Did North Korea Conduct Secret Nuclear Tests? 159
gbrumfiel writes "In May of 2010, North Korea made the bizarre claim that it had achieved nuclear fusion. Many, many commentators (including faithful Slashdot readers) mocked the dear leader for his outlandish boast, but could there have been a kernel of truth in the claim? Apparently some odd radioactivity was spotted by detectors surrounding the North just days after the announcement. Now, a new analysis by a Swedish scientist suggests that the radiation may have leaked from covert experiments into boosting fission warheads. The evidence is tentative at best, and many are skeptical, but it does seem that something odd was up on the Korean peninsula that spring."
Not only... (Score:5, Funny)
Not only did North Korea manage to produce a Nuclear Warhead- but the late Kim Jong himself put it together using only a paper clip, a mashed potato and a bucket of play-doh.
What it takes the West billions of $ and many top scientists, North Korea can accomplish with just a Kim and a few house-hold supplies. Incidentally, Kim Jong Il, invented the mashed potato. Just a little known factoid.
Re:Not only... (Score:5, Funny)
Every character ever played by Richard Dean Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone or Chuck Norris was actually based on Jim Kong Il. There was one time his paper clip snapped in fear while building a nuclear warhead, so Kim Jong Il roundhouse-kicked it. This caused the warhead to go off. Fortunately for us, he was able to subdue the nuclear explosion and stuff it back into the warhead. This is where refurbished nukes comes from.
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Every character ever played by Richard Dean Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone or Chuck Norris was actually based on Jim Kong Il.
Yes, quite a media-friendly family. One of his brothers had a movie franchise, and another got a real sweetheart deal with Nintendo. Ever since he married that Korean woman, though, he's been keeping a low profile.
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Chuck Norris was unable to comment, but his media representative assures us he has no twin Korean brother, but he's comfortable enough being awesome to allow them to borrow his for a while for the purposes of world peace and/or annihilation. Just as long as it's awesome.
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I know for a fact that Japan, Korea, Central and South America have their own superhero comics, plus there is at least one being put out in Arabic countries.
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Wow, someone's got an axe to grind...
a person who drooled while he watched these actors play super humans as part of a unique American culture (The rest of the world does not have super-hero style comics)
It may be unique American culture, but the rest of the world consumes it ferociously - Terminator 3 (the last movie starring Ahnuld, just before he became governor) made twice as much outside the US as domestically.
As far as indigenous culture goes, the Chinese have their share of cartoonish super-hero anti
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Actually, I never cared for most movies or shows by those actors... MacGyver was one of the best... you know, the guy that abhors guns and wouldn't shoot somebody to save his life.
While I realize it's nice and warm, you may want to get your head out of your ass once in a while.
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So he's MacGyver?
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I always wondered where Macgyver ended up..
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Not only did North Korea manage to produce a Nuclear Warhead- but the late Kim Jong himself put it together using only a paper clip, a mashed potato and a bucket of play-doh.
What it takes the West billions of $ and many top scientists, North Korea can accomplish with just a Kim and a few house-hold supplies. Incidentally, Kim Jong Il, invented the mashed potato. Just a little known factoid.
Sorry, but you're mixing him up with Valdimir "I'm a Rocketman" Putin, who did this on his break between test driving a new F1 car from Lada and climbing K2.
Kim Jong-Il would have willed it into being, because he's a god.
Re:Not only... (Score:5, Funny)
Kim Jong Il looking at it [tumblr.com] or it didn't happen.
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the late Kim Jong himself put it together using only a paper clip, a mashed potato and a bucket of play-doh
That's misleading. The play-doh was just because he got bored while making the bomb.
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the late Kim Jong himself put it together using only a paper clip, a mashed potato and a bucket of play-doh
That's misleading. The play-doh was just because he got bored while making the bomb.
I heard it was the other way round...
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He also took that nuke and dunked it in a full court jump. Before scoring a 54 under par on Augusta.
what in north korea isn't 'odd'? (Score:4, Informative)
Given they already have a covert nuclear programme doing covert experiments isn't that much of a shock. But really, everything these guys do is odd to some degree, I mean, they have a leader who was born in any of 1982, 83 or 84 and no one seems quite clear as to which. Or why they would lie about it.
It's not even clear who these outlandish lies are for, which is what makes the whole thing odd. Even if it's just misdirection to confuse anyone trying to find out the truth that doesn't make it any less odd.
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http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-18/asia/world_asia_north-korea-leader-dead_1_state-tv-reports-north-korean-leader-kim-jong?_s=PM:ASIA [cnn.com]
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he stopped living, not aging.
Re:what in north korea isn't 'odd'? (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:what in north korea isn't 'odd'? (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, specifically in China, but to an extent the rest of East Asia, there's value in your Zodiac sign, which is determined by your year of birth. So there
So yeah, ignore other cultures and it's really freaking weird and unreasonable.
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Don't misunderstand "I was talking to a guy on the street and wasn't quite sure" with "The son of the leader of a country, who is now the leader of that country", and with whom several states have relations, including china....
My father was born in india somewhere around 1941. No one is sure when, and my grandfather only passed away last year so he had the last 70 years in which he could never remember exactly, so we don't know. Back then in india you used a Lunar calendar if you were not attached to the
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In his defense, the leader was quite young when he was born.
Seismic evidence? (Score:5, Informative)
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Nuclear detonations create telltale signatures on seismometers, which makes it pretty much impossible to perform nuclear tests without being noticed by the international community. The article even admits this:
It was conducted on the Far Side of the moon; right near the Nazi base.
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Nuclear detonations create telltale signatures on seismometers, which makes it pretty much impossible to perform nuclear tests without being noticed by the international community.
You haven't been keeping up with your N.K. press releases. In 2006 Kim Jong Il personally invented a device which teleports earthquake energy from one place to another.
The massive quake and resulting Tsunami that hit Japan was a result of a of a Nuclear Test, the seismic energy of which in turn was teleported out of North Korea. Jong Il was later quoted as saying "It worked really well. It's just that my aim was off, because I was soooooooo drunk. Otherwise South Korea would have been in some real s
Re:Seismic evidence? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nuclear detonations create telltale signatures on seismometers, which makes it pretty much impossible to perform nuclear tests without being noticed by the international community. The article even admits this:
A mate of mine performed this work in the late 80's and early 1990's, at a location I'll not divulge, but suffice to say the sensitivity of their monitoring equipment was completely saturated by the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake in Northern California. They could track every little tremor around the world, including mining explosions and pinpoint the location with great accuracy. This was part of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty adherence monitoring.
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While Nuclear testing implies gigantic explosions of the kind to produce seismic evidence I imagine you can achieve nuclear fission without producing a giant bang.
For example, I think nuclear power plants use fission to create power and do so without seismic evidence or gigantic explosions.
And I am sure that it is possible to explode a small enough amount of the stuff to not produce noticeable seismic evidence.
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"And I am sure that it is possible to explode a small enough amount of the stuff to not produce noticeable seismic evidence."
I generally agree with your post - you can do non-explosive nuclear testing. However, I'm not so sure about the bit quoted above.
It's my understanding, though I may be wrong, that in order to get an explosion, at all, you need a minimum amount of plutonium or uranium, and that the minimum amount still produces a heck of a bang. Further, if N. Korea is experimenting with fusion boosted
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Nuclear detonations create telltale signatures on seismometers, which makes it pretty much impossible to perform nuclear tests without being noticed by the international community. The article even admits this:
Reminds me of one of our famous theatre comedies, where a character - an apprentice - "waited until his master fell asleep and then he started silently chiseling the wall." (he has a suspicion that the master had bodies of young girls immured in his basement)
Liberate N.Korea (Score:1)
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invaded, replaced their government with a pupp...
A puppy government? Squeeee!
Makes sense (Score:1)
It does make sense that the report should come from a Swedish scientist, for credibility.
It was probably planted. An American or South Korean scientist would not have gained the same credibility, even if they most likely have been in the knowing for very long.
Why Swedish? Well, Hans Blix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Blix), who screwed Geogre Bush "the lesser", when they spoke of weapons of mass destruction was Swedish. That made Bush "the lesser" look like a cunt without a hole.
Now, another, albeit yo
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That's Hans Brix.
Hans Brix? Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)
Hans Blix: Mr. Il, I was supposed to be allowed to inspect your palace today, but your guards won't let me enter certain areas.
Kim Jong Il: Hans, Hans, Hans! We've been frew this a dozen times. I don't have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans?
Hans Blix: Then let me look around, so I can ease the UN's collective mind. I'm sorry, but the UN must be firm with you. Let me in, or else.
Kim Jong Il: Or else what?
Hans Blix: Or else we will be very angry with you... and we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are.
Kim Jong Il: OK, Hans. I'll show you. Stand to your reft.
Hans Blix: [Moves to the left]
Kim Jong Il: A rittle more.
Hans Blix: [Moves to the left again]
Kim Jong Il: Good.
[Opens up trap, Hans falls in]
More like... (Score:5, Interesting)
More like they had an accident and covered it up with "We make bomb for advancement of North Korean workers and great glory of Dear Leader"
IIRC there was a very large explosion of a train car which they were pretty hushed up about, apparently Dear Leader, who only trusted rail travel, was on his train and not too terribly far from the accident when it happened.
If this country didn't exist, with all its screwy behavior, Sci-Fi writers would have a tough time making it all up.
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Maybe that would be due to the confusing habit of Sci-Fi writers only writing about Science Fiction. Tom Clancy might be able to do it though
the wrong experiment (Score:1)
It was fission, what they actually achieved, someone, somewhere, in their secret underground cavern labratories, mislabelled the experiment... They just couldnt admit the mistake and relabel it again.
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Kim Jong Un (by telephone): Hey, dad, you got the beer? Don't put it in the old Cooler. It doesn't stay cold. Put it in the new Coleman we imported last week. I asked your butler to fill the bottom with water before he put it into the walk-in freezer yesterday. Is it ready to go?
Kim Jong Il: Yes. Thanks
yeah, 10,000 cold fusion cups (Score:2)
the measured energy produced was not quite enough to reanimate Dear Leader. next they will try adding a D-cell battery to the mix. assuming they can find one that hasn't corroded out.
Fusion is easy (Score:2, Interesting)
Fusion is easy. You can make fusion with a tabletop setup. Overunity is the hard part. Explosive fusion is also hard. It wouldn't surprise me if the dear leader made some bigass Farnsworth Fusors and ran them knowing that people would be monitoring. It's a cheap way to fuel this kind of speculation.
Not a bizarre claim. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nuclear fusion is easy. Pretty much anyone can build a Farnsworth Fusor [wikipedia.org] and there are all sorts of other ways to achieve fusion. Achieving net positive fusion isn't even that difficult for a country that already has fission-based atomic bombs. The problem is achieving net positive fusion that is stable, sustainable, and controlled.
The question asked by the story title: "did North Korea conduct secret nuclear tests?" has a simple answer. Yes. Of course they conducted secret nuclear tests. It's already public knowledge that they have a nuclear program. They also, like every nuclear power, keep the details hush hush. Therefore, secret nuclear tests.
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Not purely public knowledge, known in military circles and other groups that monitor satellite intel.
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but a fusion bomb (significant energy yield from fusion) is hard to build. N. Korea doesn't have the means to do that. A boosted fission bomb is another matter, that just uses extra neutrons produced by fusion to induce more fissioning, but in those the fusion yield only contributes a percent or so to the yield of the bomb.
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(while making a great boost in the fission yield)
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Yes, but a boosted fission bomb still achieves fusion and it's not a huge step from making a fission bomb to a boosted fusion bomb. I wasn't saying that they had a bomb from which most of the energy comes from fusion, just that it's not a bizarre claim for North Korea to say they've achieved some sort of fusion since teenagers manage it with old TV parts in their parents basements. I would say that a boosted fission bomb counts as net positive fusion also because, even if it does take more energy to cause t
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If the source of the isotopes was a test -- and that's a big if -- a boosted fission weapon is a very good possibility. Going to a 'real' thermonuclear or 'hydrogen bomb' is a much bigger and less likely step. However, once a country has accomplished building a plain Trinity-style fission device, boosting with tritium or deuterium (or less commonly lithium-6 deuteride) is pretty straightforward if you have access to those materials.
In addition, if the lower estimates of the yield of DPRK's two tests are tak
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And, with modern philosophy on nuclear weapons, no-one really needs weapons bigger than that. It's much more efficient to use lots of smaller nuclear weapons than a few really big ones to achieve total destruction. If you actually want to take out the other countries hardened nuclear sites to prevent them from continuing to fire at you, you might want a bigger boom. If you just want to maintain a state of MAD, around 400-600 kilotons is ideal. Of course, you still need a delivery mechanism.
The thing is, as
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The question asked by the story title: "did North Korea conduct secret nuclear tests?" has a simple answer. Yes. Of course they conducted secret nuclear tests. It's already public knowledge that they have a nuclear program. They also, like every nuclear power, keep the details hush hush. Therefore, secret nuclear tests.
Agreed. Of course they have done tests, have bombs, and have reactors, so radiation should not be unexpected in North Korea. But any mention of fusion related to this is absolutely absurd and unrelated (other than the Dear Leader's ridiculous claims, which he may not have understood anyway), so this story does not shed new light on anything and should never have been posted.
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Yeah, but even building a farnsworth fusor as a neutron source for experiments in their nuclear program would be "fusion related to this". A country with a nuclear weapons program experimenting with fusion is completely unsurprising. As has been pointed out in other posts, boosted fission weapons that use limited fusion as a neutron source are pretty much standard for nuclear weapons these days.
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I believe the real question is if they have hydrogen bombs or not. But you are right, achieving fusion does not necessarily mean that.
Fusion....right (Score:4, Interesting)
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Invisible light.
Re:Fusion....right (Score:5, Insightful)
just saying that particular fact of no Night-time luminosity could be just as well a sign of a well adjusted society with happy members with regular sleep schedules and lack of wasted lamp post lights, etc, as a lot of Night-time luminosity could be taken as a sign of factory mills with rotating shifts, slave wages, where the beds are never cold, and a disruption of family and social life: a society on the way to spiritual death.
It's also a sign of a country that has bakeries that can have fresh bread ready for breakfast in the morning to feed the citizens, newspapers being printed and delivered to inform the citizens, as well as deliveries of fresh produce and manufactured goods that get consumed at a high rate by a citizenry with regular healthy diets and disposable income. But you're right; since North Korea has no night-time luminosity, I guess it is safe to assume that North Korea has neither of these things as well. Tell me, are they still making all of you people in Pyongyang mourn over "Dear Leader"'s death?
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which makes sense in a planned economy.
Heh, one of the reasons planned economies fail so hard. Lots of things that don't make a lick of sense anywhere else, make sense in a planned economy.
If someone stock piles a ton of newspapers or hordes other things we call them crazy, but if someone stock piles more money then they could ever need we call them successful.
Society is not just about barely delivering what you need. It's also about being a vehicle for achieving your dreams. If someone wants to pile up a bunch of money into productive enterprises (they aren't typically sticking it in a mattress) and they aren't hurting people by doing so, then sure, society should help them to do that.
Secret Nuclear Tests? (Score:2)
"Secret Nuclear Tests" aka, they broadcast the event around the world but no one believed them.
Known for some time: (Score:5, Funny)
N. Korea Detonates 40 Years Of GDP
http://www.theonion.com/articles/n-korea-detonates-40-years-of-gdp,2068/ [theonion.com]
"PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA—A press release issued by the state-run Korean Central News Agency Monday confirmed that the Oct. 9 underground nuclear test in North Korea's Yanggang province successfully exploded the communist nation's total gross domestic product for the past four decades..."
Something doesn't add up... (Score:2)
Dr. De Geer is using evidence of a fission reaction to support the conclusion that a fusion reaction occurred? That makes no sense whatsoever. I don't think a near fizzle/low yield detonation can even induce fusion in the first place.
Evidence of a low yield uranium blast would make me think of testing a new weapons design and/or a composite core, not boosted fission.
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Its because of the typo;
While trying to invent a Dear Leader' Soda, they had a FIZZION event.
Difference between nukes and fusion (Score:2)
Let's just say they had a thermo-nuke test. That gives off some particular radiation. But I'm not seeing the connection between that and NK's supposed fusion reactor. One would think that the 2 would have some differences, such as a workable reactor giving off the radiation for more than a few milliseconds (or whatever).
Or is this just another badly written TFS?
Re:Easy fix. (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Nuke the North
2) Blame it on fusion experimentation
3) ???
4) PROFIT!
Though I expect you are joking, I do expect the US and ROK have been exploring these options for years -- considering if it would work and how China would react. The North Korean leaders are clearly the most despicable exploiters of the human race the world has seen in generations, but China likes to have them as a buffer. Possibly also fearing the economy and military of a unified Korea.
Re:Easy fix. (Score:5, Informative)
That made sense 20 years ago, but China being afraid of a unified Korea, is like the US being afraid of a unified Dutch Antillies.
Re:Easy fix. (Score:5, Interesting)
Economically China doesn't want the competition that cheap North Korean labor combined with an already highly industrialized South Korea would bring.
Militarily if you combined the armies of North and South Korea it would be the *second* largest by active personnel behind China (clearly behind US & Russia in technology, but not by as much as you'd think as the US provides a lot of hardware). If you combine their trained (active and reserve) military personnel, it absolutely dwarfs any other military besides Russia.
That's plenty of reason for China not to want to see a unified democratic Korea...
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That's like saying the Germans and the British in WW2 had a huge combined military.
The only reason why the Korean militaries are that large is because they are strategically sized against each other. If Korea was unified, you would probably see massive reductions in troop counts.
When the US was in a civil war, we had an enormous combined military... because there were two of the
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That's like saying the Germans and the British in WW2 had a huge combined military.
Yeah, and after WWII they joined forces to dominate the European economy together - I'm sure Russia before the fall of the USSR had wished it had been able to keep West Germany under its thumb instead of joining NATO. China clearly relishes their position as North Korea's closest (and almost only) ally, and use that leverage constantly when negotiating in the UN on Asian politics.
But the point was comparing Korea to the Dutc
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South Korea is the new Hong Kong, and it provides a place to deal with the west while North Korea provides a buffer zone to prevent cultural influence. The leadership in China and the western nations all like the situation.
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there would be millions of refugees crossing into China almost immediately.
So? This is China we're talking about. People are saying that NK is the biggest exploiter of humanity out there, but these people must not be paying attention.
China would put these people to work making sweaters, and/or use them for cattle feed if they've already been exhausted as slave labor. Chances are, though, they're healthier than most of their citizens and with a little rice will last at least as long as a native Chinaman.
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ALrge armies doesn't mean good armies, and it doesn't mean 'win'.
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When you have 20,000,000 heavily armed troops (and enough missiles - conventional, nuclear, and/or chemical - to more or less obliterate each other's capitals) supplied with modern equipment by Russia, China, and the US separated by about 2 miles of DMZ, no one's going to win...
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Yeah, that cold war thinking never goes away. Dang I miss it.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Easy fix. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't know if those reasons are accurate. These are the issues I see for China with a unified Korea.
1. Think back on Germany's unification. A unified Korea will become even more of an economic powerhouse. With unification South Korea would now have a massive untapped resource in the north. For example, why outsource manufacturing as they've been doing when they now can make stuff domestically for cheap. Also imagine the massive amount of investment the north is going to enjoy. Koreans have little need for Chinese goods, relatively speaking. I'm not sure with the NK mindset will be, but South Koreans are very nationalist.
2) An economically prosperous country will now exist on China's border. Refugees are not the problem. If anything, Chinese will probably be flocking across the border for opportunities. Sure, China's economy is burgeoning, but that growth is not uniform and it certainly not the case in that corner of China.
3) A strong American ally now shares a border with China. This one is obvious.
Everything thing else is a non-issue. I'm pretty sure North Korea gives China constant headaches, but they'll never acknowledge that. I don't really see what strategic benefit they offer China beyond providing a buffer hundreds of miles wide. They definitely provide no economic value, although I'm sure what little gets into NK is Chinese made. That likely wont continue with a unified nation.
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I don't think that's really China's view.
The Wikileaks cables have included suggestions that Bejing is willing to accept a unified Korea under the South's government [guardian.co.uk]
China is also seriously concerned about an influx of refugees should North Korea 'collapse'.
And that's really everybody's concern. North Korea can't be allowed to simply 'collapse'. (It really already has collapsed economiclly but somehow manages to soldier on politically and socially.) There is too much military hardware there. There are too m
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1) Japan
2) Why?
3) Why do you think people can only watch one country at a time?
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China being afraid of a unified Korea, is like the US being afraid of a unified Dutch Antillies.
Well, we don't want them to unify the Caribbean tourism cartel. If they gain control, they'll lower prices, then no one is going to want to go to Hawaii. We might lose our domestic competitive edge on drinks with umbrellas in them.
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1) Nuke the North
2) Blame it on fusion experimentation
3) ???
4) PROFIT!
Though I expect you are joking, I do expect the US and ROK have been exploring these options for years -- considering if it would work and how China would react. The North Korean leaders are clearly the most despicable exploiters of the human race the world has seen in generations, but China likes to have them as a buffer. Possibly also fearing the economy and military of a unified Korea.
Can't you trace radioactive residue somehow (ratios of isotopes, or something like that) after the fact? That might make that scheme difficult unless we can get some of their own nuclear material to build the bomb out of.
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There is no doubt that there are plans a nuclear exchange with North Korea, although they are more likely based on the original situation in the 50s and 60s where the NK army was both much larger and not quite as obsolete in comparison to the SK and US armies. The Joint Staff probably has plans on fighting a war with Canada, if only as an exercise. Of course plans are one thing, mobilization to make those plans even feasible is another.
I'd say that there is a set of plans for a nuclear strike on NK that p
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I suspect the US has ran that scenario, as is the job of the military. I doubt it's on the table and an actual response.
Bad PR, long term damage to neighboring countries. for what? nothing we can't do with convention air forces.
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It seems the Chinese would like to back them, but stay under the rest of the worlds radar while doing so. Should North Korea launch a missile into Seoul like they promised this year over the "Christmas Tree Dispute". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-a [bbc.co.uk]
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Hah, the largest nuclear stockpile on the planet would like to see them try to collect.
FTFY.
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Hah, the largest nuclear stockpile on the planet would like to see them try to collect.
FTFY.
If you are referring to the US, it is actually, the second largest nuclear stockpile.
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Yeah, you've got a point. The US should figure out some way to fire them from their submarines, drop them from their planes, and similar! I don't know why they haven't thought about this before?
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Hah, the largest nuclear stockpile on the planet would like to see them try to collect.
what's Russia got to do with this?
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Either A) return to this country, or most likely B) move to the next cheapest country that could produce it.
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Not a lot of next cheapest countries that ALSO have the infrastructure and port access.
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So? we would be fine in about a year.
Some reaming good would go up. Some electronics wouldn't be easy to get for a while.
We would still have food, gas, cars, electricity, all the stuff we currently have.
Hell, it might be good for us.
Now imagine Chine getting it's oil and food imports cut. It would implode.
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need? no. Food, water, shelter, currently owned electronics, transportation, entertainment.
So, what need? do people needs an iPhone? xbox? new computer?
hmm, clothing would rise about 25%..maybe.
I
m seriously thinking of anything poor people NEED that would become unavailable for the short term?
OTOH, if that means all those toys get made here, then the poor people would get living wage JOBS; which they needs.
For the record, I have no problem paying 25% more for something knowing it's made in the US by a US co
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You should join the Mitt Romney campaign.
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Yeah - read about Castle Bravo (Score:2)
Yeah, in the Castle Bravo test, they got a *lot* more energy out - the bomb was 2.5 times more powerful than it was *designed* to be - and at 6 megatons, it was no small bomb to begin with. If that's not "Net Power", I don't know what is.
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I'm no physicist, but it occurs to me: Do stars even do energy-positive fusion? I mean, there's no one shooting energy into stars, obviously, but they are being acted on by gravity in a pretty significant way. Could it just be that gravity is providing the energy for fusion, with the heat/light total being less than that "input" by gravity?
Let me Bing that for you [wikipedia.org].
Now, don't do that again. If you can't figure out how to use the Internet, go back to Facebook where you belong.
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"Now, don't do that again. If you can't figure out how to use the Internet, go back to Facebook where you belong."
Says the guy who 'Bings' things.
Why don't you 'squirt' him a video?
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After all, most theories of how the Sun works suggest that we ought to be able to detect SOME solar neutrinos; what if the Sun is in the "collapse" phase just now, and the reason we can't detect the neutrinos is because there aren't any?
The issue of "missing" neutrinos was solved a decade ago, but at no point were detecting zero neutrinos, merely about 66% less than expected.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_neutrino_problem [wikipedia.org]
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Oh, yes, but we must definitely worry about the furrzzzle blartlebing schwizznuts.
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I think there were "secrete" because that sounds more menacing.