The unNuke?

Others seem to be speculating as I did Monday, that the purported North Korean nuclear blast this past weekend may not have been nuclear at all. Says Gordon Cucullu in a thoroughly interesting piece of analysis:

There is another, so far unstated possibility. Suppose all this is smoke and mirrors? That North Korea has detonated hundreds of tons of explosive and simply faked a nuclear test in order to convince possible customers and intimidate the world into giving it more aid? Kim has pushed the envelope previously with success. He was rewarded in 1994 for pretending to cease nuclear development. Maybe this time he’s trying a new wrinkle? Perhaps he wishes to impress potential clients like Chavez that he really has the bomb. Perhaps he thinks that he can intimidate South Korea. Either way the sand is running fast in the hourglass and the only person who seems to be in control is Kim Jong Il, a totally unacceptable situation that cries out for change.

And from a piece at the Washington Times, by intelligence & intrigue guru Bill Gertz:

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used to create a chain reaction in a plutonium-based device went off, but that the blast's readings were shy of a typical nuclear detonation.