The research climaxed in October 2006 when North Korea first tested a half-kiloton nuclear device.
U.S. and international nuclear experts had estimated that the latest test was in the 3- to 4-kiloton range.
The truth of the matter is that essential safety, reliability and effectiveness tests cannot be accomplished within the one-kiloton threshold.
When the Soviets ended the agreement in 1961, the U.S. blew a 1, 280-foot-wide crater into the Nevada desert with a 104-kiloton bomb.
The first in October 2006 had a yield of approximately a half-kiloton.
North Korea's first test is largely believed to have fizzled, with a yield of less than 1 kiloton, and the second was between 2 and 7 kilotons.
The first one in 2006 produced a tremor that measured a magnitude 4.1, and analysts in the U.S. later estimated its explosive force at less than one kiloton.
Time magazine reported that, last October, American officials were briefly convinced that terrorists had got hold of a ten-kiloton nuclear device and planned to smuggle it into New York city.
Alternatively Pyongyang, in referring to a "higher level" test, may simply be aiming to test a larger device, substantially bigger than the 1 and 2 kiloton tests of 2006 and 2009.
BBC: Analysis: What is driving North Korea's nuclear test plan?
But that would not reduce confidence in the existing stockpiles, nor would it prevent a nation from building a fairly simple fission bomb in the 1 kiloton to 20 kiloton range.
He has vowed to turn Brazil into a military power, stating that the government should resume development and production of a 30-kiloton nuclear bomb and proliferate military high technology to any regime it wishes.
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Even more daft than the one-kiloton threshold is the consideration reportedly being given to foregoing the option afforded under the Hatfield amendment to resume testing once the congressionally imposed nine-month moratorium expires on 1 July.
Most of the relevant agencies reportedly agree that the United States must have the ability to continue to do some testing for the foreseeable future and believe that experiments involving underground explosions of 1 kiloton or less should be permitted.
PRD-19 should also make clear that the U.S. will be required to conduct a small number of underground tests with most falling at or below the 10-kiloton level but with the right to conduct higher yield tests should the need arise.
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