With all the rumors about a possible nuclear test in North Korea last Thursday, it's interesting to note that North Korea has probably already tested a nuclear weapon. On May 28, 1998 Pakistan tested a nuclear weapon at Ras Koh, two days later, another, smaller test was carried out at a more remote location at Wazir Khan Khosa. The May 30 test was more secretive than the previous test, no footage was released to the public, as had been the case with the May 28 tests. Many of the scientists and engineers involved in the Pakistani tests at Ras Koh were supposedly kept in the dark about the test at Wazir Khan Khosa, and for a reason, it was a North Korean test.
Atmospheric samples analyzed by Los Alamos of the detonation at Wazir Khan Khosa showed that the 14-KT bomb successfully detonated was a plutonium device. At that time, Pakistan's PINSTECH reactor had not produced enough plutonium to construct a bomb. To bolster the rumors of a test involving North Korea in 1998 was the presence of dozens of North Korean scientists at the earlier tests. It's widely thought that North Korea bartered missile technology and plutonium in exchange for Pakistani components for use in H-bomb design, help in uranium enrichment, and large stores of wheat.
U.S. intelligence sources have consistently underestimated the nuclear capabilities of other countries. Israel possessed larger stockpiles then the CIA suspected. They had no idea South Africa was even pursuing a nuclear weapon. They didn't think India would be able to join the nuclear club as quickly as they did. North Korea may have had an assembled nuclear weapon since the mid-ninties, yet until North Korea announced they had the bomb the consensus was that North Korea may have had only one or two crude bombs of recent manufacture. But if the relationship between Pakistan and North Korea is as deep as suspected, with serious military partnerships extending back to the early 1970s, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility to consider that NK might be closing in on a hydrogen weapon.
American estimates seem to peg North Korean progress where it was possibly five, or six-years ago, and of all the nation's that currently possess, or aspire to have nuclear weapons, North Korea's attainment of that goal seems the most unlikely. They are by far the poorest, most resource deficient nation to ever produce a nuclear weapon, it's a perverse testament to their obsession. And since it is known that both Pakistan and North Korea have assisted Iran in various scientific and technological capacities over the years, the Iranian program has probably advanced beyond the point where anything could be done about. There is no realistic military option, as there is no such option in North Korea.