Nuclear tests this past Tuesday in North Korea have sent the international powers into a tizzy, trying to figure out what exactly North Korea is up to.

However, superpowers such as the U.S. and China knew a day in advance that North Korea would be testing the kind of nuclear capabilities the country now has. An official in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said the reason behind the testing was in response to American hostility.

After Tuesday’s tests, Wednesday was spent condemning North Korea for its actions, and Thursday, South Korea was doing tests to see if any radiation was found. A well-contained test could not have radioactive isotopes that made it to the surface from underground.

The most recent tests coming from North Korea are not the first times it has experimented with nuclear technology. In both 2006 and 2009, North Korea tested plutonium. Now the question is if North Korea used plutonium again or if they have started to use uranium. If North Korea has moved to using uranium, the country has moved on to more developed technology and has the materials to take big steps in its nuclear program.

Having to dissect the situation with North Korea is one of the first hands-on-experiences the new Secretary of State, John Kerry has had to manage. The reactions from Kerry and the United Nations Security Council both scolded and condemned North Korea for further developing and testing what nuclear capabilities the country has. But the mysterious part of this whole ordeal is trying to figure out how successful the tests were. The U.S. and its allies have no idea the size or strength of the explosion among other markers that would determine how successful the tests are.

In order to hamper North Korea from doing anything the superpowers don’t like, sanctions or trade restrictions have been put on both North Korea and Iran to prevent nuclear growth and to attack their economies, but sanctions are not working in the UN’s favor and Iran is giving North Korea the materials necessary.

Despite being a strong North Korean ally, China is wary of the testing going on. Thanks to what could be a potentially big breakthrough with nuclear matters, the U.S. is going to insert itself more into Asia, which China doesn’t like. If and when more sanctions go up, China will be hurt too.

Right now, it’s all talk and speculation. No one has taken physical action against North Korea but has condemned the country for testing its nuclear abilities. The Security Council along with the powers in charge all scramble to put their two cents in, slapping North Korea’s wrists and telling them to behave themselves. If some sort of action is going to happen, it needs to happen before North Korea becomes stronger than anyone realizes. Actions need to be made on the U.S.’s part in order to stop what’s going on or allow North Korea to start to build its own cache of nuclear weapons. It isn’t a surprise that North Korea wants to catch up to technology that has been available for decades.

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