North Korea Successfully Tests Nuclear Bomb
World leaders condemn NoKo’s 6th nuclear test
North Korea has successfully tested a nuke and may have triggered an earthquake. World leaders are reacting this morning.
North Korea said on Sunday it detonated a hydrogen bomb, possibly triggering an artificial earthquake and prompting immediate condemnation from its neighbors — despite the rogue regime calling the test a “perfect success.”
The blast, carried out at 12:29 p.m. local time at the Punggye-ri site, triggered a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in North Korea, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, though officials in Seoul said it was a magnitude 5.7 quake.
WATCH: North Korea conducts 6th nuclear test; underground explosion causes 6.3M quake: https://t.co/QL8TTKFJOY @IanPannell pic.twitter.com/5BxE0f0Ukp
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 3, 2017
#NorthKorea: Tremor detected in sign of possible nuclear test –
6.3-magnitude 'explosion' says USGS – #BBC https://t.co/GO3oQX1Qnz pic.twitter.com/omdbbsg6sM— Vassilios Tzounakis (@Tzounakis) September 3, 2017
Fox News continues:
. . . . The test was estimated to have a yield of 100 kilotons, meaning a blast that was four to five times more powerful than the explosion in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, a South Korean defense official told the country’s Yonhap News Agency.
. . . . Just hours before Sunday’s test, photos emerged showing the North Korean dictator inspecting a new thermonuclear warhead in a lab. This would be North Korea’s sixth nuclear test and first since September 2016.
North Korea's Rodong Sinmun: H-bomb warhead edition. "Respected Supreme Leader Comrade Kim Jong Un directs the nuclear weapons project" pic.twitter.com/FioltAifXs
— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) September 3, 2017
President Trump has responded to the test on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/904305644651634688
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/904307898213433344
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/904309527381716992
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that President Trump will meet with his national security team later today.
White House Statement on North Korea. pic.twitter.com/7Cp464JC4W
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 3, 2017
The White House said early Sunday that national security officials are closely monitoring the situation on the Korean peninsula after the latest North Korean nuclear test.
“The President and his national security team will have a meeting to discuss further later today,” spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
“We will provide updates as necessary.”
British Prime Minister Teresa May called the test “reckless” and urges further sanctions.
Theresa May has condemned the latest nuclear test by North Korea as “reckless”, saying it is more pressing than ever to look at increasing the pace of implementing sanctions on the regime, writes the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot:
The prime minister said the test, North Korea’s sixth since 2006, “poses an unacceptable further threat to the international community.”
May reiterated the call she made with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe during her trip to Japan last week for tougher action against Kim Jong-un.
“I discussed the serious and grave threat these dangerous and illegal actions present with President Abe in Japan this week and reiterate the call we jointly made for tougher action, including increasing the pace of implementation of existing sanctions and looking urgently in the UN Security Council at new measures,” she said.
“This is now even more pressing. The international community has universally condemned this test and must come together to continue to increase the pressure on North Korea’s leaders to stop their destabilising actions.”
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has responded with concerns about the proximity of Seoul, South Korea to the North Korean border. He is urging further diplomatic efforts with North Korea.
Boris Johnson has warned there “no easy military solution” to preventing North Korea escalating its nuclear aggression but said all options were still on the table for retaliation after the regime’s nuclear weapons rest.
The foreign secretary said it was not clear how a military response from the West would be possible, given the proximity of the South Korean capital Seoul to the North Korean border.
Any military challenge to Kim Jong-Un’s regime could come at huge cost to civilian lives in South Korea, Johnson said.
“It’s certainly our view that none of the military options are good,” he told reporters after North Korea announced it had tested a powerful hydrogen bomb that could be loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile
“It is of course right to say that all options are on the table, but we really don’t see an easy military solution,” he said. Were the West to hit back with force against North Korea, “they could basically vapourise” large parts of the population even with conventional weapons, Johnson warned.
“So that’s not really very easy to threaten and to deliver,” he said. “Much more productive we think is to continue with the international diplomatic effort.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also urging caution and suggests that Obama’s Iran deal is a good model for working with North Korea.
Diplomacy is the key to solving the North Korea problem, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
Merkel believes an agreement with North Korea that’s similar to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Germany helped orchestrate, could be the answer for convincing North Korea leader Kim Jong Un to disarm, Bloomberg News reported.
“We must now develop similar activities with an eye on North Korea,” Merkel said. North Korea’s recent missile tests should “spur us further to move forward with disarmament efforts.”
China, Japan condemn N. Korea's nuclear test https://t.co/Mi2qmPY3MT
— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) September 3, 2017
Chinese president, Xi Jinping, while not directly addressing the nuclear test, recommends further “dialogue, consultation and negotiation.”
A dark shadow is looming over the world after more than half a century of peace, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has said after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.
Xi made no direct reference to Sunday morning’s detonation as he addressed an annual summit of the Brics nations but told his audience that only through dialogue, consultation and negotiation could “the flame of war be put out”.
Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe, issued the following statement:
“The fact that North Korea forced through a nuclear test this time is absolutely unacceptable to our country,” Shinzo Abe said in a statement.
The statement continued:
North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programme is a threat that is more grave and urgent to the safety of our country and has entered a new stage. It is significantly hurting regional and international peace and stability. Our country lodge a strict protest against North Korea and condemns it in the strongest words.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg strongly condemns the latest nuclear test.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he “strongly condemn” the sixth nuclear test, saying it was a “flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
The UN’s head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, also issued a statement.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog said the test was “extremely regrettable” and called North Korea’s nuclear programme a “grave concern”.
Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said:
Today’s nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is an extremely regrettable act … Once again, I strongly urge the to fully implement all relevant resolutions. The agency continues to closely follow developments in the DPRK*s nuclear programme, which is a matter of grave concern.
Macron condemns North Korea nuclear test, says regime threatens global peace https://t.co/5Qtbs5D9EJ pic.twitter.com/O7EGIFb7n2
— Bloomberg (@business) September 3, 2017
(3rd LD) Seoul says will seek most powerful U.N. sanctions to 'completely' isolate N. Korea https://t.co/ODNcUBfl8Q
— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) September 3, 2017
Russia's Foreign Ministry says North Korea's latest nuclear test "deserves the strongest condemnation" https://t.co/z09UmmjhHl pic.twitter.com/l1APWL4eEy
— CNN International (@cnni) September 3, 2017
BREAKING: Putin & Xi agree to ‘appropriately deal’ with #NorthKorea nuclear test – Xinhua https://t.co/SJKGKu9ZVy pic.twitter.com/E5Xfum6Y1h
— RT (@RT_com) September 3, 2017
Mnuchin: North Korea must be cut off economically after latest nuclear test https://t.co/SJovORKS8H pic.twitter.com/MZz0FxOXlU
— The Hill (@thehill) September 3, 2017
Editor’s note [FS]: Post title updated to replace “Hydrogen” with “Nuclear” bomb. North Korea contends that it was a hydrogen bomb, but that has not yet been confirmed.
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Comments
Allegedly.
Once you have an atomic weapon, upgrading it to the so-called “hydrogen” bomb isn’t difficult. You just need to surround the a-bomb with sufficient tritium (heavy hydrogen), usually in the form of heavy water, and pack it all in a beryllium casing. And this info has been public since the 50’s.
Getting it missile sized is more problematic, though. The early US model H-Bombs weighed about 30,000 pounds and were huge. But that’s how you get the megaton yield.
Better yet….. couple the uranium fuse with a canister of lithium-6 with a little lithium-7 in for good measure and if you get the configuration just right, the neutrons from the fuse will convert the lithium to heavy hydrogen … and if constrained for a few more microseconds with a good thermal wrapper and tamper one will get a big boom.
However, miniaturization of the package is a challenge. It is hard to think the Norks are this far ahead. Remember that Great Britain set off a 1 megaton conventional nuke in the ’50’s to convince the world they had a thermonuclear capability.
I will wager I’m the only one commenting here who has a letter from the then Deputy Director of the CIA (perhaps then acting director, memory fails me) William Studeman thanking me for the briefing I gave him on the North Korean threat.
That letter plus five bucks will get you a smoothie at Starbucks. So even if I could dig out that letter I wouldn’t convert it to some format that I could post here. File it under, “Anybody can say anything on the internet.”
The point is, I’ve not only been a longtime North Korea watcher, I’ve been a longtime America watcher. As have they. We’re not going to do jack s**t. And they know it. We’ve been sending B1-B Lancers over the Korean peninsula in a “show of force.”
https://fightersweep.com/7933/b-1-lancer-bombers-show-force-korea/
They’re not nuclear capable. The NORKs know it. We are not serious. I spent my entire career working for people who aren’t serious. So, your children and grandchildren get to live with a nuclear DPRK. And Iran.
Bullies laugh at words. The longer sane people wait to end this, the higher the price will be. We pick the time or the psychopath picks the time. Chamberlain’s delay allowed Hitler time to strengthen his military. Time appears to help NK advance its weapons. Pay me now or pay me later at a higher cost. There is no easy way out. Send the PR bill to Obama.
I have a stack of letters congratulating me for attaining an Outstanding score on the Navy Physical Fitness Test (PFT). I think William Studeman’s letter may be lost among them in the boxes. Dunno. Thinking of burning all the boxes.
So now I get to live with the fact I didn’t do anything when we had the chance. Which is a kind of, “A life sentence is worse than a death sentence” sort of thing.
So now let’s parade the useless ships along the Korean coast. And the useless bombers over the peninsula. And make ourselves happy.
The NORKs get nuclear tipped missiles and I got awards for doing 7000 push ups over 20 years.
Where do I go go vomit?
It should have read, “Where do I go TO vomit.”
Trump won’t be able to deal with this like it should be dealt with because he’s too busy fighting special prosecutors and his own party, exactly as planned.
Well, the fight with the GOPe is OUR fight too – Trump is not alone. We have a duty to vote-out the GOPe hacks within our voting districts. Go to it.
Out of the box idea: South Korea should just surrender.
Let all the North Koreans come down to Seoul and take over all government jobs, eat real food, and learn the truth about the world. Opening the border between N.korea and S.korea would destroy Prince Fatty McFatFat
The norks couldn’t survive winning the war, so just let them.
you think that the NK military will allow their drones
to see the truth ?
and you think that SK who have money will stay and not go elsewhere then you’re smokin’ some bad weed.
As John McEnroe might say, “You canNOT be serious!”
Have you not thought about the purge and mass executions that followed the fall of South Vietnam? The Khmer takeover in Cambodia and the killing fields? If NK took over SK, not only would there be rivers of blood, but the NK crazies would have in their control some of the most advanced technology companies and manufacturing facilities in the world.
And as McEnroe might say: Fatboy is the Serena Williams of nuclear dictators.
Thank you Bill Clinton.
. . . and Madeleine Halfbright.
And George W Bush.
No, no, no – Bush made his attempt against NK in his Axis of Evil speech. The democrat media and the GOPe went ballistic, perceiving Bush as more of a threat than NK and Iran and Saddam Hussein.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_evil
Bush’s great failing was relying on that complete failure of a presidential advisor, Karl Rove.
USGS lists a 6.3 explosion and eight minutes later, there is a 4.1 “collapse” about .6 miles away. Wonder what that was?
In the meantime, there has been 49 earthquakes 2.5-5.3 range in Soda Springs ID in the last 24 hours. That’s about 122 miles from the Yellowstone caldera. I know, they are not related, but just noticed it when I checked the USGS site.
So, you’re saying Idaho is testing nuclear weapons too?!!!? OMG. Idaho is a whole lot closer than North Korea.
Take away the toys.
I do not believe this particular leader of NK is crazy, but both he and his regime are murderous. as are his patrons in China. They will use these weapons.
It is amazing how poorly a couple of kilotons of condemnations deters anyone.
More NORK nuclear and missile testing and more condemnation talk by world leaders. SSDD. Everybody is too afraid to do anything about it and Lil Kim knows it. I guess one of their neighbors will have to actually get nuked before the world leaders realize the mess they put themselves in.
If we believe the NK Nut might use nukes on the USA or Japan or any of our treaty partners, something has to be done before an NK nuke launch. The same problem exists that existed during and just after the Korean War. China can choose to pour over the NK border in troop numbers and armor columns that cannot be matched, NK can pour over the South Korean border and decimate the region well past the 38th parallel.
-China taking over North Korea is an option.
-China being convinced that allowing the South Korea to reunite with North Korea and pick up the industrialization and modernization with the carrot to China being a new consumer group for China’s business with the elimination of the regions major instability. That is a big sell.
All rests on the reality of the NK nuke threat first, China second. Somehow I think Trump is spending time on the phone with Kissinger.
“Merkel believes an agreement with North Korea that’s similar to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Germany helped orchestrate, could be the answer for convincing North Korea leader Kim Jong Un to disarm, Bloomberg News reported.”
Is Merkel crazy?
Not crazy, just on the other side.
I suspect that the headlines do not include the party they are going to be throwing at the DNC in celebration of the Norks getting thermonuclear weapons. Because they are on the other side too.
Your clear thinking is very refreshing.
Antifa Protests In Support of North Korea:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CringeAnarchy/comments/67uqij/antifa_neckbeards_protest_in_support_of_north/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=0n5ITlhXsko
Oh please. Not Kissinger. I read his recent op-ed about the Korean issue, in which he was pushing for a unified and neutral Korean peninsula with security guarantees by China, Russia, Japan and the US.
Fantasy Island, IMO, because he never addressed how the communist North would ever be persuaded to go along with unification. The only paths that might lead there are either (a) by destruction of the North’s regime or (b) by the North’s victory in crushing the South. China will not permit the former and the US and Japan will not permit the latter.
The whole diplomatic situation represents the very essence of stalemate. I fear that only force, by one side or the other, sad to say, will initiate the beginning of the end of the stalemate.
We need to reassign NASA to the task of bolstering NK’s self-esteem and place in history. Then this all will end.