And Would You Like Some Mini-Nukes With That Hat?

Following the North Korea nuclear saga gets kind of confusing. What we know is that the explosion was relatively small, powered by plutonium instead of uranium (thus putting more of the blame on the Tyrant than on Clinton), and that the testing seems to have a ways yet to go. Most reports have scoffed at the small yield, many described it as a dud, some even (early on) suggesting the North Koreans might have just blown up a pile of dynamite to scare everybody. Considering, though, that the North Koreans had access to A. Q. Khan for a significant period, that Koreans are not idiots and probably learned a thing or two, and that blowing up a dump truck sized device in a mine is a fairly useless exercise as far as deterrence is concerned, it makes sense to wonder whether what the North Koreans have done is to miniaturize a bomb sufficiently to fit it on one of their missiles. If and as further testing occurs we'll learn more. Once the testing is complete and the dust settles we'll have a better idea whether I'm right that classic nuclear deterrence will work perfectly well on the Korean peninsula. For now, though, we can be quite sure that there's no way to prevent the North Koreans from finishing what they've started.