Mick Hartley

Here's some cheery news:

The North Korean military has established a new military brigade in North Pyongan Province which apparently specializes in backpack-sized tactical nuclear weapons. The brigade, which masquerades as a logging brigade, is reportedly part of the 8th Corps of the Chosun People's Army, which has jurisdiction over the province….

'Backpack bombs', known also as SADMs, are miniaturized tactical nuclear weapon, usually weighing between 30-50kg, light enough to be transported to their target inside a backpack. In the 1980s the US Army brought them onto the Korean Peninsula, but withdrew them along with all other nuclear weapons at the beginning of the 1990s.

However, despite the seemingly alarming news, South Korean experts are cautious about suggesting North Korea has the technical ability required to equip the new brigade.

Professor Lee Eun Cheol of Seoul National University’s Department of Nuclear Engineering said, "I think for North Korea to construct a nuclear bomb small enough to be loaded into a backpack would not be that hard," he said. “But what would not be so easy is to transport the device, put it together in a short period of time and detonate it, and it would be even harder to do it by remote control.”

Who said anything about remote control?

"Based on North Korea's past nuclear tests results, which were not particularly good, the technology itself does not seem to be so advanced. But if they have now brought out a 'backpack bomb' brigade, then it could be that that this technological problem has been solved to a considerable extent," he added.

Which will be good news for some of North Korea's well-known trading partners. Not such good news for the rest of us.