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What's the difference between a hydrogen bomb and a regular atomic bomb?

Why would that matter to the United States and its allies? Here's what the experts say

North Korea nuclear test, Kim Jong-un, Nuclear tes
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In this undated image distributed on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at an undisclosed location. Photo: AP/PTI

Chris Buckley | NYT
North Korea claimed that a nuclear blast on Sunday was a big advance from its previous five tests because it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb. But some experts suspect the North may have tested a “boosted” atomic bomb.

How are a hydrogen bomb and a regular atomic bomb different? And why would that matter to the United States and its allies? Here’s what the experts say.

How do nuclear weapons work?

Nuclear weapons trigger an explosive reaction that shears off destructive energy locked inside the bomb’s atomic materials.

The first atomic weapons, like those dropped by the United States on the Japanese cities