The 2017 nuclear test by North Korea was 17 times more powerful than the bomb dropped in Hiroshima, a group of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists have said. According to the paper, the researchers moved away from conventional methods used to detect the magnitude of the nuclear test. In 2003, North Korea had withdrawn from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and has since been developing nuclear weapons. Till date, they have conducted a total with five underground nuclear tests with the latest being a suspected thermonuclear explosion (a hydrogen bomb) on September 3, 2017. Last year, US President Donald Trump claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un committed to him that Pyongyang would refrain from conducting nuclear tests.

Source: Indian Express November 17, 2019 14:37 UTC