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> "After measuring a 4.9 magnitude seismic event tonight, South Korea’s defence ministry confirmed that it was caused by an underground nuclear test. North Korea’s nuclear capability is estimated to be about 2 kilotons."

I'm not sure if this source is confirmed or not, but very interesting...

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For point of reference, Little Boy (the bomb dropped on Hiroshima) was 16 kilotons and 90k+ people. I'm sure there are a ton of other factors besides kilotons that determine how destructive the bomb is, but it's a data point to understand the potential magnitude.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy

Terrain has a bigger impact on how destructive a bomb is. Fat Man was 21 kilotons and 'only' killed ~40k people.

This is their third nuclear test and every single one has failed to cross the eight kiloton boundary at least. If this one is a plutonium weapon like the others it suggests that they are having major issues designing or fabricating the implosion lens around the nuclear material. It is quite striking that they keep conducting tests and reducing their usable nuclear stockpile further. It is almost like they don't have the capability to get a reliable warhead.

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