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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57556662/north-korean-prisoner-escaped-after-23-brutal-years/

Just leaving this here.

kronk wrote:Bad things.

But worst would be the birth of Pulgasari.

I Actually corrected your typo.

 Novelist47 wrote:
Sure the North Korean have got nukes, but since their army only has tech from the 60s, I don't think their going to be a threat to international security any time soon.
Last year for example they launched a "research satellite" (*cough* test missile *cough*) into space. Only it didn't so much launch as crash and burnt into the sea 20 kms from the korean mainland.
These guys have got nukes sure, but they don't have any means of delivering them anywhere. If they try, chances are their gonna shoot themselves in the foot, and by shoot i mean nuke.

Did you miss the part where they tried again and succeeded?

 Pacific wrote:
I still think that ultimately the country will be re-united. They are a single race, they've got 2000 years of history, and what happened to them 50 years ago is an absolute travesty - I think it's still so firmly engrained of the cultural memory of Koreans that they know they will never go to war again, no matter how many 'Cheonan's' get sunk, no matter how many times the North says it will turn Seoul into a sea of fire, no matter how many joint military war games the US and SK play around with on the border. They know the cost is too high, which is why I said in the other thread that it will take the biggest of misfortunes (or accidents) for a war to take place.

Yeah, my impression (as somehow who married into a Korean family) is that the shared history and cultural identity is a much bigger factor than most Westerners understand.

 Grey Templar wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Thing is, if they somehow did sneak it over in a container, their nuclear weapon yields are so small (and given that the explosion would be occurring more or less at sea level, and probably be largely contained by the ships hull and surrounding containers) that any attempt to do so would result in a sunken cargo ship, damage to.nearby port.facilities, and not much else. Unless they packed it with an extra ton of radioactive materials, even the impact from fallout/radioactivity would be minimal. It would be a point of pride rather than an effective strike...

Actually, a poorly made Nuke will create more radiation risk than a proper one.

The less complete reaction creates more long lasting particles.


The bombs we, and most other Nuclear armed countries have, are relativly clean. They bath the immediate area in immense radiation, but after that the radiation quickly tapers off.

Compare this to a less complete reaction(or a Reactor meltdown) and you have incomplete Fission/Fusion. The particles are carried by the wind to other areas, they also stay in the environment longer and give off more radiation.

A Dirty Bomb like this is much more dangerous than a proper Nuke. And way easier to make. Its one of the dirty little secrets nobody mentions, that you can do as much or more damage with a poorly made bomb/conventional bomb and radioactive materials as you can with a proper Fission/Fusion bomb.

You really need to stop talking when you have no idea what you're talking about. There is no such thing as a "clean" nuclear bomb. In fact the US developed "salted" nuclear weapons specifically designed to contaminate an area for long periods of time after the detonation.

The average US made nuclear warhead produces high levels of radioactive contamination from fission fragments, chiefly Cs-137, Sr-90 both with 30 yr half-lives and Co-60, with a 5 year half life. These fission fragments are made in from the fissioning of Uranium 235 or Plutonium 239, regardless of whether that is in a Nuclear Reactor or a Nuclear Bomb. They both produce the same fission products. The "bathing radiation" you mention is the neutron flux, and it can also activate isotopes in the surrounding area for years to come.

Furthermore, a "dirty bomb" ie a conventional explosive surrounded by radioactive material is FAR less dangerous. The main danger from dirty bombs is the actual explosion itself, not the dose from the radioactive contaminants. Monetary issues involved with cleanup is what has the government worried, not the danger to the public health. A dirty bomb contaminates the immediate area of the explosion, while airborne nuclear weapons results in worldwide dose, in fact we all still receive a small amount from the testing done in 50's as the long lived isotopes are launched into the atmosphere for long periods of time similar to a volcano.

But either way a fission weapon is infinitely more dangerous than a dirty bomb. Seriously don't just make stuff up, learn to read before you talk.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57556662/north-korean-prisoner-escaped-after-23-brutal-years/

Just leaving this here.

Thank you for sharing this. An amazing read!

 Gentleman_Jellyfish wrote:

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57556662/north-korean-prisoner-escaped-after-23-brutal-years/

Just leaving this here.

Thank you for sharing this. An amazing read!

My pleasure, I always found this story a fascinating peek inside Best Korea, I'm also glad to hear this young man is progressing

Dayum...

That makes me wanna go imperialistic on NK.

Ratbarf wrote:
E) I'm assuming you've listened to some of the escapees? Their moral compass is so far out of whack it's scary and depressing.

.

Actually I met a few North Koreans who had escaped from the country. Remarkably normal people, who had a hard time of it but were otherwise seemed like fairly rounded human beings. I'm sure the vast majority of them are like that, and it's often just the extremes that make good TV, and therefore get the coverage.

sebster wrote:

Yeah, that's the best short term thing for South Korea. German re-unification was a nightmare, and East Germany has nothing on North Korea.

Point being no-one on Earth believes the current situation is sustainable, long term. Sooner or later North Korea will change massively from what it is today. The odds of North Korea reforming into something closer to a viable nation without massive South Korean influence and dollars is extremely remote.

Yet now Germany is once again the richest country in Europe, one of the best places in the world to live. I've heard it said that West Germany was 4 times richer than the East, while North Korea is 20 times poorer than the South - so certainly the prospects facing the two Koreas are going to be a lot tougher. Undoubtedly the generation now and possibly the next will face a lot of hardship, but I firmly believe they will both come out of it stronger in the end - they've got a common identity and shared history that goes back way, way beyond the Korean war and their forced separation. I also think they are hard working, industrious and disciplined as a race - they are a very utilitarian society, and you will get a lot of personal sacrifices being made if it means there society can pick itself up a bit better.

And like you say ultimately the current situation is untenable - let's hope when the North Korean Oligarchy/Monarchy/Despotism (or whatever you want to call it) does come crashing down, it doesn't take too many lives with it, or smash what the South has worked so hard to create over the past 50 years.

is Kim Jong Un sane? or someone else is de-facto leader of N. Korea?

Waging nuke wars (especially against more-powerful enemies) requires throughful considerations. and it needs many-many nations to recognize its cause or the wraths of those super powers will befall on the prepretators.

Wrath of the whole freaking planet really. That's how this particular story ends of the North Korea launches a nuclear strike. The entire planet, China included will roflstomp or support their roflstomping from the face of the earth. No one likes the guy who starts tossing nukes around.

It's as much an empty threat as it can be. NK launching a nuke would mean the country getting wiped of the face of the earth in the blink of an eye. As many other stated before, it's sabre -rattling. With a plastic sabre. Ye know, those things that wobble if you swing them around.

 Sigvatr wrote:
It's as much an empty threat as it can be. NK launching a nuke would mean the country getting wiped of the face of the earth in the blink of an eye. As many other stated before, it's sabre -rattling. With a plastic sabre. Ye know, those things that wobble if you swing them around.

I'd say it's more like a pre-teen with a key threatening a Hells Angels member to scratch the paint on his bike.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
It's as much an empty threat as it can be. NK launching a nuke would mean the country getting wiped of the face of the earth in the blink of an eye. As many other stated before, it's sabre -rattling. With a plastic sabre. Ye know, those things that wobble if you swing them around.

I'd say it's more like a pre-teen with a key threatening a Hells Angels member to scratch the paint on his bike.

I'm stealing this analogy. Take an exalt Walrus. Though it's even worse then that really, with China quietly shuffling over to stand with the guy on the harley, and then the rest of the Biker's gang rolls up and the kid is still talking smack, not realizing in the slightest that his ability to hang out with Dennis Rodman is going to help here, and that the chance of some serious hurt being inbound on him is increasing by the second.

Thats the real issue here I think, the little kid might actually do something stupid. Which would open up a whole can of worms.

a kid named Kim Jong Un. If he dreams of Unification, it will becomes reality in his lifetime,
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His 'country' is finally annexed to the south, and he's no longer in charge. Let him show off trench warfare training videoclip and he will lose those lines to a blitzkrieg launched from the south and far-far east hehehe.

or do you think of other possibility that Kim Jong Un will annex the Souths first?

 Lone Cat wrote:

or do you think of other possibility that Kim Jong Un will annex the Souths first?

Somehow I sincerely doubt the north will be able to annex the south.