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Experts Warn Of Possible North Korean Nuclear Test
After the recent failure of North Korea's rocket launch test, experts are warning that the country's leadership will likely try to save face by following it up with a nuclear weapons test. According to CBS, "The rocket launch had been hailed as a moment of national pride, but it disintegrated over the Yellow Sea, earning it embarrassment as well as condemnation from a host of nations that deemed it a covert test of missile technology. In a rare move for Pyongyang, the government admitted that the rocket did not deliver a satellite, but it also pressed ahead with grandiose propaganda in praise of the ruling Kim family." The Guardian adds, "Speculation is mounting that the North will attempt to claw back some of its credibility with a third nuclear test. Recent satellite images from the site used for previous nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 suggested plans for another underground explosion were already in place before the Unha-3 rocket broke apart and splashed into the Yellow Sea on Friday morning."
I bet a satellites in space shot this rocket down, using some form of laser. The technology has been around since the 80's, so why not?
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
A very Un-ha first post - broke up and fell into the internet.
the launch failure, does anyone have any DPRK media link with their take on the story?
Why is there a flurry of general interest news on a technical news web site? N. Korea nuke tests, Treyvon Martin shooting, Rick Santorum articles. Can we get back to posting articles about technical issues, please? We can get general interest news anywhere. News and discussion about technical items and open source software and hardware is harder to come by, which is why I come here. It's what makes Slashdot appealing. If you take that away then you take away the reason to come here over, say, NPR's web site.
We'd better invade then, just in case.
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
Really at this stage its gone well beyond a joke. I have friends in Japan who were quite worried about this, to say nothing of the sheer evil of the regime itself. Maybe its time to bite the bullet and just cut off food aid to North Korea so they are forced to reduce the size of their army and actually feed their own people? Or would Kim go for a full on invasion of the South in reality?
I've oft thought that if I were to rob a bank, I would first engineer a massive explosion around some densely populated area on the other side of town, a few minutes beforehand.
Why test in the backyard? Even if it involves a risk (www.google.com/search?q=underground+test+nuclear+risk+assessment)?
I guess that given that NK is a small country I can understand their willingness to do it in the backyard and that they have come to the conclusion it must be a fairly low risk.
But, still? What if they screw up like they did with their rocket?
Any chance we could locate and recover anything? I think the capsule would be of particular interest...
I found that to be bigger news then the actual failure.
I could interpret this action that North Korea want to get out of its cycle, but it needs to slowly get its citizens to think for themselves. By having the government admit that they could fail, can spark the idea to the public that they don't have to blindly trust the government.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This KIM grandpa rode on a giant whale and killed giant sea squid , he was also born on top of a mountain protected by a magic bird and there was 100`s of rainbows in the sky when he was born .
Thats pretty fucking amazing if u ask me , a nuclear test every nation in the world can do it ,
pffff move along theres nothing to see.. . .
Except this time we drop the food in directly to the people on little parachutes (of course the North would claim that it's poisoned or some such) and continue doing so until it's accepted / acceptable, then mix in a bunch of Liberator pistols in childproof boxes.
The U.S. really should've kept those 'stead of dumping them into the Pacific Ocean --- warehoused them and warned dictators that they'd be airdropped to their people when deemed necessary.
bad enough they play rocketeer before they have worked out their controls. we know they've been setting up for another nuke fizzle with assets watching them mess about their underground test site for months.
to jump boldly ahead with another fizzle ahead of schedule to try and save face... well, shall we say, unpredictable results shall ensue. this time they might have an explosion before they get the bomb out of the handcart.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
would be for the US to actually go ahead and give them the food aid they threatened to withhold if NK launched a satellite
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
At least they don't have rocket scientists any more. I doubt any of them survived the rocket explosion by more than an hour.
If they are doing stuff to stick their middle finger up at the world and feel great I'd do an above the ground test. It's FAR more impressive.
yes..radiation, destruction, etc are are a problem. But just sayin if you are going for something to be impressive the above ground test is better than watching a massive sinkhole get made in a moments notice.
Why is there a flurry of general interest news on a technical news web site?
Wake up man! This is not the old Slashdot family. They broke up, left town and went their separate ways for good. Taco himself moved out long ago and sold himself out to "Big Media Inc."
Some typical newbie know-nothings moved into the hollow empty old character-filled mansion and wanted to flip it for big bucks (after they saw what Ari the Greek did), so they proceeded to tear it to the ground and rebuild it into this shiny new cookie-cutter me-too site for the Internet 4.0 (tm) generation.
Look, Slashdot jumped the whole school of sharks, died, was flushed down the toilet bowl and plugged the pipes ages ago. Didn't you hear the massive flushing and plunging noises?
That's why I (5-digit UID) NEVER log in anymore - who the fuck in their right mind would want to be recognized here?
The real Slashdot died long ago This is just a web site with tons of "eyeballs" for advertisers. Mark my words: it will be flipped, destroyed, drop dead or be bought by the "twatthead.com-of-the-month " within the next 3 years.
I mean, come on - post to tittheads or fuckfacebook? You mean you can't smell the piles of horse-shit showing up everywhere?
Flag as Inappropriate? You've GOT to be kidding. The REAL Slashdot never removed a single post except once when they had their asses sued by the space-ship nutcase morons. The modding was less Draconian back then, too.
I used to have /. open in a window for 10-12 hours/day. Now I come here for maybe 3 minutes a week, just to scan the headlines and drop a snide anon remark or two. And I am seriously thinking of dropping it completely.
Time marches on ...
attempt to claw back some of its credibility with a third nuclear test
Perhaps domestically, but internationally they can claw back some credibility by not having a third nuclear test.
The ball's in your court, Jong-un. Your father burned all his credibility, but you have an excellent opportunity. Don't waste it trying to show off.
The star wars project was actually a success. It was only deemed a failure, as to keep our enemies off guard.
Exactly the same thing with the North Korean rocket launch. Let the world laugh while the Great North Korean intergalactic spaceship is nearing completion.
Yeah, that's smart. After you fail on a well tought rocket test, you simply rush a nuclear test so that people will forget the first one. Bonus point if all your well tought nuclear tests also failed up to now. Don't worry, this time things will work out ok, there is no pression or anything.
Ok, I can belive they are planning that. If their leader have a bad idea, it will come through execution anyway... But it isn't an automatic thing like the summary implies.
Rethinking email
Sure on paper it sounds like all you need to do is take a late 1950's early 1960's edition Chinese CSS-2 Scud variant and bolt a second stage made out of another Scud-C on top of that and then build another rocket, a smaller one, using a Chinese SRB and bolt that atop your ghetto rigged second stage. But in practice getting all that stuff to work right in your poor broken down slave society driven by terror is a lot harder.
Please name the ALLEGED experts.
Yours In Minsk,
K. Trout, C.I.O.
...nuke to lob at someone. Seriously, this is why nuclear technician isn't up there with brain surgeon and rocket scientist.
So, they don't have the ability to attack anybody else because their rockets / missiles don't work, but they have the ability to blow themselves to bits.
I don't feel threatened by that.
they don't have oil. :)
We test nuclear weapons ON North Korea!
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
There's joking talk on the comments today of the laser missile shield taking this down. Joking aside, as a technical question: assuming they could/did shoot at the missile, I'm curious - is there a signature people would be able to detect a laser with?
North Korea intends nuclear test to show that even though they can't blow anybody else up, they could still explode themselves if they wanted to. Glory to the great nation!
Now Kim must kill himself, due to the shame he has brought forth to his family and country. Any attempts they have made were failures so they are going to shame themselves yet again by testing another rocket, which I will surely explode in early flight.