North Korea detonates its most powerful nuclear device yet

[virge]

By Anna Fifield September 3 at 10:40 AM 

 

North Korea detonated their most powerful nuclear weapon yet in a test on Sunday, Sept. 3. President Trump responded to the test, calling the actions "hostile" and saying "we'll see" about a retaliatory attack on North Korea. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

 

TOKYO — North Korea sharply raised the stakes Sunday in its standoff with the rest of the world, detonating a powerful nuclear device that it claimed was a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

 

Even if Kim Jong Un’s regime is exaggerating its feats, scientific evidence showed that North Korea had crossed an important threshold and had detonated a nuclear device that was vastly more powerful than its last — and almost seven times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. 

 

Tensions had already been running high, with Kim repeatedly defying international condemnation and increasingly blunt warnings by President Trump, and continuing to launch ballistic missiles. 

 

But Sunday’s blast — North Korea’s sixth nuclear test but the first since Trump took office — could escalate those tensions to a new level. 

 

Trump sharply condemned the test, saying North Korea is “very hostile and dangerous to the United States.”

In a pair of tweets issued Sunday morning, Trump wrote: “North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. ... North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.”

 

Trump also delivered an admonishment of sorts to South Korea, saying that “appeasement with North Korea will not work” and suggesting that more severe steps must be taken to influence Kim’s regime.

 

China said Sunday that it “resolutely opposes and strongly condemns” the test, adding to denunciations from South Korea and Japan.

 

The nuclear device that North Korea tested appeared to be so large that Vipin Narang, an expert on nuclear proliferation and strategy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, called it a “city buster.”

 

“Now, with even relatively inaccurate intercontinental ballistic missile technology, they can destroy the better part of a city with this yield,” Narang said.

 

The nuclear test took place at exactly noon local time at North Korea’s Punggye-ri testing site and was recorded as a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed eight minutes later by a 4.1-magnitude earthquake that appeared to be a tunnel collapsing at the site.

 

 North Koreans watch a news report showing North Korea's nuclear test on a screen in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kyodo/via REUTERS (Kyodo/Reuters)

 

Japan immediately sent up sniffer planes to try to measure radiation levels.

 

North Korean state media said the test was carried out to determine “the accuracy and credibility” of its “H-bomb to be placed as the payload of the ICBM.” North Korea tested its intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time in July, and its second test later that month showed that the rocket could theoretically reach Denver or Chicago.

 

Those launches caused Trump to warn that if North Korea continued its provocations, it would face “fire and fury.” He later tweeted that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded.”

 

North Korean television on Sunday broadcast footage of Kim signing the order to detonate. Sunday’s test, part of the regime’s plan for building “a strategic nuclear force,” was a “perfect success,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said. 

 

Earlier Sunday, KCNA had released photos of Kim inspecting what was described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to an ICBM, the same device that appeared to have been detonated just hours later. 

 

All the components of the “H-bomb” were “homemade,” so North Korea could produce “powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants,” the KCNA quoted Kim as saying. 

 

Analysts were poring over the photos and the data Sunday, especially questioning North Korea’s claim to have produced a “two-stage thermonuclear weapon.”

 

David Albright, a nuclear weapons expert and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, was skeptical of North Korea’s claims and said the photos were probably “propaganda.”

 

But there was no doubt that North Korea was making progress. South Korean officials and independent nuclear scientists estimated the yield — the amount of energy released by the weapon — to be 100 kilotons. That would make it almost seven times as strong as the U.S. atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

 

At that level, North Korea’s nuclear device would be “very significant and destabilizing,” Albright said. “It would show that their design, whatever the specific design, has achieved a yield that is capable of destroying substantial parts of large modern cities.”

 

South Korea’s meteorological agency said Sunday’s explosion was as much as six times the size of the fifth test, in September last year, and 11 times the size of the January 2016 detonation.

 

Still, Albright doubted that North Korea had been able to make such a warhead small enough to fit onto a missile. 

 

After firing increasingly long-range missiles, including the two that can theoretically reach the U.S. mainland, into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, North Korea last week sent a missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, claiming it was capable of reaching Guam, a U.S. territory.

 

Analysts said that appeared to be a dummy run for firing an ICBM on a normal trajectory over Japan and into the Pacific, instead of straight up and straight down as with its first two tests.

 

Although governments and experts would continue to assess the technical aspects of the latest nuclear test, MIT’s Narang said the danger is significant, regardless of whether this was a lesser boosted fission device or a true hydrogen bomb, or whether North Korea had mastered the technology to deliver this accurately to a target.

 

“It really doesn’t matter now from a deterrence perspective,” he said. “Mated on the ICBM, you don’t want this thing anywhere near a city near you.” 

 

Sunday’s test caused anger across the region, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in saying he would “never allow North Korea to continue advancing its nuclear and missile technologies,” according to his national security adviser.

 

South Korean military leaders warned North Korea that they, together with their American allies, were “fully equipped” to punish North Korea.

 

But Trump later admonished the Moon government. “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!” he wrote in a third Sunday morning tweet.

 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he “would not tolerate” the nuclear test. Abe had spoken with Trump three hours before the test and said afterward that they had agreed to “increase pressure on North Korea and make it change its policies.”

 

The White House said the two leaders discussed “ongoing efforts to maximize pressure on North Korea.” Trump made the call from Air Force One, as he returned home to Washington from his visit to storm-battered Texas and Louisiana.

 

“The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of close cooperation between the United States, Japan and South Korea in the face of the growing threat from North Korea,” the White House statement said.

 

All eyes will turn to China to see whether it will be angry enough to impose true punishment on North Korea.

 

China has expressed annoyance at North Korea’s frequent ballistic missile launches, but analysts have said that Beijing probably would not take serious action unless there is another nuclear test. 

 

China’s primary concern is stability on its borders, and it has shied away from implementing sanctions that would seriously undermine the regime in Pyongyang, analysts have said. Almost all international sanctions, such as recent bans on coal and seafood exports, rely on Chinese enforcement because about 90 percent of North Korean trade goes through China.

 

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-latest-test-north-korea-detonates-its-most-powerful-nuclear-device-yet/2017/09/03/4c5202ea-90b4-11e7-8754-d478688d23b4_story.html

[knowledge-Spammer]

 

[Phantomboxe]

 

[dufus]

'N.Koreans taught from age of 3 to expect American invasion'

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/401284-korea-missile-launch-us-japan/

look like they ready us look like idiot on global stage world loosing confidence turning east not good for dollar no dollar no more war

 

[jtmulc]

The slightly good news is that they probably haven't made a fusion bomb yet.

 

The bad news is they've almost certainly perfected a boosted fission bomb, which is (a) one of the necessary components of a fusion bomb and (b) small enough to be mounted on an ICBM on its own.

[steven36]

 

Quote

 

U.S. defense chief Mattis threatens 'massive military response' if North Korea attacks

 

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Sunday threatened a “massive military response” to any attack on the United States or its allies after North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date.

 

Speaking outside the White House, Mattis said: “Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming.”

 

Mattis said Washington was not looking for the “total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea. But as I said, we have many options to do so.”

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-mattis/u-s-defense-chief-mattis-threatens-massive-military-response-if-north-korea-attacks-idUSKCN1BE134

 

 

 

Quote

 

Seoul tries to ignore Trump’s criticism: ‘They worry he’s kind of nuts,’ one observer says

 

 

 

TOKYO — South Korea’s president tried late Sunday to dismiss talk of a dispute between Seoul and Washington over how to deal with North Korea following its sixth nuclear test, after President Trump criticized the South Korean approach as “appeasement.”

Moon Jae-in’s office said that his government would continue to work towards peaceful denuclearization after tweets and actions from Trump that have left South Koreans scratching their heads at why the American president is attacking an ally at such a sensitive time.

As if to underline Seoul’s willingness to be tough, the South Korean military conducted bombing drills at dawn Monday, practicing ballistic missile strikes on the North Korean nuclear test site at Punggye-ri.

The South Korean military calculated the distance to the site and practiced having F-15 jet fighters accurately hit the target, the joint chiefs of staff said Monday morning.

“This drill was conducted to send a strong warning to North Korea for its sixth nuclear test,” it said.

 

After North Korea conducted its nuclear test Sunday, Trump tweeted: “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!”

Trump did not talk to Moon on the phone Sunday — in stark contrast to the two calls he had with Shinzo Abe, the prime minister of Japan and a leader who has proven much more willing to agree with his American counterpart. This will worsen anxieties in Seoul that Tokyo is seen as “the favorite ally,” analysts said.

Moon, who was elected in May, advocated engagement with North Korea but has also acknowledged the need for pressure to bring the Pyongyang regime back to talks. He has also come around to an agreement between his predecessor and the U.S. military to deploy an antimissile system in South Korea.

Trump’s tweet was widely reported across South Korean media, and Moon’s office responded to the tweet with a measured statement Sunday night.

“South Korea is a country that experienced a fratricidal war. The destruction of war should not be repeated in this land,” it said. “We will not give up and will continue to push for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through peaceful means working together with our allies.”

Trump’s twitter jab came amid news that the U.S. president has instructed advisers to prepare to withdraw from a free-trade agreement with South Korea — a move that is resolutely opposed by South Korea and one that would undermine the two countries’ economic alliance.

Analysts said Trump’s actions were puzzling.

“It’s strange to see Trump going after South Korea more aggressively than he’s going after China, especially since China also thinks that dialogue is central to solving this problem,” said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.

In an earlier tweet, Trump had said that China “was trying to help,” although he added it was “with little success.”

Delury said that the “passive aggressive” tone of Trump’s tweets suggested that Moon had been standing up to the American president during their previous phone calls. They spoke Friday after North Korea sent a missile over Japan.

“It sounds like Moon is saying, ‘We’re going to have to talk to these guys’ — which is true — and Trump is frustrated,” Delury said, noting that the latest tweet seemed to address Moon directly, with its “like I told you.”

Trump’s tweet was even more puzzling, analysts say, because Trump himself — both as a candidate and as president — had repeatedly suggested he would be willing to talk to North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

On the campaign trail, Trump said that he would be happy to have a burger in a boardroom with Kim, and in recent months he has called Kim a “smart cookie” and has said he would be “honored” to meet him.

South Korea’s response overall to Trump’s recent pronouncements has been much more muted than its past explosions against its protector — a sign that they know Trump is a different kind of president.

“They think they’re dealing with an unreasonable partner and complaining about it isn’t going to help — in fact, it might make it worse,” said David Straub, a former State Department official who dealt with both Koreas and recently published a book about anti-Americanism in South Korea.

 “Opinion polls show South Koreans have one of the lowest rates of regard for Trump in the world and they don’t consider him to be a reasonable person,” Straub said. “In fact, they worry he’s kind of nuts, but they still want the alliance.”

On the Sunday talk shows in the United States, there was plenty of criticism of Trump’s words.

“You gotta watch the tweets,” Michael Hayden, a retired Air Force general and former head of the National Security Agency and the CIA who has been critical of Trump, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I think we had an unforced error over the weekend when we brought up the free trade agreement with our South Korea friends on whom we have to cooperate. . . . It’s wrong on the merits, and it’s certainly not integrated into a broader approach to northeast Asia,” Hayden said. He served as NSA director from 1999 to 2005 and led the CIA from 2006 until 2009.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also questioned Trump’s decision to admonish South Korea when the nation appears to be facing a growing threat.

“We need to be working hand in hand with South Korea, and with Japan,” he said, also on CNN. “Why we would want to show divisions with South Korea makes no sense at all.”

 

Even before the nuclear test, Trump’s approach to South Korea, an ally since the end of World War II, had been under question. Analysts were asking why Trump would rip up the free-trade agreement with South Korea at all, rather than revising it, let alone at a time when a united front was needed in the region.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that “no decisions” had been made but that trade deals must be in the United States’ economic interest.

“The president has made clear that where we have trade deficits with countries, we’re going to renegotiate those deals,” Mnuchin said on Fox News.

Yoonjung Seo in Seoul and Hamza Shaban in Washington contributed to this report.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-latest-test-north-korea-detonates-its-most-powerful-nuclear-device-yet/2017/09/03/4c5202ea-90b4-11e7-8754-d478688d23b4_story.html

 

[nIGHT]

I'm starting to think the tv series Braindead is real. 

[pc71520]

6 hours ago, jtmulc said:

The slightly good news is that they probably haven't made a fusion bomb yet.

It won't take too long...

[dufus]

15 hours ago, pc71520 said:

It won't take too long.

would have been a lot quicker if hrc won

[jtmulc]

23 hours ago, jtmulc said:

The slightly good news is that they probably haven't made a fusion bomb yet.

 

16 hours ago, pc71520 said:

It won't take too long...

 

It's hard to say.  The exact details, workings, and materials of an H-Bomb are a closely guarded secret.  I recall there being a problem in the U.S. in refurbishing their arsenal because one of the materials used isn't manufactured any more and it's so classified nobody knew how to make it.  Of the nuclear powers, Pakistan has never detonated a fusion bomb and it's thought their weapons are all boosted fission devices.  India exploded a fusion bomb, but it's not clear of they ever managed to weaponize it.  Israel, as always, is a giant question mark since they refuse to confirm or deny they have any nuclear weapons at all (but everyone knows they do).

[pc71520]

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/03/did-north-korea-just-test-a-hydrogen-bomb

[nIGHT]

Detonating a test nuclear bomb even underground will kill hundreds of millions of people in a slow painful death via the radiation that will find its way to the air that will cause cancer and weird diseases.

The ITCZ or doldrum winds will spread these radiation to the whole world. 

Nuclear test should be considered an act of war already.  

The damage is already been done. 

 

[flash48]

57 minutes ago, nIGHT said:

Detonating a test nuclear bomb even underground will kill hundreds of millions of people in a slow painful death via the radiation that will find its way to the air that will cause cancer and weird diseases.

The ITCZ or doldrum winds will spread these radiation to the whole world. 

Nuclear test should be considered an act of war already.  

The damage is already been done. 

 

Yes I agree.   North Korea is using the same mountain for all of their nuke tests.  The Chinese believe one more test and the entire mountain will collapse and the radiation will go with the wind.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2109725/north-koreas-nuclear-test-site-risk-imploding-chinese

[knowledge-Spammer]

 

[knowledge-Spammer]

 

[dMog]

wonder what your thoughts would  on this subject if the threats were to be directed at Russia and people who live there

[pc71520]

Kim Jong-un won't be wiped out

as easily as

Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.

 

[knowledge-Spammer]

19 hours ago, dMog said:

wonder what your thoughts would  on this subject if the threats were to be directed at Russia and people who live there

when u say  directed at Russia  do u mean 

North Korea  have shot  missile at russia sure he have and putin said  its not a big problem

but putin not like  but not going to fight with North Korea and missile. y u may ask as we not  scared of   Kim   and his missile  or nuclear  as russia have the same things he have if not better things so its best to not fight with  the same things   like missile  or nuclear its best to talk  1st and when talks not work then rethink things  but North Korea   is not a big problem for russia but can i say its not about russia  we just wait to see whats going to happen   this is not are fight  or  china    both waits and see  if usa was smart talk with kim  and fix  be for all go wrong  

 

things people need to see but are not

nato members 29 country and not one is fighting with North Korea

29 country  cant stop one little country  u have to ask y  its a bigger problem then people think 

russia is not in nato  so not have much to say  or can do

[steven36]

Nobody done nothing yet  and most likely the USA want do nothing tell they attack  one of there allies or the USA  then it will be World  War 3 ..  Sanctions  want solve it and talking to them  want ether.  China has tried too talk too them before  it does no good these people was raised up  all there life  on how they was going go war with the USA again and how the USA is evil .

 

I dont think nothing  they say do will work . NK  and SK  have been at war  with each other  every since after World War 2 and no talking  has never stopped  it before . Now they going try too blackmail governments like they have in the past for money not too wage  war . Moon sure cant solve  he  is running around  like a chicken

 

[knowledge-Spammer]

8 hours ago, steven36 said:

Nobody done nothing yet  and most likely the USA want do nothing tell they attack  one of there allies or the USA  then it will be World  War 3 ..  Sanctions  want solve it and talking to them  want ether.  China has tried too talk too them before  it does no good these people was raised up  all there life  on how they was going go war with the USA again and how the USA is evil .

 

I dont think nothing  they say do will work . NK  and SK  have been at war  with each other  every since after World War 2 and no talking  has never stopped  it before . Now they going try too blackmail governments like they have in the past for money not too wage  war .

 

putin talks with both sides NK  and SK

 

[steven36]

1 minute ago, knowledge said:

putin talks with both sides NK  and S

 

I already  know  this because i read the news today  XI  has been talking too them all along   NK dont like being told what too do and they dont listen too no one but SK.  SK  sure cant solve it Moon is running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying  too get help  because he cant  solve it and the only answer hes got is  they need too talk too NK . And this is what got Moon in the predicament hes in now hes too easy on the North  and thinks talking  is the answer when it's not   .  Talk is cheap they going have do something besides just talk.

[knowledge-Spammer]

8 hours ago, steven36 said:

I already  know  this because i read the news today  XI  has been talking too them all along   NK dont like being told what too do and they dont listen too no one but SK.  SK  sure cant solve it Moon is running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying  too get help  because he cant  solve it and the only answer hes got is  they need too talk too NK . And this is what got Moon in the predicament hes in now hes too easy on the North  and thinks talking  is the answer when it's not   .  Talk is cheap they going have do something besides just talk.

 but its a start maybe u are right i am unsure  ? maybe all go wrong ? i cant tell whats going to happen ?

[steven36]

19 minutes ago, knowledge said:

 but its a start maybe u are right i am unsure  ? maybe all go wrong ? i cant tell whats going to happen ?

Trump  is going  talk to XI  about what move they should do next today .. Putin can try too talk too NK  it cant hurt but it dont mean it will do any good .  People  been trying  too  talk for almost 64 years and  the problem just keeps getting worse.   Old saying  is a house divided  cant stand  and this is what happens when wars are half finished they just brew new wars. Only thing that has kept a real war from breaking out over there so long  is both sides have been sitting at the border ready too fight  for  almost 64 years. Its a waste of Money too have to keep protecting that place .

[dufus]

there a big game going on sanctions ie oil will cause price spike cause problem for china and east but good for us and saudi wonder if that has to do with anything dangerous not helping put nk back to sleep

China carries out live-fire exercise fending off 'surprise' overseas attack

Published time: 6 Sep, 2017 15:46

 

The simulated battle drills near the Korean Peninsula were aimed at warding off a "surprise attack" from overseas, the military said.

 

 

 

https://www.rt.com/news/402223-china-military-exercise-overseas-attack/

[knowledge-Spammer]