North Korean Nuclear Missile Tests Upset World, Volcano Mount Paektu

The secretive state’s mission to create a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States isn’t only upsetting the international community, it’s upsetting a dangerous volcano, according to CNN.

North Korea has launched five tests of nuclear weapons so far at its only known nuclear testing site, Punggye-ri. The test site is located in the north of the country in North Hamgyong Province, close to North Korea’s border with China.

Read: North Korea Tests More Missiles As US-South Korea THAAD Deployment Is Suspended

Scientists are worried that a sixth or subsequent test could cause an eruption at a deadly volcano on the North Korea-China border. The volcano is known as Mount Paektu, but the Chinese call it Changbaishan. According to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, over one and a half millions people live within sixty-two miles of the volcano. The volcano is located just over seventy miles from the test site.

The Smithsonian Institution reports that the last blast from the volcano was in 1903, but that the largest blast occurred in 946. The blast was big enough to be dubbed the “millennium eruption.”

The size of the nuclear blast is key to understanding whether a volcano blast could be triggered. Dr. Amy Donovan, a lecturer in Geography and Environmental Hazards at King's College London told CNN that the blast would need to be five to ten times larger than North Korea’s last test.

North Korea’s first nuclear test occurred Oct. 9, 2006 and was a small test of less than one kiloton. One kiloton is equal to around one-thousand tons of TNT. The second test was in 2009, and was twice as large as the first. This test prompted the United Nations Security Council to condemn the North Korea, and pass sanctions against the country.

The next nuclear test occurred in 2013, and was more than twice as powerful as the last blast, clocking in at around six to seven kilotons according to the South Korean government. The next two tests were in 2016, the first in January and the second in September. The last test was North Korea’s largest and was around ten kilotons of force.

The North Korean regime has used the mountain in propaganda, claiming that Kim Jong-Il, father of current dictator Kim Jong-Un, was born there.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies published a report in April that it believes that the North Korean government is “primed and ready” to launch a sixth test. They cite commercial satellite imagery of the site as evidence.

Read: North Korea Calls US ICBM Interceptor Test Military Provocation

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have taken a harder stance on North Korea then the previous administration. Former President Barack Obama’s strategy of strategic patience has been replaced with more bluster and hardline.

“We will defeat any attack and meet any use of conventional or nuclear weapons with an overwhelming and effective American response,” the Vice President Mike Pence in April while addressing troops aboard the USS Ronald Regan stationed in Japan.