Was it a Dud?

It looks like there is some doubt that North Korea's test yesterday was nuclear:

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.

"There was a seismic event that registered about 4 on the Richter scale, but it still isn't clear if it was a nuclear test. You can get that kind of seismic reading from high explosives."

My guess is that if it wasn't a nuclear blast (I think it was), North Korea expected it to be one.  Regardless of if it was real or not, I like Instapundit's advice:

CHESTER LOOKS AT ARGUMENTS that the North Korean nuke test was actually a fake. I wouldn't put it past the North Koreans. Perhaps, however, we should act as if it's a hoax anyway, regardless. If nothing else, this will annoy the North Koreans. And if the test was real, this mockery will encourage them to set off another nuke to prove us wrong, causing a waste of valuable nuclear material . . . .

I don't know how much sense this makes politically or militarily, but it made me smile. 

Great coverage on this continues over at Pajamas Media.  Time Magazine questions if we've underestimated Kim Jong Il?  Jane Galt asks an interesting political question:

Does the North Korean nuke help the Republicans at midterms, by putting security back on the map, or hurt them, because people will blame Bush for letting it happen on his watch?

Judging by Tradesports, it looks like it hurt them.  Their current predictions are that the GOP will keep the Senate and lose the House.  That sounds about right to me.

See my previous post with my thoughts on yesterday's nuclear test here.