Weapon claim reflects DPRK's security concerns

On Thursday, Kim Yong-un, the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency as saying his state is ready to defend its sovereignty and dignity with hydrogen bombs it had developed itself. That made headlines worldwide.

But in fact, the possibility of the DPRK owning hydrogen bombs is rather low. To produce a hydrogen bomb, a state needs very high technologies and good supporting industries, which the DPRK does not have. Besides, it would be impossible to test a hydrogen bomb without it being known. Some may argue that tests can be simulated on computers, but the DPRK has no such high-speed computer with which to carry out such simulations.

The DPRK may have certain nuclear abilities, such as the first-generation atom bombs used during WWII that do not require top technologies. Though the DPRK has been doing research on these over the past several decades, hydrogen bombs require much higher technologies and the DPRK does not have these.