WE ARE IN RANGE; ANOTHER TEST COMING?

By Michelle Malkin

A military reader sends an illustration of the various ranges of North Korea's missiles. He writes: "Looking at their Taepo Dong 2 (two stage) missile range, nearly half our country is in range."

Good morning to you, too.

***

Taken with a grain of salt, but Russia's defense minister sez:

North Korea's nuclear test was equivalent to 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons of TNT.

That would be far greater than the force given by South Korea's geological institute, which estimated it at just 550 tons of TNT.

By comparison the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.

In 1996, France detonated a bomb beneath Fangataufa Atoll about 750 miles southeast of Tahiti that had a yield of about 120,000 tons of TNT.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a magnitude-4.2 seismic event in northeastern North Korea. Asian neighbors also said they registered a seismic event, but only Russia said its monitoring services had detected a nuclear explosion.

No one has reported detecting any radiation.

Pajamas Media editor Richard Fernandez interviews Dr. Robert Ayson of the Graduate Studies in Strategy and Defence at the Australian National University to gauge how Australia and Japan might react to the North Korean nuclear test.

Update: Via Reuters...

The chief of South Korea's intelligence agency told lawmakers on Monday it was possible North Korea would carry out a second nuclear test, Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted one MP as saying.

The lawmaker also quoted Kim Seung-gyu, head of the National Intelligence Service, as telling a closed-door parliamentary committee meeting that unusual signs had been detected at a North Korean town in the afternoon.