confrontation between North Korea and the United States. North Korea has planned to test another ballistic missile; however, the launch, apparently, failed, but the main evidence of this is only the silence of the North Korean media about an important event timed to coincide with the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung.

The US President continues to demonstrate that he intends to act decisively in the international arena: following the bombing of Syria on suspicion of the use of chemical weapons by government forces, he ordered warships to be sent to the shores of North Korea. In response, Pyongyang said that if they suspect the United States of being ready to attack, they reserve the right to a pre-emptive strike.

In January 2003, the DPRK withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement, which it joined in 1985. Shortly before this, the country's official authorities admitted that, in violation of agreements with the United States, they continued the uncontrolled use of nuclear technologies.

One of the organizations that regularly monitor news about the DPRK nuclear program (and analyze, among other things, satellite observation data) is the American Institute of Science and international security. In the summer of 2016, its experts assessed the amount of material for nuclear weapons at the disposal of Pyongyang as sufficient to create

13 to 21 nuclear warheads.

The Institute experts believe that over the past two years, North Korea's nuclear arsenal has increased by four to six equivalents of one warhead - and decreased by one, as the country conducted another underground nuclear test in early 2016.

The main question is whether Pyongyang has a means of delivering nuclear warheads, and if so, which ones. It was the test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, allegedly failed and now hushed up by the state media of North Korea, that became the reason for the aggravation of relations between the United States and the DPRK.

Earlier, sources in North Korea told the South Korean press that the missile, which Pyongyang planned to test the other day, has a range of up to 10,000 kilometers.

Dennis Wilder, a former adviser to US President George W. Bush, assures in a Daily Express comment that, according to intelligence, North Korea may test and adopt ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the United States within the next four years. Another expert is Professor Siegfried S. Hacker of Stanford University - in

On September 9, 2016, North Korea marked the 68th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with another nuclear test.

First, several countries at once on the territory of North Korea, which could mean the explosion of a nuclear charge.

Then the fact of conducting nuclear tests was officially confirmed by Pyongyang. "North Korea will continue to take measures to strengthen the national nuclear forces in quantitative and qualitative terms, in order to ensure the dignity and right to exist of the country in the face of the growing nuclear threat from the United States," the official North Korean news agency KCNA said in a statement.

South Korea, the United States and Japan initiated an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which is expected to raise the issue of tightening sanctions against Pyongyang.

The problem, however, is that the sanctions on the DPRK are practically non-existent. Moreover, significant progress is being made in North Korea's nuclear missile program.

How it all began

Back in the years of the Korean War, the US command considered the possibility of inflicting nuclear strikes across the North. Although these plans were not realized, the North Korean leadership was interested in gaining access to technologies that would allow the creation of weapons of this type.

The USSR and China, acting as allies of the DPRK, were cool about these plans.

Nevertheless, in 1965, with the help of Soviet and Chinese specialists, a nuclear research center was founded in Yongbyon, where the Soviet nuclear reactor IRT-2000 was installed. Initially, it was assumed that the reactor would be used for work exclusively on peaceful programs.

In the 1970s, Pyongyang, relying on the support of China, began the first work on the creation of nuclear weapons.

In 1985, the Soviet Union got the DPRK to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In exchange for this, the USSR supplied Korea with a gas-graphite research reactor with a capacity of 5 MW. An agreement was also signed on the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea with four light water reactors of the VVER-440 type.

President Clinton's failed war

The collapse of the Soviet Union changed the situation in the world. The West and South Korea expected the imminent fall of the North Korean regime, while at the same time conducting peace negotiations with it, counting on liberalization political system and its dismantling according to the option of Eastern Europe.

The United States, in exchange for abandoning its nuclear program, promised Pyongyang economic and technical assistance in the development of the peaceful atom. North Korea responded by agreeing to allow IAEA inspectors into its nuclear facilities.

Relations began to deteriorate sharply after IAEA inspectors suspected of concealing a certain amount of plutonium. Based on this, the IAEA demanded a special inspection of two spent nuclear fuel storage facilities, which were not declared, but was refused, motivated by the fact that the facilities have nothing to do with the nuclear program and are of a military nature.

As a result, in March 1993, the DPRK announced its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Negotiations with the United States made it possible to slow down this process, but on June 13, 1994, North Korea not only abandoned the treaty, but also withdrew from the IAEA.

During this period, as Newsweek magazine argued in 2006, the administration US President Bill Clinton issued an order to study the issue of conducting a military operation against North Korea. The military report stated that the operation would cost $100 billion, and the forces of South Korea and the United States would lose about a million people, and the loss of the US army would be at least 100,000 people killed.

As a result, the United States again returned to the tactics of negotiations.

Threats and promises

At the end of 1994, with the assistance of the former head of the United States Jimmy Carter A "framework agreement" was reached, according to which North Korea pledged to abandon the nuclear weapons program in exchange for the supply of fuel oil and the creation of two new light water nuclear reactors that cannot be used for nuclear weapons work.

For several years, stability was established. Both sides, however, fulfilled their obligations only partially, but the internal difficulties in the DPRK and the distraction of the United States on other problems ensured a stable situation.

A new escalation began in 2002, when the United States came to power President George W. Bush.

In January 2002, in his speech, Bush included the DPRK in the so-called "axis of evil." Together with the intention to create a global missile defense system, this caused serious concern in Pyongyang. The North Korean leadership did not want to share the fate of Iraq.

In 2003, negotiations began on the nuclear program of the DPRK with the participation of China, the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

No real progress has been made on them. The aggressive policy of the United States gave rise to the confidence in the DPRK that it was possible to ensure its own security only if it had its own atomic bomb.

In North Korea, they did not particularly hide the fact that research work on nuclear issues continue.

Bomb: Birth

Exactly 12 years ago, on September 9, 2004, a strong explosion was recorded by a South Korean reconnaissance satellite in a remote area of ​​the DPRK (Yangando Province), not far from the border with China. A crater visible from space remained at the site of the explosion, and a huge mushroom cloud with a diameter of about four kilometers grew over the scene.

On September 13, the DPRK authorities explained the appearance of a cloud similar to a nuclear mushroom by explosive work during the construction of the Samsu hydroelectric power station.

Neither South Korean nor American experts have confirmed that it really was a nuclear explosion.

Western experts believed that the DPRK did not have the necessary resources and technologies to create a full-fledged atomic bomb, and we were talking about a potential rather than an immediate danger.

On September 28, 2004, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK stated at a session of the UN General Assembly that North Korea had already turned enriched uranium obtained from 8,000 reprocessed fuel rods from its nuclear reactor into a nuclear weapon. He stressed that the DPRK had no other choice in creating a nuclear deterrence force at a time when the United States declared its goal the destruction of the DPRK and threatened with preventive nuclear strikes.

On February 10, 2005, the DPRK Foreign Ministry for the first time officially announced the creation of atomic weapons in the country. The world treated this statement as another Pyongyang bluff.

A year and a half later, on October 9, 2006, the DPRK announced for the first time that it had successfully tested a nuclear charge, and its preparation was publicly announced before that. The low power of the charge (0.5 kilotons) raised doubts that it was a nuclear device, and not ordinary TNT.

Speed ​​up in North Korean

On May 25, 2009, North Korea conducted another nuclear test. Underground power nuclear explosion, according to the Russian military, ranged from 10 to 20 kilotons.

Four years later, on February 12, 2013, North Korea conducted another atomic bomb test.

Despite the adoption of new sanctions against the DPRK, the opinion remained that Pyongyang was far from creating powerful devices that could be used as real weapons.

December 10, 2015 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared that his country had a hydrogen bomb, which meant new step in the development of nuclear weapons. On January 6, 2016, another test explosion was carried out, which the DPRK announced as a test of a hydrogen bomb.

South Korean sources call the current test the most powerful in the entire nuclear program of the DPRK. It is also noteworthy that the interval between tests turned out to be the shortest in all the years, which indicates that Pyongyang has made serious progress in terms of improving technology.

More importantly, North Korea said the test was part of the development of nuclear warheads that could be placed on ballistic missiles.

If this is true, then official Pyongyang has come close to creating a real combat nuclear weapon, which is fundamentally changing the situation in the region.

Rockets fly farther

Media reports about the situation in the DPRK, often coming from South Korean sources, give the wrong impression of North Korea. Despite the poverty of the population and other problems, this country is not backward. There are quite enough specialists in advanced industries, including nuclear and missile technologies.

The inhabitants talk about the tests of North Korean missiles with a chuckle - it exploded again, again it did not fly, it fell again.

Military experts monitoring the situation say that North Korean specialists last years made a major technological breakthrough.

By 2016, the DPRK had created a mobile single-stage liquid-propellant ballistic missile "Hwaseong-10" with a firing range of about three thousand kilometers.

In the summer of this year, the Pukkykson-1 rocket was successfully tested. This solid rocket is designed to arm submarines. Its successful launch was made from a submarine of the DPRK Navy.

This does not fit at all with the idea of ​​North Korea as a country with rusty old Soviet planes and Chinese tanks.

Experts pay attention - the number of tests in the DPRK in recent years has been rapidly increasing, and the technique is becoming more and more complicated.

Within a few years, North Korea is able to create a missile with a range of up to 5000 km, and then a full-fledged intercontinental ballistic missile. Moreover, it will be equipped with a real nuclear warhead.

What to do with North Korea?

There is little doubt that sanctions against the DPRK will be tightened. But previous experience says that this does not affect Pyongyang in any way.

Moreover, Comrade Kim Jong-un, unlike his relatives and predecessors, does not at all blackmail the world with nuclear developments, but creates a real nuclear missile arsenal.

Moreover, even the frank irritation of the main ally, Beijing, which is not interested in escalating the situation in the region, does not stop him.

The question arises: what can be done with North Korea? Even those who perceive Comrade Kim's regime extremely negatively are convinced that it will not be possible to stir up the situation from within. Neither friend nor foe can convince Pyongyang to "behave well".

A military operation against North Korea today will cost the United States much more than it did in the early 1990s, when the Clinton administration made similar plans. In addition, neither Russia nor China will allow a war near their borders, which has every prospect of turning into the Third World War.

Theoretically, Pyongyang could satisfy the guarantees that ensure the preservation of the regime and the absence of attempts to dismantle it.

But recent history teaches that the only such guarantee in modern world is the "nuclear baton" that North Korea is working on.

Seismologists from a number of countries on September 3 recorded unusual tremors in North Korea. According to Yonhap, according to the Korea Meteorological Agency, located in South Korea, the magnitude of the earthquake was 5.6 points. Geophysicists drew attention to the fact that seismic activity was recorded near the city of Kilju in the province of Hamgyongbukto, where the North Korean nuclear test site is located. The data of South Korean scientists were confirmed by their colleagues from the USA, Japan and China. According to the Chinese side, the power of the push was 6.3 points.

The earthquake happened around 6:30 Moscow time. Chinese and South Korean scientists also recorded a second tremor of less power - about 4.6 points. According to experts from the China Seismological Center (CENC), the second earthquake occurred at 6:38 Moscow time - presumably, it was a collapse and subsidence of the rock that collapsed as a result of the first shock.

According to the Primorsky Department for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring environment, weak echoes of the earthquake in North Korea were felt in Vladivostok. However, the radiation background in the Russian Primorye is within the normal range.

“After the alleged nuclear test in the DPRK, no excess background radiation was recorded in the Primorsky Territory,” the agency said in a statement.

According to the United States Geological Survey, tremors in North Korea are nothing more than a "possible explosion."

“If what happened is not an explosion, the National Earthquake Center of the United States Geological Survey cannot determine it (earthquakes. — RT) type,” seismologists said.

Chinese specialists also reported about the "explosion" of high power as a probable cause of two tremors.

The Japanese military noted that the yield of the North Korean bomb was 70 kilotons. The South Korean side estimated the yield of the charge at 100 kilotons, and the Norwegian seismologists talk about an indicator of 120 kilotons - this is six times more powerful than the US bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 (21 kilotons).

In Seoul, an urgent council on internal and external security was convened in connection with the testing of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has confirmed the first test of a hydrogen bomb and called it "absolutely successful." The Daily Telegraph reports that North Korean television also reported on the successful test of a thermonuclear charge.

"Power (explosion. - RT) is 10 or 20 times greater than in previous tests,” a Seoul professor told Reuters. national university Kong She. “Such a scale speaks of testing a hydrogen bomb,” the expert confirms the information to the media.

Juche motifs

“The test of the hydrogen bomb was conducted to test and confirm the accuracy and performance of the power control technology and internal design of the hydrogen bomb designed to be placed on ICBMs, which has recently begun production,” Yonhap was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). ), the official news agency of the DPRK.

Shortly before the tremors were recorded, the KCNA posted information that the country had developed a new compact hydrogen warhead that could be placed on intercontinental ballistic missiles. Two tests of missiles with a range of up to 10,000 km, capable of hitting not only American bases on the island of Guam in pacific ocean, but also the west coast of the United States, North Korea held in July.

• North Korean ballistic missile launch
• KCNA/Reuters

The new thermonuclear warhead was personally examined by the leader of the country Kim Jong-un, visiting the Institute for Nuclear Research. “The Supreme Leader watched as a hydrogen bomb was planted on an ICBM,” the KCNA statement emphasized.

“All components of the hydrogen bomb were made by domestic manufacturers, based on the Juche idea. Thus, the country can produce powerful nuclear weapons in as many quantities as it pleases, ”KCNA quotes the North Korean leader.

Immediately after reports of the development in the DPRK of a new nuclear bomb, the leaders of Japan and the United States held telephone conversations on the North Korean issue. Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe "discussed the growing threat from the DPRK" and ways to put pressure on Pyongyang, the White House press service said.

In turn, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called the actions of the DPRK absolutely inexcusable and called on Russia to put more pressure on North Korea, in particular, consider imposing an oil embargo on Pyongyang.

However, this gesture, taking into account the history of the region, can be perceived in Pyongyang as a provocation, against the backdrop of ongoing exercises by the United States and South Korea.

“The fuel embargo is directly a preparation for war,” a leading researcher at the Institute’s Center for Korean Studies told RT. Far East RAS Konstantin Asmolov. "Because if you've studied history, you know what role the American fuel embargo played in Japan's entry into the war with the United States in 1941."

“Here, both technical and political reasons are intertwined,” explained political scientist Irina Lantsova, who is conducting a nuclear test by the DPRK right now. — main reason“Pressure and threats from the United States, forcing Pyongyang to strengthen its defenses.”

First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense Alexander Sherin, in an interview with RT, said that the United States provoked the DPRK.

“Here I must say a big thank you to the United States, because they put the squeeze on the country. It was they who created such conditions when the state begins to shrink into a ball and spend money on defense. Let American soldiers and bases go to the US borders, and there will be no such arms race in the world, ”the deputy emphasized.

“Now North Korea has found itself in such a situation that it needs to protect itself with a guarantee, and in order to guarantee this protection, it is necessary to conduct tests,” Lantsova notes. “Politics plays a role here indirectly. In this case, it’s not even a demonstration, but a reaction to what is happening.”

“Kim’s goals are clear: to try now, in a very short time, to bring his nuclear missile program to such a level that it would be clear to everyone that there is no third option - either a war begins, or negotiations must be negotiated with North Korea,” Konstantin Asmolov noted.

“You have to understand that Kim is not going to communize the south or portray the main reptile of Indian cinema in a fit of psychopathy, his goals are more pragmatic,” the expert says.

• KCNA/Reuters

According to Asmolov, Pyongyang believes that, having received nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States, it will reach a level of nuclear deterrence similar to that of the US-China. And then, despite the contradictions, the option of war between the two countries will be excluded.

We understand but do not accept

“It cannot but cause regret that the leadership of the DPRK, by its actions aimed at undermining the global non-proliferation regime, poses a serious threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region as a whole. The continuation of such a line is fraught serious consequences for the DPRK itself,” the Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the nuclear test in the DPRK.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called Pyongyang's actions "an extremely sad act" and "a complete disregard for the repeated demands of the international community."

According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Tokyo has already sent a protest to Pyongyang through diplomatic channels in connection with the test of a thermonuclear charge. Shinzo Abe ordered to keep in touch with representatives of the United States, Russia and China in order to quickly respond to the developing crisis.

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
• Reuters

“The actions of the DPRK are understandable, but unacceptable, because such a policy, firstly, greatly exacerbates tensions, and secondly, undermines the world order, which is built on the authority of the UN, whose resolutions are ignored, and on the fact that nuclear weapons should be who is supposed to, - notes Konstantin Asmolov. “That is why Moscow and Beijing may question the substance of the sanctions, but believe that every such action should be formally condemned.”

According to the expert, the DPRK chose the date of the test unsuccessfully. "On the nose of the congress Communist Party China, today is the BRICS summit - I think that this will cause a certain emotional irritation of Moscow and Beijing and, of course, we should expect a new round of tightening sanctions, although there is nowhere to tighten further, ”Asmolov said.

Frants Klintsevich, deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Security and Defense, in an interview with RT, called the DPRK nuclear test a provocation.

“If earlier it was a sparring, which, in my opinion, could hardly lead to any serious conflicts, then the tests that have passed today are already a provocation on the part of North Korea. This is really serious. I think this can no longer be allowed. There is no alternative to the negotiation process and peaceful conversation. Today we need to sit down at the negotiating table and solve this problem, because North Korea’s upholding of its sovereignty in this way can lead to a very serious conflict, ”Klintsevich emphasized.

Trump will answer

What is Trump going to do now? - Increase pressure on Russia and China to achieve some serious joint action. The bet is that the irritation of Moscow and Beijing with such a step by North Korea will make them more accommodating in terms of American proposals, ”Konstantin Asmolov believes.

In turn, South Korea has already announced that it will seek tougher sanctions against the DPRK, according to Yonhap, citing the head of the National Security Department of the Presidential Administration of South Korea, Chung Ui Yong.

The agency notes that the Korean official has already held relevant consultations with his American counterpart, National Security Adviser to President Trump, General Herbert McMaster. Yonhap also reports that South Korea will seek to host "the most powerful tactical weapon" of the United States.

“We are in for a very serious escalation, one of the most difficult in the last six months,” Irina Lantsova predicts the consequences of new nuclear tests by the DPRK.

• US President Donald Trump
• Reuters

According to the expert, the main problem now is that after a number of high-profile statements from the United States, the leaders of this country have seriously limited their room for maneuver and will most likely be forced to escalate. “The problem is that Trump has threatened so much, promised so much that he now has to do something,” the political scientist says.

“This is not the first nuclear test - this is the sixth nuclear test, and it has always been possible to do something diplomatically,” the expert notes. “But over the past six months, so many formidable promises have been made to do something that you will now have to answer for your words,” Lantsova believes.

“We should expect more emotional involvement,” Asmolov notes. According to the expert, despite the expected tightening of rhetoric from the United States, the likelihood new war in Korea now it is “only” 35%. “I used to say that the probability of a conflict on the peninsula is approximately 30%, now it has increased by five percent,” the expert believes.

On January 10, 2003, the DPRK, which today is, although not recognized by anyone, but in fact a nuclear power, announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), slamming the door loudly. The authorities of the country (then ruled by Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader Kim Jong Un) said they were doing this in protest against the violation of the country's sovereignty.

At that time, the United States really took up the regime in the DPRK quite harshly - North Korea, along with Iran and Iraq, was ranked by the then US president as an "axis of evil", and the US military seriously considered solving the DPRK problem by military means.

True, Pyongyang claimed at that time that it was not going to develop nuclear weapons, but would focus only on the peaceful atom. However, these statements were not very believed, but it was difficult to make sure that the DPRK was not developing nuclear weapons.

Withdrawal from the NPT was not the first for the DPRK. She joined the treaty in 1985, but withdrew after 8 years. Playing cat and mouse with the international community, the DPRK, represented by its ambitious leadership, has long dreamed of acquiring nuclear weapons, however, during the Cold War, this was not possible. The allies - the USSR and China - although they were in hostile relations with each other, did not want the emergence of another nuclear power.

By the beginning of 1994, the first nuclear crisis had matured on the Korean Peninsula. conducted several inspections of the DPRK's nuclear facilities, the results of which gave grounds to suspect the country of concealing a certain amount of plutonium.

The IAEA demanded that the DPRK grant access for inspection of two special facilities on the storage of nuclear fuel, to which Pyongyang refused. Then the organization threatened to raise this issue in, but this did not change the position of the DPRK, which continued to evade inspections, motivating its refusal by the resumption of US-South Korean military exercises in the region and the beginning of a paramilitary situation in this country.

However, the administration of the then US President, after lengthy negotiations, managed to convince the DPRK to abandon the non-peaceful atom.

The wise position of the head of William, who was able to persuade the president to use not only the stick, but also the "carrot", had an effect.

A brilliant mathematician and former university professor, Perry convinced the president that if North Korea were attacked, the consequences could be unpredictable for the entire Korean peninsula. In October 1994, an agreement was signed between the United States and the DPRK, which boils down to the fact that in exchange for curtailing its nuclear program, Pyongyang will receive large-scale assistance from Washington, and South Korea has pledged to build two light water reactors in this country. The United States was also able to convince the DPRK to rejoin the NPT.

However, all these initiatives were subsequently curtailed when Republican George W. Bush came to power. His secretary of defense was not distinguished by the prudence of Perry and was a supporter of tough decisions.

True, the DPRK also did not sit idly by and carried out missile tests while working on military atom programs.

Visiting Pyongyang in the fall of 2002, the US Deputy Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs announced that the White House had information about North Korea's uranium enrichment program to create nuclear weapons, to which Pyongyang answered in the affirmative. North Korea has announced its final withdrawal from the NPT.

Since then, the genie has not been put back in the bottle, despite numerous attempts to influence the DPRK by the United States, as well as other players such as Russia and China. And quite intensive tests of nuclear weapons, which began even under, continued under his son -.

It was under his rule that the DPRK conducted a series of ballistic missile tests from a submarine, and in December 2015, the head of the country announced that the DPRK now has hydrogen weapons. He noted that "a powerful nuclear power is ready to explode atomic and hydrogen bombs in order to reliably protect its independence."

At the same time, despite the caricature of a typical dictator from an American action movie, Kim Jong-un is a completely pragmatic politician.

According to James Acton, an expert at the Carnegie International Endowment, "there is nothing to indicate that Kim Jong-un is insane" and the main motivator of his behavior is the preservation of power. “In the event of a nuclear attack on the United States, a retaliatory strike will follow, aimed at changing political regime North Korea is what Kim Jong-un does not want, ”the expert said in an interview magazine New Scientist.

A similar point of view is shared by Tina Park, professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Canada. “Preservation of the regime is the main driving force. This brutal dictatorial regime, which is doing everything to survive, despite serious economic difficulties. North Korea wants to be sure that it will not be attacked by the US, Japan and South Korea. South Korea and the United States maintain a strong alliance, and there are many military forces on the Korean Peninsula,” Park said in an interview with Global News.

Experts believe that North Korea is unlikely to return to the NPT in the near future and will only develop its nuclear program. At the same time, Kim Jong-un also offers his own "carrots" to South Korea. During negotiations this week, the parties agreed that the DPRK would participate in the Pyeongchang Olympics. It seems that Kim Jong-un has learned the principle that the famous weapons designer Samuel Colt once said: "A kind word and a gun do much more than just a kind word."

Nuclear missile program of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea- conditional name scientific research North Korea in the field of creating combat nuclear charges and missile carriers intended for their delivery.

The official names of ongoing programs and the structure of scientific projects are not published, research on the topic is carried out on the basis of observations external to the DPRK and official reports. government agencies North Korea. Rocket tests, according to the official version, are peaceful in nature and are carried out for the purpose of exploring outer space.

Under the protection of the USSR, the DPRK ruler Kim Il Sung was calm about the nuclear threat against his country (in particular, he called the atomic bomb a “paper tiger”) until he learned that during the Korean War of 1950-1953, the United States planned drop seven nuclear charges on Pyongyang and its environs. After that, in 1956, the DPRK and the USSR signed an agreement on the training of nuclear specialists. Researchers often refer to 1952 as the beginning of North Korea's nuclear activity, when the decision was made to establish the Atomic Energy Research Institute. The real creation of nuclear infrastructure began in the mid-1960s.

Work on the creation of nuclear weapons began in the 1970s. Probably, the political decision to start work was made during this period, in connection with the receipt of intelligence data about the existence of a similar program in South Korea. In 1974, the DPRK joined the IAEA. In the same year, Pyongyang turned to China for help in building nuclear weapons; North Korean specialists were admitted to Chinese training grounds.

North Korea and the IAEA

In April 1985, under pressure from the USSR and counting on the construction of a nuclear power plant with its help, the DPRK signed the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. As a reward for this, in 1986 the USSR supplied Korea with a gas-graphite research reactor with a capacity of 5 MW. An agreement was also signed to build a nuclear power plant in North Korea with four light water reactors of the VVER-440 type. With some probability, all the plutonium available to the DPRK was produced on it. In 1992, this agreement was refined, and instead of four light water reactors, it was decided to supply three, but more powerful VVER-640 reactors. A contract was also signed for the supply Soviet Union fuel assemblies in the amount of about 185 thousand dollars.

South Korean experts doubt that it was a nuclear explosion. In their opinion, there might not have been an explosion at all, and the emission of smoke into the atmosphere was a consequence of a major fire. According to some reports, the area may be a plant for the production of missile components, and the cause of the explosion could be the ignition of rocket fuel or the detonation of warheads. According to other information, military-strategic facilities are concentrated in this area, in particular, the recently built Yonjori missile base, which is an underground missile test site where ballistic missiles capable of reaching Japan are stored and tested in deep tunnels.

Official American authorities believe that there was no nuclear explosion. At the same time, American intelligence services noted strange activity in the area of ​​the country's nuclear facilities.

Refusal to negotiate

"Dialogue with the United States ended in 2001 with the coming to power of the Bush administration, which means that we have the right to resume missile testing," said a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry.

On June 14, 2006, the American media, citing a source in the US presidential administration, stated that satellite photographs clearly show a launch complex in the DPRK, which is said to be preparing to launch the Taekhodong-2 missile, which can reach the west coast USA.

On July 5, 2006, North Korea launched several missiles at once - from seven to ten, according to various sources. All missiles fell in international waters. Some reportedly fell dozens of kilometers from Russia's maritime borders, in the Russian economic zone.

On April 5, 2009, the Eunha-2 (Milky Way - 2) rocket was launched from the territory of the DPRK, according to the official version, with the Gwangmyeongson-2 artificial satellite. According to North Korean reports, the satellite has been placed into an elliptical orbit with an inclination of 40.6 degrees, a perigee of 490 km and an apogee of 1,426 km, and is broadcasting Songs of Commander Kim Il Sung and Songs of Commander Kim Jong Il. External sources did not record the appearance of a new satellite in near-Earth orbit.

Nuclear tests

In September 2006, US media, citing government sources, reported that US intelligence satellites detected suspicious activity at a nuclear test site in the northern part of the DPRK - the appearance of a large number of trucks and cable laying work. These works were regarded as evidence of preparations for an underground nuclear explosion. South Korea has called on North Korea not to conduct nuclear tests. Pyongyang left these messages without comment.

At the end of September, a bill approved by both houses of the US Congress was sent to US President George W. Bush for signature. The bill imposed sanctions against North Korea and companies cooperating with it, which, according to the United States, are assisting the DPRK in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), missiles and other WMD delivery technologies. The sanctions also included a ban on financial transactions and a denial of export licenses.

On October 3, 2006, the DPRK Foreign Ministry issued a statement stating North Korea's intention to "carry out a nuclear test, provided that its safety will be reliably guaranteed". As a justification for this decision, it was stated that there was a threat nuclear war from the United States and economic sanctions aimed at strangling the DPRK - under these conditions, Pyongyang sees no other way out than to conduct a nuclear test. At the same time, as noted in the statement, "the DPRK is not going to be the first to use nuclear weapons," on the contrary, "it will continue to make efforts to ensure the nuclear-free status of the Korean Peninsula and make comprehensive efforts towards nuclear disarmament and a total ban on nuclear weapons."

On October 6, members of the UN Security Council unanimously approved a statement by the President of the Security Council calling on North Korea to abandon nuclear tests and immediately return to negotiations in the six-party format without preconditions. The draft statement was prepared by Japan. It was she who took the initiative to develop a common position of the world powers regarding the North Korean threat.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe traveled to Beijing and Seoul on October 8, 2006 to discuss the "Korean problem", thus resuming high-level contacts between Japan and China (which had been interrupted five years earlier). This fact testifies to the importance attached by the countries of the region to the first ever test of the Korean atomic bomb. Chinese leader