by Felix Richter, Statista.com
— this post authored by Niall McCarthy
North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test.
The US Geological Survey reported that the explosion caused a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in the area of the test site. This resulted in children being evacuated from their school in the nearby Jilin province of China. Politically, the shockwaves are being felt much further afield, with US President Obama warning this latest test will have ‘serious consequences’ for Pyongyang.
North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile is thought to have a range of 6,000 kilometres which would put Alaska in range of a potential hydrogen bomb, even though experts do not believe the country has developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile. By way of comparison, since 1945 the United States has carried out the most nuclear tests (1,032), followed by the USSR/Russia’s 715.
This chart shows the number of nuclear tests conducted since 1945.
You will find more statistics at Statista.
