North Korea performs first nuclear test...

[Liberal Gun Nut]

They're saying this was the equivalent of 550 tons of TNT.

Right, either they used a whole heap of TNT (or ANFO more likely) to fake a bomb, or it was a partial fizzle. They carefully sealed the mine shaft so there would be no gas release so sensors won't pick up any radiation from it.

Oh Kim Jong Il you are a wily one!

But my guess is it's a partial success and a partial fizzle of a bomb.

 

[mike101]

Here's a wild idea (he said, as he donned his flame suit). How about a trade embargo against the Chinese, until they put their dog back on it's leash.

The US is the biggest market for Chinese goods. At least half of the consumer electronics in the world today, are manufactured in China. There's a better than 50/50 chance that the Japanese TV you are staring at, was made in China. Much of the clothing sold at K-mart and Wallyworld is made in China. The Japanese economy would be affected, so they too would put some pressure on China.

That sounds unfair to the Chinese, doesn't it? Well, it is. But let's just say it was Mexico who was messing around with nukes, with an eye on taking over the rest of Latin America. Who do you think the world would turn to, to clean up their own back yard? Of course, the Mexicans would never do anything like that. I'm just using Mexico as an example because of it's geographical location.

Now, don't get excited. Of course, a trade embargo against the Chinese is way too extreme, at this point. I'm just trying to illustrate that if the world, especially the US and Japan, put enough pressure on China, maybe they will take care of NK for us. It is in their own best interest.

I don't think we would actually have to hit them in the wallet. We would just have to make noises like we're thinking about it.

 

[johnsonrlp]

Well, I've been boycotting Norinco for quite a while. I guess I don't need the rest of the crap they make that badly.

 

[Lucky]

You know how the USA spends more money than it has every year? It's the Chinese who are lending you the money to spend. They have the money to lend you because you buy their products. If you stop buying their products then your citizens have to spend more money to get equivalent products from other places. And then the Chinese won't have the money or the desire to buy your bonds. If the Chinese don't buy your bonds you have to offer more interest to make them internationally competitive, and that means that the average person now has to pay more on their credit card interest rate and their mortgage too. And if they have to pay more then they'll buy less houses and if they buy less houses then the prices will fall, and if the prices fall then the what's called 'the housing bubble' bursts, and when 300 million people's single largest investment crashes it brings a country into a recession or a depression.

So I'd say your plan is bad

 

[mike101]

Troubled Bubble

What a revoltin' development this is. From what I understand, the housing bubble has already sprung a pretty sizable leak, but I hear 'ya.

Remember the good old days, when we didn't have a deficit? If you blinked, you might have missed it.

 

[GTSteve03]

Well at least we know where the WMDs are now.

 

[Ivy Mike]

All I can say is good for North Korea. At least they have the stones to tell the UN what to do with itself.

 

[1911Tuner]

Bomb

Quote:

>China IMHO is going to be the country to watch. They may feel obligated to act over this.<
************

I have to agree...but I've got a sneakin' suspicion that the Chinese will talk tough for public consumption whilst snugglin' up to their little Ace in the Hole.
Why not let someone who proves every day that he really IS a nutcase do a bit of their dirty work for'em?

So...let's say that he flings a nuke at the west coast, which prompts a nuclear response from us. China takes great exception at our irradiating the area on their border and launches a retaliatory strike....which brings another retaliation from us, killing countless millions of Chinese peasants (Which they can do without)...which prompts Russia and a couple other antagonists to join them in their "righteous"outrage and their newfound alliance with their Chinese comrades.

The Chinese and the Russians have their excuse to nuke America...which they've been hoping for since 1950 or so...The Chinese population is reduced to manageable levels...and they get to blame it all on a self-proven maniac.
The Chinese then turn North Korea into a big parking lot, which eliminates the loose cannon in their midst AND wrecks the United States. The UN sends
"peacekeepers" to the American mainland...which no doubt would include a large contingent of Chinese and Russian troops...and there ya are.

Wouldn't be the first time that the pawns have been played in order to start a war without makin' the real players look like the instigators.

This can go real bad wrong in quick-time. Yeah...Watch the Sleeping Giant.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Get a grip, ppl

Various THR quotes:

400kt? That ain't a simple gun-type U235 A-bomb...
....
Hiroshima was 15kt and there was a big party afterwards insulting it's laughable yield. 66,000 dead can't be wrong!
....
400kt is way beyond the yield of a uranium collision device.
....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2395600,00.html

Details of the blast were sketchy. Sergei Ivanov, the Russian Defence Minister, estimated its yield at between five and 15 kilotons, or up to 15,000 tonnes of TNT, making it potentially as powerful as the bomb which devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

But an Australian seismology institute put the figure at one kiloton and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources said the size of the tremor suggested an explosive force equivalent to 550 tons of TNT - a surprisingly low explosive yield.

"If it was a one kiloton explosion, that would be disappointing small - a completely damp squib. It's very unlikely that they would have designed a bomb to have a yield as small as that," said James Acton, science and technology researcher at Vertic, a non-governmental organisation in the UK that works for nuclear non-proliferation.

The blast makes North Korea the eighth country in the world to openly carry out a nuclear test after the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India and Pakistan.

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Anyone remember when NK made an entire
mountain disappear a few years back? I do......

In any case, we had far more missiles and kt-age pointed at us during the
coldwar. Again, regarding a potential enemy this is like going from a platoon
of trained snipers to a thug with a .25 bauer pocket pistol. If he attempts
to use it against the SWAT Team he will be stone cold dead. Period. This
means if NK did use "something" against us, they would be a parking lot
overnight.

Take a moment and breath into a paper bag, go to work this morning, the
world hasn't changed.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

--

 

[Lone_Gunman]

President Bush, the greatest leader of our time, has taken care of Iraq and got that situation under control for us. I am sure he will handle North Korea just as well.

 

[Art Eatman]

Serious, but OT. Take it to APS.

Art