On 6 January, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea claimed it carried out a successful test of its first hydrogen bomb. While the nature and details surrounding the test are still unconfirmed, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization – which has monitoring stations positioned around the world to detect underground seismic activity – announced that it detected a seismic event similar to DPRK’s test in 2013 took place this morning.
The DPRK’s nuclear test would be their fourth in just a few years, and regardless of whether or not it was successful, whether it was a hydrogen bomb or not, their announcement today reminded the world about its nuclear weapons.
The test comes at a time where the world has seen escalating tensions between nuclear-armed states, fueled by hostile rhetoric and expensive modernization programs.
“We have banned biological and chemical weapons, landmines and cluster munitions because of their inhumane impacts, but the biggest bomb of them all is yet not prohibited.”
In 2015, Russian state media “accidentally” publicized plans for a new nuclear torpedo, armed with a hydrogen bomb that, if used against a city, would cause unprecedented radioactive fallout that could last for decades. While it’s not clear if these plans are real or intentionally antagonistic propaganda, Russian “nuclear-saber rattling” during the conflict in Ukraine highlights that nuclear weapons are still considered a concrete military option.
And it’s not just North Korea and Russia boosting their nuclear weapons arsenals today. China, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom—are also developing or deploying new nuclear weapon systems or have announced their intention to do so. The U.S. alone is planning to invest 1 trillion dollars in the next 10 years. China’s strategy might entail an increase in the number of warheads it possesses. And this all comes against a backdrop of deteriorating relations between some of these countries.
A return to a nuclear standoff today would be a devastating development for international peace and security. Numerous accidents, near misses and security breaches throughout the Cold War have shown us how close to a nuclear catastrophe we have been. Today the risk of a nuclear detonation is on the rise and national security experts predict an increased risk of nuclear war.
If this happened today, it wouldn’t be two blocks of states challenging each other in a deadly arms race, but also the “new kids on the nuclear block” such as India, Pakistan, Israel and DPRK. Proliferation might escalate further and cause additional instability and conflict in already volatile regions.