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Did North Korea Conduct Secret Nuclear Tests?
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 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.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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.
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.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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.
Kim Jong Il: Hans Brix? Oh no! Oh, herro. Great to see you again, Hans!
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]
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.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Nuclear fusion is easy. Pretty much anyone can build a Farnsworth Fusor 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.
Oh, come on we get a lot more energy out of Fusion then we put in. It's making it not explode that's the real trick.
Hah, the largest nuclear stockpile on the planet would like to see them try to collect.
FTFY.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
That would explain why North Korea is one of the most brightly lit countries in the world. They have so much electricity available for everyone to use because they have harnessed nuclear fusion. But then, why does it look like this?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
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.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
N. Korea Detonates 40 Years Of GDP
http://www.theonion.com/articles/n-korea-detonates-40-years-of-gdp,2068/
"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..."
help me i've cloned myself and can't remember which one I am
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...
China doesn't want a unified Korea for several reasons.
1. China wants a pit bull keeping the US and allies from getting too close to its border.
2. The fall of N. Korea would mean potentially millions of refugees flooding into China.
3. China is no longer in the position to play in role of Good-Cop Bad-Cop. Geopolitically, it makes them look bad to not have a neighbor that's far worse.
The fall of the N. Korea regime wouldn't be the end of the world. I doubt China would put up too much of a stink about it. But if given the option, China would rather have N. Korea to stick around a bit longer.
Life is not for the lazy.
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.
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 them fighting each other.
China probably doesn't care all that much about whether Korea is unified. What China does care about is a stable government with whoever shares their border. If the NK government fell, there would be millions of refugees crossing into China almost immediately.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
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Says the guy who 'Bings' things.
Why don't you 'squirt' him a video?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
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
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 many people there. It would be a mess for everyone in the region (China, Russia, South Korea, Japan).
But there are several realities in the way of unification:
1) The Northern elites don't want it. This is really the biggest problem because until you can get the North to agree to unification there will be no unification. It's essentially impossible to forcedly unify the country. The people of the North have been so indoctrinated to fear everyone from outside the country. And the North's army remains powerful enough to cause so much destruction - not just to the North but to the South as well - that invasion is simply a no-go. You must somehow convince the rulers of the North to give up control to the South.
2) Unification would ruin the South. Unification is expensive. And it takes a long time. You don't just declare a country unified and all is good. You have to build up the poorer partner and work on social unification as well.
The unification of Germany cost upwards of $1.9 TRILLION. And West Germany was a lot richer than South Korea is. And East Germany wasn't nearly as poor as North Korea is. And socially there is still a gap between former East and West Germans. It will take another few generations to create real social unification.
A similar lesson can be learned by looking at Yemen, which was separated between North and South between the end of WWI until 1990. Yet after declaring unification the social separation between the peoples of the two former nations remained and resulted in civil war and unrest which really still continues today. (Equally note that both North and South Yemen were extremely poor nations, which made unification difficult economiclly as well.)
Really, the best scenario would be for the Northern elites to liberalize - open their economy bit by bit and reveal the truth about the rest of the world to their people bit-by-bit. Spend less on the military and more on developing the country - education, infrastructure, and a Chinese-style economic modernization. Then, as the North slowly climbs out of poverty and absolute self-imposed social isolation then maybe in a few decades unification will look more and more realistic.
And really that's what everyone wants. Everyone outside of the Northern elites that is.
There had been some hope that after Kim Jong-il died that his successor would be more open to the rest of the world, but that seems not to be the case.