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North Korea Claims It Detonated Its First Hydrogen Bomb (nytimes.com)
HughPickens.com writes:
North Korea announced it has detonated its first hydrogen bomb, dramatically escalating the nuclear challenge from one of the world's most isolated and dangerous states. "This is the self-defensive measure we have to take to defend our right to live in the face of the nuclear threats and blackmail by the United States and to guarantee the security of the Korean Peninsula," said a North Korean announcer on the state-run network. "With this hydrogen bomb test, we have joined the major nuclear powers." The North's announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event that South Korea said was 30 miles from the Punggye-ri site where the North has conducted nuclear tests in the past.
"North Korea's fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese, and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action," says Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. According to the NY Times, the test is bound to figure in the American presidential campaign, where several candidates have already cited the North's nuclear experimentation as evidence of American weakness — though they have not prescribed alternative strategies for choking off the program. The United States did not develop its first thermonuclear weapons — commonly known as hydrogen bombs — until 1952, seven years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons in wartime.
"North Korea's fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese, and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action," says Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. According to the NY Times, the test is bound to figure in the American presidential campaign, where several candidates have already cited the North's nuclear experimentation as evidence of American weakness — though they have not prescribed alternative strategies for choking off the program. The United States did not develop its first thermonuclear weapons — commonly known as hydrogen bombs — until 1952, seven years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons in wartime.
I guess I'm dumb, how is a pure fission warhead not thermonuclear?
Not dumb, but you could have looked it up on Wikipedia. Never the less:
- Fission works by splitting the nucleus of large atoms, such as Uranium or Plutonium. This works according to a surprisingly simply principle, called the chain reaction, which gets stronger, the more concentrated the active element is. This means that if you take a large enough mass of the right element and squeeze it together in a small enough volume (and quickly enough), then it will explode.
- Fusion works the opposite way, by fusing together light nuclei; the perhaps surprising thing is, fusion releases energy when you fuse light nuclei, but not when the nuclei are heavier - I think it is around iron that it changes. Fusion on ly happens at very high temperature and pressure, hence the name "thermonuclear". Incidentally, the process of fusion in a hydrogen bomb is set of by a fission device.
But look the subjects up - wikipedia is probably a good place to start.
+1.
North Korea doesn't want a war with America or South Korea. They know they would be wiped out in a matter of days. They (the Kim regime) want to keep living like kings, with all the food, women, drugs, and praise anyone could ever dream of.
Of course they want the status quo, and the only way to keep that is through duping the populace with this perpetual war. They are like a thug who acts badass, but not badass enough to have someone actually react (get arrested or his ass kicked).
these West German youth knew they didn't have any real power, but they knew through song they could fight against their enemies.
The songs and protests were not directed against their "enemies". They were directed against the Atlanticist government of Helmut Schmidt, and the American deployment of Pershing Missiles in Germany. Rather than "fighting" their enemies, the protestors advocated unilateral disarmament and appeasement.
Why are South Korean youth so silent when facing a similar threat?
Perhaps they have more sense.
I remember that article when published: it was quite frightening, and revealed a number of long-published lies about how H-bombs were "cleaner" than A-bombs.
One H-bomb is dirtier than one A-bomb. But if you realize the same explosive power with (multiple) A-bombs, then you get something dirtier than a single H-bomb. So, for the damage it does, the H-bomb is cleaner.
I'd like to see the hydrogen bomb small enough to cause a 5.1 earthquake
H-bombs can be designed with small yields. It is basically just a fission core with a lithium deuteride booster. You can make the booster any size you want just by putting in more LiD, which is non-radioactive, non-toxic, and requires no special shielding or handling. Early American designs held the LiD in place with Styrofoam. The hard part is building the fission core, which NK has already done in the past. Going from fission bombs to fusion bombs is not difficult, and every country that has attempted it has succeeded on the first try.
A more accurate version of thermonuclear would be thermonuclear triggered. The military just likes to shorten things.
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
A real hydrogen bomb is much more difficult to produce than an A-bomb. Experts are saying that what NK might have done is mixed a hydrogen isotope with a normal A-bomb. That would technically make it a hydrogen bomb, but not a true fusion bomb that starts a massive fusion reaction.
If true, it's quite frightening. H bombs currently require multiple small A bombs to triggter, and the bomb casing is also typically made out of non-weapons grade uranium which reflects and focuses the A-bomb blasts onto the tritium and deuterium core.
First, no, you don't need "multiple small A bombs to trigger" a fusion detonation. You need one. You can make multi-stage weapons like the Tsar Bomba, nobody seems to nowadays.
Second, you can supposedly make the tamper out of a lot of different materials (even lead) - but even if you decided to use uranium, any country with a big enough program to make an A-bomb would have a crapload of uranium metal sitting around.
to portray North Korea as being a backwards country
Because 99% of it is.
For example, national TV is broadcast in high quality wide-screen PAL on the ground and 1080i via satellite
Yes, and the less than 1% of the population who have a TV which can display it love the picture quality.
I'd love to know why this is.
Because there's only one "game" in the broadcast industry in their country, run by the government, and they get to use as much of the spectrum as they want for their TV.
It's very misleading. North Korea has access to modern tech
TV broadcasting and nukes, while both being "modern technology" are completely different kinds of technology. It's like saying "Well, they have indoor air conditioning, so they ought to be able to land a human on the Moon!"