Slashdot Mirror
North Korea Says War With South Would Go Nuclear
A reader writes "According to reports from the Uriminzokkiri, the official website of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a war with South Korea would involve nuclear weapons, and '[will] not be limited to the Korean peninsula.' The article goes on, 'The Korean peninsula remains a region fraught with the greatest danger of war in the world. This is entirely attributable to the US pursuance of the policy of aggression against the DPRK (North Korea).'"
Oh, yes, nukes have tech in them. Let's just post the whole Reuters newswire because that is delivered with technology!
Actually, "nobody" should be "nobody in the US". Over here in Europe, Canada is in much better standing than the US. Let's put it this way: We don't care much about Canada, but we consider them generally nice people. As for the US, if it were to sink into the ocean tomorrow, it would certainly make the headlines, but few of us would be really sorry. Our main worry would be what that means for our economy.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Um, no.
That is to say: a toner cartridge bomb may not be a real Weapon of Mass Destruction (more like destruction of 1-10 max.), it is still "chemical", so it would meet your criteria. All bombs short of nuclear bombs are "chemical".
In order for something to be classed as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction", it has to be capable of killing a large number of people. Period. That is the only requirement. Saying that just being "chemical" is a qualification is nonsense, because that would make that gallon of bleach on your shelf a WMD.
On the other hand, the weapon that the U.S. designates "MOAB", or Mother Of All Bombs, is also chemical. It is a fuel-air bomb. Think of a huge tank of gasoline that had been vaporized and mixed with the ideal amount of air for combustion. Boom.
You can build its little brother in your backyard with commonly available materials. Is that a WMD? No. Because it isn't capable of killing a large amount of people.
Okay? Got it? It is true that a WMD must be chemical, bio, or nuclear... because that encompasses EVERYTHING. Your steak dinner is chemical. It's bio, too. But (unless your wife is a really, really rotten cook) it's still not WMD. The single qualification is that it has to be able to kill lots of people. Not what it is made of, or how it works, or who owns it, or how much it costs, or how difficult it is to use.