Summary

On 9 October 2006 North Korea declared that it had carried out a nuclear test explosion, sending a clear message to the world that it had developed a nuclear weapon capability. Nuclear forensics confirmed that an underground nuclear explosion had taken place, but indicated that it the text had ended in an unsuccessful 'fizzle'. The North Korean test was the 2053rd nuclear explosion on record.

Vitaly Fedchenko (Russia) is a Researcher with the SIPRI Non-proliferation and Export Controls Project.

Ragnhild Ferm Hellgren (Sweden) was a Research Assistant and then Researcher at SIPRI between 1974 and 2001, as Leader of the SIPRI Arms Control and Disarmament Documentary Survey Project from 1996.

For more on the SIPRI Non-proliferation and Export Controls Project and its publications visit its home page at http://www.sipri.org/contents/expcon/.