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North Korea Able to Test Nuclear Bomb in Two Weeks, Study Finds

North Korea is technically capable of conducting a nuclear test in as little as two weeks, according to a study published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Commercial satellite imagery shows an underground tunnel has been prepared for containing a nuclear explosion near the sites used for the regime’s two earlier tests, in 2006 and 2009, the study found.

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N. Korea blasts S. Korea-U.S. military drill

North Korea on Saturday denounced an upcoming South Korea-U.S. military exercise, calling it preparations for a nuclear war against it.

South Korea and the United States are scheduled to stage the Ulji Freedom Guardian exercise from Aug. 20 through Aug. 31. North Korea typically denounce it and other joint military drills staged by the allies annually as war preparations.

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US: Strike on N. Korea Possible if Nuclear Test Held

The commander of the U.S. Pacific Command says the U.S. may launch a surgical strike against missile bases and nuclear test sites in North Korea if it conducts a third nuclear test.

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N. Korea virtually ditched planned economy, state rationing: report

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But whether and when North Korea conducts another nuclear test “will depend on how high a political cost Pyongyang is willing to bear," the report says. "Beijing has continued to expand aid and trade with North Korea, but has also applied significant diplomatic pressure on Pyongyang not to test. Moscow recently forgave nearly $11 billion in North Korean debt, signed a new border treaty, and is still in the game for building a gas pipeline going through the North to South Korea, but Russia is also on record as opposing continued nuclear testing."

The North would therefore have to be ready to handle tensions with these two countries and further consequences, it adds.

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North Korea Is Thought To Be Sitting On $6 Trillion Worth Of Rare Minerals

In an article over at Asia Times, Leonid A Petrov, a lecturer in Korean studies at the University of Sydney, points out that many experts expected the North Korean state to crumble after the fall of the USSR. Petrov writes that the country’s salvation came from its incredible natural resources.

The country’s mountainous regions are thought to sit on around 200 different minerals, including, crucially, a large number of rare earth metals. The total worth of these deposits is thought to be worth more than $6 trillion*.