The Meaning of North Korea's Nuclear Test
North Korea has just tested a nuclear bomb. But it has tested five nuclear bombs before. It has demonstrated that it is an emerging nuclear-weapons power, but then again we already knew that. It has tested America’s largely untested president with the stuff of nightmares, but Donald Trump has already confronted several North Korean ballistic-missile tests—including one over Japanese territory and two involving missiles thought capable of reaching the United States. So why is North Korea’s latest nuclear test significant?
A nuclear test isn’t only an advertisement of military advances. It isn’t only a means of intimidating enemies and impressing allies. It is also—and primarily—a test in the scientific sense of the term: You don’t waste limited and valuable fissile
