It appears North Korea is preparing to detonate a nuclear weapon soon

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5712617&cKey=1114203933000

U.S. Sees Nothing Definitive on N. Korea Nuke Tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has not seen certain evidence that North Korea is preparing for a nuclear weapons test although it has seen "lots of stuff suggesting interesting activity," a senior administration official said on Friday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was responding to a Wall Street Journal Online story, which said the United States had warned China that "North Korea could be preparing for a nuclear-weapons test and asked the Chinese to urge Pyongyang to desist."

"We've seen something that suggests they are talking about (a nuclear test). There has been lots of stuff suggesting interesting activity," the official said. "As far as I can tell it's not definitive."

The official did not know of any warning to China about a possible North Korean test but said the recent activity had "raised some interest within the Bush administration."

Another U.S. official, who also requested anonymity, said North Korea could be near the point of testing a nuclear weapon.

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[lenidog]

1. Where the hell would they test one?

It isn't as if they have vast amounts of space for nuclear testing or like the French a couple unihabited pacific islands.

[benburch]

2. Drill a hole... Thats what we do.

Or simply do it in a barge a few miles out to sea.

You WANT people to know if it works, after all.

[lenidog]

5. Yes I know about that but everyone who does that usually

has thousands of square miles of desert ot do it in. I doubt they will be doing a above ground test because their neighbors especially China and Russia would have some problems over fallout.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Don't need thousands of square miles of desert to do it

The US has tested nuclear weapons less than 70 miles from Las Vegas.

Don

[leveymg]

7. Yes, but what if it doesn't?

I wouldn't want to be in charge of that operation.

[wuushew]

3. underground most likely

n/t

[leveymg]

6. An old coal mine will do. A deep one.

It won't be a very big bomb, even if it works.

But, that would use up perhaps a third of their nuclear arsenal. And, if it fizzles, the regime may go boom. They really are nuts.


:bounce:

[Career Prole]

4. "lots of stuff suggesting interesting activity". Sounds like nothin'.

That said, this administration has gone to war over less. :scared:

[Vitruvius]

9. Nuclear devices are a 60-year-old technology; everybody knows how to

make them. No surprise that N. Korea has them; they've no doubt had them for a decade. The only reason they're testing is to show everybody they've got them; in the entire history of nuclear testing there's only ONE bomb that failed to go off, and that was one of ours where we deliberately tested an almost-but-not-quite design to prove that we knew exactly where the dividing line between boom and fizzle was.

Vitruvius

P.S: Some years ago, an undergrad at my alma mater did a senior thesis in which he designed a fair-to-middling A-bomb. Just to show that ANYBODY could do it.