A SMALL nuclear explosion, barely a fifteenth the size of the bomb that levelled Hiroshima, has shaken the world’s uneasy nuclear balance. On Monday North Korea announced it had successfully triggered a nuclear device deep in a coal mine in the north of the country. A second test was considered possible as New Scientist went to press.
The thought that maverick North Korean leader Kim Jong-il now has nuclear weapons to use or sell may herald the collapse of the already shaky global non-proliferation regime by prompting neighbouring South Korea and Japan to join the nuclear club. Yet ironically North…
