According to
this article, North Korea's latest nuclear test has been measured at 500 tons of TNT. What would such a blast really look like?
To check the blast radius of what an explosion from such a device is, I played with "HYDES" a
google maps hack that measures the blast effects for a given bomb, in radii placed over a map of downtown Manhattan.
Entering ".5" in the kiloton box at the right, and you can view and imagine the results.
Consult this overpressure key to determine the effects within each concentric radius:
15 psi: Complete destruction of reinforced concrete structures, such as skyscrapers, will occur within this ring. Between 7 psi and 15 psi, there will be severe to total damage to these types of structures.
5 psi: Complete destruction of ordinary houses, and moderate to severe damage to reinforced concrete structures, will occur within this ring.
2 psi: Severe damage to ordinary houses, and light to moderate damage to reinforced concrete structures, will occur within this ring.
1 psi: Light damage to all structures, and light to moderate damage to ordinary houses, will occur within this ring.
0.25 psi Most glass surfaces, such as windows, will shatter within this ring, some with enough force to cause injury.
From what I've read, NK actually needs to keep their warheads extremely small to mount on their Taepodong missiles (their most advanced missile). NK's Taepo Dong 2 missiles can theoretically hit the West Coast of the continental U.S. A 3-stage variant can hit all of North America. I'm not sure, but I would think these ICBMs would need extremely precise targeting with these yields, at least enough to hit a downtown area, to have much practical effect.
As it happens, Korea also has a shame culture (much like Japan) due to the early influence of Confucianism, which makes saving face one of the most important elements in proper, moral behavior. In fact, Korea was a shame culture before Japan was, because Confucianism had been established in Korea well before it arrived in Japan.
Their development of nukes is primarily an attempt to be taken seriously. From what I know of John Bolton, I doubt that he has the capacity to grapple with sensitive cultural differences. I hope for all our sakes that he knows what the hell he's doing.
Its basically a provocation. The worst thing, IMHO, is to say stuff like this.
"Meanwhile, America's U.N. ambassador is again rejecting direct talks with North Korea. But John Bolton says if the North's leaders would like to talk to America, there's a very simple solution. Bolton says all they have to do is "buy a plane ticket to Beijing," and rejoin the stalled six-party talks."