So what's everyone think

[Renboy]

Just curious to know what others think about the situation with North Korea, and what should be done about it?

[millyowner]

North Korea probably won't hesitate to sell nukes to the highest bidder when and if the need arises. Of course, we have a problem with this because everyone in the world seems to hate America nowadays.

Having nukes is like being in a privileged boy's club where only the controlling superpowers have them and no one else is allowed to join unless they get special permission. Honestly, if I were in Kim Jong's shoes, I'd probably be doing the same thing. He probably can't resist the urge to challenge such an arrogant country and its allies. I read recently that many North Koreans have a strong sense of nationalism that's closely tied to a belief in their own "pure race" superiority, which only adds fuel to the flame.

North Korea has really just been sitting back and waiting for the right time since they've known for a while that they'd never get away with testing any nukes without us knowing about it. Our military has been spread thin and our population is undergoing what is practically a political 50/50 split, which is causing some political dissonance within the country. Now close to election time, we have both political parties either blaming Clinton for his choices of the past, or Bush for his choices of the present for all this. I think for Jong, now is the perfect time to bring North Korea up a few notches with their own nuclear armament; all without having to play by our rules.

I think they figure that the US might use nukes against them if we just so happen to come across a situation where we thought we absolutely had no choice. And they're right. You bet your ass we'd use them. That's why we made the rules after all right? Peace will be maintained so long as we and we alone have ultimate control. Perhaps this mindset ensures that there will be no peace?

[Mase64]

think we might have a draft..

lol

i dont want to go in

[Dallasaurora]

It amazes me how countries (any country) can insist on and enforce anti-proliferation when they have a significant resource of WMD themselves.

I certainly don't agree with what North Korea has done but then what right has the UK to tell any country not to develop their own nuclear technology when they are talking about committing over £70billion over the next 10 years to upgrade the Trident programme especially when it was reported only this week that, for example, there are about 30 or so places left across the UK in all prisons !

Are they now going to send forces into NK to create more devastation like they did in Iraq. It is this arrogance that is causing so much hatred towards the US/brits that MillyOwner spoke of.

[Tha Arsonist]

What scares me the most today is not actually getting nuked, but the North Koreans blasting a nuke 300 miles above a certain city and the EMP would probably fry every computer in that certain city.

Without computers, there's no power, there's no gas, there are no supermarkets, no security cameras, no ATMs, no TV or radio, no cellphones...it would be chaos.

[MazdaCaddi]

You are quite right about that Arson.

[Renboy]

You wouldn't have to worry about that, the radioactive fallout would take care of anyone nearby.

[Tha Arsonist]

Not if they used a hydrogen bomb, which has about 75% less fallout than A-boms...and they also bypass a lot of non-proliferation treaty mumbo jumbo.

[millyowner]

The real problem is now that North Korea has broken the ice on nukes, soon we'll hear of Iran testing one of their own followed by others. Iran is definitely watching this situation closely seeing how the West and the UN react. The cold war nightmare of Soviet suitcase bombs leveling 50 city blocks begins to haunt us once again except now we're dealing with people seemingly more desperate.

What are our options if we assume bad guys have nukes? Widespread nuclear device detection in public areas? That's not technically feasible yet. Getting to the bottom of why these people want to bomb us in the first place and try to fight the fire from its base? Most people seem to dismiss this position as wishful thinking and unrealistic; too set in their schema of how the world functions it seems.



Speaking of EMPs, I've read that in the next 10 years, our Sun will begin a peak of solar flare activity that could rival what the earth has seen since before the turn of the 20th century. Stuff like telegraph equipment of the era catching fire from the electromagnetic energy conducting in the telegraph wires from the solar storms. Almost 10 years into the 21st Century and we are now a million times more dependant on those unshielded wires suspended by wood pylons.

[Tha Arsonist]

I don't mean to get out of topic, but I've heard about that solar flare problem too. As a matter of fact, power companies and ISPs are already addressing that.

Some power companies are told by the government that within 5 years, 15% of their total power output must be done through green energy, and 30% in 10 years. So when that flare comes, chances are we'll be using some solar or hydroelectrical power, not to mention underground cabling. At least here in South Florida it's already being planned since we hate having fallen wood pylons and loose electric cables.

And Informatics wise? It's true that if you run a wire from once place to another, that flare would increase resistance in it and mess everything up, but 10 years from now, we'll all be probably using wireless networks or fiber optics.