North Korea fires artillery on the South

[Checkmite]

American propaganda:

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272636067.shtml

followed by:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theti...ns-alaska-ratings-drop-40-percent-in-week-two

and finally:

http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com/

And then, perhaps some story about how terrorists have released another message threatening to blow up the world.

Seriously man...just give it up before you hurt yourself.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

North Korea, don't make me come over there...

You mean we aren't already "over there"?

 

[UWdude]

Seriously man...just give it up before you hurt yourself.

Don't you have some studying to do? Brush up on your Korean history, Ok? That way, you can play with the big boys with facts, not guesses.

 

[timhau]

Don't you have some studying to do? Brush up on your Korean history, Ok? That way, you can play with the big boys with facts, not guesses.

Huh huh, he said 'facts'. Huh huh.

 

[Aoidoi]

Slightly disagree with the first sentence because of what you immediately followed it with. Getting Plutonium or enough U235 is just not easy. You need a reactor for the plutonium and then you have to separate it from the fuel rods. For U235 you need a lot of good centrifuges.

Also, the one N. Korean bomb that was tested did not reach full yield. Not a dude but not nearly what they were trying to achieve.

True, it's not as easy as say, a fertilizer bomb where most of what you need has other uses and is available. But once you acquire the materials the actual technology behind making a large boom is pretty straightforward. Optimizing the design and improving on it takes some pretty serious work and tech (hence nuking the crap outta bikini atoll and such for decades), but building your classic a-bomb doesn't take a whole lotta know-how to get something functional.

Since WWII the whole has/doesn't have nukes seems to be more important than the actual effectiveness of said nukes. The US and USSR had a pissing match on building bigger bombs, but no one has yet invaded a nation that even had the simplest ones, so it's sort of an open question on their actual effectiveness in a war. Their use in defense is problematic, as nuking an enemy on your own territory tends to upset what's left of the locals. And once you nuke the invader's country the retaliation could be... unfortunate. So it's sort of a crap shoot what would happen in an actual war with NK on that front.

 

[timhau]

Define 'right on the border'. I think I can see a huge difference in training in one's own country, no matter how close to a border, and deliberately firing into another.

If you bend over backwards to equivocate until the difference between North Korea and the US disappears, that difference disappears too.

 

[332nd]

I'm not sure I've mentioned it here but my son now lives in Seoul. When I was there a couple of months ago for his wedding:

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/19574ceb8ebc4aee4.jpg[/qimg]

(aren't they cute?) we took a week vacation to see the sights. One of the most surprising things we encountered was the very strong desire for reunification. I thought it a bit naive (effect of propaganda by the SK government?) but we probably talked to someone about it almost every day. So if that sentiment is real, then getting the Chinese to get NK to the negotiating table would be a great move.

[Ot]... That pic could be a movie poster. (I say that as an actor and in the most complementary way possible.)

 

[Soapy Sam]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40329269/ns/world_news-asiapacific

I seriously doubt if the residents of this Island will ever return. North Korea disputes ownership of this Island.

Ha! Don't tell me you believed this story?

The NWO planted the explosives in the island thirty years ago.

 

[excaza]

He got his country nuclear weapons in a world that did not want him to have them. That alone is a massive achievement of great proportions, for a country as dinky, barren and backwards and war torn as North Korea. If he is "crazy", he is crazy like a fox.

Missed this before...

He most likely bought the technology from someone essentially going around with a nuclear material enrichment technology 'menu.' Same with Libya and Iran. He most likely has had help from China as well.

That doesn't really strike me as a great achievement.

 

[timhau]

He most likely bought the technology from someone essentially going around with a nuclear material enrichment technology 'menu.' Same with Libya and Iran. He most likely has had help from China as well.

That doesn't really strike me as a great achievement.

Why are you dissing his hero? That is a great achievement, considering that the man couldn't possibly have devoted much time to this particular task. After all, he writes operas, he's an accomplished film director and also the Tiger Woods of North Korea -- all this while running a country. What's more, he has to run the country pretty much on his own, because he can't expect help from the President on account of him being dead for over 15 years.

 

[excaza]

How did a country like this get a hold of nuclear weapons in the first place? Are they that easy to develop?

A pakistani scientist decided to prance around in the late 80s and early 90s selling enrichment technology.

I'm assuming China had a hand in it as well.

 

[Ranb]

A North Korean sub ran aground only a few miles from my mother's hometown and the locals are still around.

While I was on a deployment in the West Pacific on one of my subs back in the 90’s, we heard about a NK mini-sub that ran aground. The South Koreans stormed aboard and killed everyone on it then took the sub with them. A few weeks later my sub pulls in to Chinhae for a four day visit.

The next day one of our van drivers (we were not allowed to walk around the base) came back all excited claiming that he saw the captured mini-sub. A group of us heading out on liberty got into the van and a few minutes later we were driving in front of an aircraft hanger that had a soldier sitting in a chair at the entrance. Inside was a barnacle covered submarine. Not sure it was the captured mini-sub, but who knows.

Ranb

 

[UWdude]

Missed this before...

He most likely...

What, too much work to look it up, so you'll just guess? Such strong opinions, so little knowledge or desire to gain it?

That doesn't really strike me as a great achievement.

How many nations have nukes? How many want them, wish they had them?

But go on believing he is craaazzzy! that way, anything he does, you can be told why by American propaganda, and believe it, no matter how craaaazy it is, because of course, he is craaaazy!

 

[excaza]

What, too much work to look it up, so you'll just guess? Such strong opinions, so little knowledge or desire to gain it?

I'm not guessing, but there's no way to definitively prove that Iran and the A.Q. Khan network supplied NK with enrichment technology. Or if there is, it hasn't been declassified.

How many nations have nukes? How many want them, wish they had them?

But go on believing he is craaazzzy! that way, anything he does, you can be told why by American propaganda, and believe it, no matter how craaaazy it is, because of course, he is craaaazy!

Ignoring your rambling, if you want to think writing a check is an achievement, more power to you.

 

[UWdude]

I'm not guessing, but there's no way to definitively prove that Iran and the A.Q. Khan network supplied NK with enrichment technology. Or if there is, it hasn't been declassified.


Ignoring your rambling, if you want to think writing a check is an achievement, more power to you.

Let me know when you have enough money to secretly buy nuclear weapons and enrichment facilities.

 

[timhau]

Let me know when you have enough money to secretly buy nuclear weapons and enrichment facilities.

If my dad had left me a mid-sized Asian nation, I'm pretty sure I'd have that sort of money by the time I'm 60.

 

[excaza]

Let me know when you have enough money to secretly buy nuclear weapons and enrichment facilities.

Let me know when you finish flailing at your strawmen.

 

[Checkmite]

Don't you have some studying to do? Brush up on your Korean history, Ok? That way, you can play with the big boys with facts, not guesses.

"Facts"....like yours? I'll pass. I seem to be doing just fine in this thread.

Seriously...give it up.

 

[Beerina]

South Korea's president says "enormous retaliation" is needed to stop Pyongyang's incitement

 

[Checkmite]

You mean we aren't already "over there"?

Nah, we're in South Korea. We haven't brought Freedom And Democracy™ to the North yet.