Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
North Korea Conducts Second Nuclear Test
Sabiancym
Member UncommonPosts: 3,150
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/05/24/world/international-korea-north-test.html?_r=1
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?glide=NC-20090525-21761-PRK&cat=dis&lang=eng
SEOUL, May 25 (Reuters) - North Korea said it had successfully conducted a nuclear test on Monday, raising the explosive power and level of control of its nuclear device to a new level, its state media said.
"We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on May 25 as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent," the North's official KCNA news agency said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency also quoted a ruling party official as saying that a test was conducted.
YTN Television quoted the South Korean weather agency as saying it detected a tremor indicating a test at 0054 GMT.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had called an emergency meeting of cabinet ministers over the test, Yonhap said.
North Korea had recently said it would again test a nuclear device -- its first was in October 2006 -- in reaction to tightened international sanctions after it fired a long-range rocket in April.
News of the test hit South Korean financial markets, sending the main KOSPI share index down four percent in late morning trade, while the won dropped more than 1 percent against the dollar.
This could be a problem.
Comments
They expect to get attacked sooner or later anyway. So they prepare. It's their right.
See what I did there?
They know how the world feels about t heir nuclear program so why go around bragging "HA HA our nukes are better now suck it world"
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Because all the major powers know when NK does a nuclear test. There is no point in trying to hide the fact. And if you can't hide it, then why not brag? The idea, IMO, is to make their nuke arsonal seem like a viable threat, whether it is intended for self-defense (we hope) or aggression (we hope not).
Regardless, IMO, NK has every right to pursue a nuclear program. So long as they don't use nuclear weapons against another country (or allow someone to use their nuclear weapons on another country), I have no problem with them having nukes.
The problem is with no real economic exports ,most people in the world believe they will sell these weapons to highest bidder which most likely include terrorist organizations which will most likely use those weapons without reservation.There is a real worry here
I expect they will sell (and probably are selling) their missile technology, but they'd be utter fools to sell actual nuclear devices: we can trace them back if they're ever used.
Part of being part of the nuclear community is that you're responsible for what happens to any nukes you create. If NK "accidentally" allows someone else to get a hold of one of their nukes which is then used to attack someone, NK will be held responsible, and it wont be pretty for them. If that were to proven to have happened, I would be the first to advocate dropping a *strategic* nuke on Pyongyang, which would almost certainly wipe the entire city off the map.
BTW, strategic nukes are big -- far bigger than anything NK has been able to create (their latest test was a divice with Hiroshima-sized destructive capability: very small by today's standards).
A dog that feels threatened, barks and shows it's teeth.
@Tuor
I expect them to sell their nukes, or at least their know how, it's a poor country and that industry costs them a lot. Most of the other countries that make them, sell them. (Maybe not China, Russia and India).
Pakistan sold nuclear weapon tech to Korea and the community did nothing. America sold warheads to Britain and South Africa, South Africa sold the tech to China, Britain sold it's tech to France, France sold the tech to Israel and the "community" did nothing. What is the "community" going to do to them anyway?
A Hiroshima sized nuke is enough to sink an invasion fleet or stop an invading army, or destroy a city the size of ....Hiroshima (Okinawa). We might have bigger, but thats plenty big enough.
Its hard to be afraid of Intercontinental missiles now if you are the US considering we can blow up the nuke while its on its launchpad. Anyone else think North Korea had an earthquake, and instead of saying it was a natural disaster said it was a Nuclear Missile test?
They (terrorist) dont need a missle delivery system for nuclear weapons. I have never been checked out leaving or arriving at small ports on my scuba diving trips (large ports of entry is another matter) there are only so many agents to go around. If someone wants bring in a nuclear device into this country all they have to do is enter a small port or fishing harbor for transport or maybe just detonate it close to shore.With the yields and nuclear fallout they have on these weapons these days the wind can quite possibly distribute the radioactive fallout enough to kill a massive amount of people ,pinpoint accuracy isnt really needed with these
Other point is ,I dont really believe NK really cares about what other people think.They have probably allready decided what they intend to do.
So does a rabid dog.
nukes going off all over the place and Obama does nothing..
the message sent to Iran is....Yeah do what you want we will just run to the UN and complain...
what a mesage to send...weak..
he could just blast it on the pad if he wanted to,but know the Un will fix thing right...weak
Trade in material assumptions for spiritual facts and make permanent progress.
What would you do? Keep in mind that we have no right of law over any country other than our own and that bombing N.Korea is an act of aggression that would, most likely, start a war. Also keep in mind that we have known about their nuclear program since 2002.
Baff,
I'm pretty sure they've already sold a good chunk of their nuclear device technology to Iran, if not to other places as well. However, I was talking about nuclear devices themselves, and *that* is something that could come back to bite them in the rear if they actually sold that stuff. As I said earlier, we have ways of tracking where a nuclear device came from.
IMO, there's a big difference between selling someone tech and selling someone actual physical devices. You need certain things to make use of tech, otherwise the information is useless. Nations like Iran could make use of technical knowledge, but terrorist organizations? I doubt it. OTOH, giving someone an actual physical device means that whomever has it just needs to know how to depress the proverbial button, and that *is* something a terrorist organization could easily manage to do.
NK talks a lot of smack. They rattle their sabers a lot. They know, or think they know, that we're not likely to respond in kind. I would be surprised (and probably dismayed) if we did. OTOH, if one of their nukes, of any size, were to get loose and be used, then we *would* act. I don't think any of us believes that we would hold back if a NK-originated nuke was used in an aggressive manner. I can't imagine that NK is dumb enough not to realize that we'd retaliate if something like that were to happen. Yes, it's nice sometimes to demonize the NK government, and most of the time it's probably called for, but I myself just can't believe that they'd be unaware of the consequences of allowing a nuke device they created to be used aggressively by anyone.
So, in closing, I think there's a big difference between selling nuclear tech and nuclear devices, and while I think NK would sell the former, I can't imagine that they'd be dumb enough to sell the latter.