North Korea joins nuclear club

[Olorin]

I saw the headlines on Google News, so I went to the USGS website to see if there was any seismic activity in North Korea.

World map

You can see a lone event on the Korean peninsula. If you click to zoom in on the event, you eventually get to a summary page here

Given that the depth is given as 0 km, I think we can rule out the possibility that this was an earthquake.

This doesn't bode well for peace in the region.

[Memnoch]

I wonder if the US will invade NoKor? After all the chances of them having WMDs is higher than Iraq.

[shamrock_uk]

Originally posted by Memnoch: I wonder if the US will invade NoKor? After all the chances of them having WMDs is higher than Iraq.

Heh.

Link.

Looks like they've annoyed the Chinese a fair bit:

The US said the reported test was a "provocative act", while China denounced it as "brazen". In an unusually strong statement against its ally, China expressed its "resolute opposition" to the claimed test and said it "defied the universal opposition of international society".

And it looks like your impressive detective work was spot on Olorin, although apparently we're not able to tell whether it was a normal explosive or a nuclear one that caused it.

I was under the impression that the US could detect nuclear explosions however, so am a little surprised that the Pentagon says they don't know. Unless they're keeping it quiet of course.

[Iron Greasel]

Invade? You don't invade countries that *really* have nuclear weapons. The pre-emptive strike must cripple the country and its potential allies so badly that they can't retaliate.

[Timber Loftis]

He announced he'd do it, no reason to think he won't.

This is what happens when you take a short man, with the typical short man's ego complex, and give him platform high heels, a spiked hairdo, and rulership of a country.

[Olorin]

Originally posted by shamrock_uk: And it looks like your impressive detective work was spot on Olorin, although apparently we're not able to tell whether it was a normal explosive or a nuclear one that caused it. I was under the impression that the US could detect nuclear explosions however, so am a little surprised that the Pentagon says they don't know. Unless they're keeping it quiet of course.

Explosions can be distinguished from earthquakes by looking at the moment tensor (the first direction of motion at various locations around the world). Since earthquakes involve fault planes slipping past one another, in some directions, the motion is toward the seismometers, while in others, the movement is away from the seismometer. By looking at the motions from seismometers spread around the world, seismologists can determine the orientation of the fault plane from the seismic waves.

Explosions are different because the motion is outward in all directions. No matter where your seismometer is, the motion recorded will be coming toward the seismometer. During the cold war, the US Military developed a large network of seismometers located all over the world in order to detect nuclear tests and distinguish them from earthquakes. You can be sure that the Pentagon DOES know whether or not this event was an explosion.

Now, what they may not know is whether the explosion was the result of a nuclear weapon, or conventional explosives. A large enough conventional weapons explosion would look the same to seismometers as a small nuclear one.

[Arvon]

Originally posted by Memnoch: I wonder if the US will invade NoKor? After all the chances of them having WMDs is higher than Iraq.

Not to worry, the best you can hope for is the US government to send a "Strongly Worded Message".

[johnny]

Yeah, something like "you little yellow wokking bastards, this is your last warning".

[Luvian]

From North Korea's point of view, this is the best thing that could happen to them. Now that they have nukes and are crazy enough to use them, they'll be taken much more seriously and you can forget about them getting invaded too.

[Harkoliar]

good deterent for North koreas POV.

brazen, stupid, and very dangerous game they are playing but having nukes is a good deterent.

makes me wonder why not US invade before.. cuz its not profitable..