Large Explosion Reported in Nothern DPRK

What is DPRK?

Democratic Peoples Repunlic of Korea

Ok, for us dummies, is that north or south?

I guess I know, I think I read there was talk of disabling the north facilities.

Let me say I am displeased.

north

A link from VOA:

link

and from reuters:

link

Well, this'll be nice for all the people within the cloud's floating power. Including possibly me, since I gather that here on the western us coast we get pollution from china.

Good grief, I can't believe it.
Not to mention, election close.
Of course, I don't know that we did it, just guessing.

Ah, I see I might have jumped to conclusions.

In which case I am madder at them, if they set it off.

Bookmarking ....

Well, yes, Osso - the US and Britain and France stopped testing in other folk's backyards - specifically the South Pacific's - a few years back - a good position in time to be disapproving of North Korea's activities.....

Not that I approve of ANYONE testing the damn things...

As longtimers on a2k know, my dad was head of photo for the bikini bomb tests.
I heard Teller speak, at, of all places, the Newman Club at UCLA, probably 1961?, never mind speak, there were just a few of us, I think, six of us including him. I took the bus...

Would that I were a swifter person with that opportunty, then.

Sure, I am emotionally against bombs. I suppose I could rack up some data against their use too.

I think bombs are stupid, multiply stupid, even the smart ones.

There is no evidence yet (other than the size of the explosion and the "mushroom cloud") that this was an atomic test. Early reports are that the cloud was very large, and that there is a crater visible from satellite surveillance systems. Very large conventional explosives also can result in "mushroom clouds", so that isn't conclusive. No reports of radioactive markers at this time.

The explosion may have been an accident, but for it to have occurred on Sept. 9th seems a bit too coincidental. The location is near the site where the DPRK has been working to develop its longest range missiles, but again that may be coincidental.

There have been indications in recent weeks that DPRK might be getting to conduct an atomic test. Most analysts have expected any such test to be conducted outside the DPRK, probably in Iran. The problem with testing inside the DPRK is that they haven't any suitable testing grounds. Initial tests are generally conducted underground to contain radiation and blast effects. Alternatively, test blasts are from towers in the middle of wide deserts where accurate measurements can be made without endangering local populations. Balloon suspended tests have been experimented with by the US, but there is some doubt that the DPRK would try that method. Underground testing would be extremely foolish in the DPRK where residuals would quickly find their way into the artesian waters. The resulting contamination would be an ecological disaster to the DPRK, and probably ROK as well. If this was a nuclear test, a lot of people will be surprised that Kim would take such a risk.

We should know pretty quickly if any nuclear test markers exist, though the information might be classified. Still, this is the sort of report that is guaranteed to get my undivided attention.

BTW, if the US carried out an attack on DPRK nuclear assets, we wouldn't likely be using a nuclear warhead. We have better and less sensitive means of destroying most targets. This explosion is either a test of some sort, or an accident. It probably is non-nuclear, but there are some aspects that are disturbing about it. Until we know what the sniffers find, all we can do is wait and listen.

Yeh, me too.

Dlowan, are you saying n. korea deserves its chance to test?
I can see that re any government needing the freedom to... relative to any other, but I don't want the others to either.

I guess I am really rad, I don't want anyone one to test.

Source

And reuters/yahoo reports a little bit later [=10 mins ago]
Source

No Siesmic Activity recorded for the area 09/07 through 09/11 ... pretty much can't set off a nuke without gettin' the attention of whole flocks of geologists. A really big conventional high-velocity explosion oughtta have registered too ... but there is no indication of one in the neighborhood for the timeframe. No mention of flash or heat signature picked up by surveilance sattelites which have no other purpose to warch for such, and no indication of radiation. DPRK has a missle-launch facillity thereabouts, as I recall. A few hundred tons of rocket fuel and oxidant would generate a huge smoke plume without creating much of a shockwave, and could cause some significant cratering if the event took a few minutes. I'm guessin' that if it was real, it was neither intentional nor was it a nuke. I suspect they've had another accident, something like the train explosion back in April.

OK.

I can't say, ok, good, this is a worry too, might be horrible for them.

Lol!

What sticks in my craw is the blithe assumption that the west and the USSR have had the right to test what they will and that nukes are safe in their hands - and that other countries are "rogues" for doing the same, and "we" have the right to bully and attack them if they try. I think that smug assumption is outrageous and racist.

Well, as we know, the USA would have been the only country to have 'em, of course, if it had had its druthers.....

That being said, apart from the USA, no country has used them in anger - though areas like mine have been used as test sites because we had no way of stopping it - (or, as in Australia and South Australia in the fifties, our government actually slavishly WELCOMED Britain in to do their atmospheric tests in my back yard - carelessly removing a whole Aboriginal community from their lands, poisoning that land forever, not even expecting Britain to clean up the site and at least stabilize the plutonium until decades, and millions of dollars, later and getting Adelaide gloriously irradiated because of a wind change when my generation were in their cots....) - and I think the more, and the more unstable the regime, the worser.

North Korea is NOT a stable and reasonable regime, I believe.

So - my feelings are complex.

There is also a small, somewhat evil, part of me that feels a little avenged that the USA and the USSR are experiencing a little of what it feels like to have other people engaged in pissing contests that could, if they go wrong, all but destroy you and the planet - and not to have a say or any power to affect or stop it - but to live in fear of it.

That is a VERY small part though....



I guess we will know soon enough whether it is a nuke.

Life is pretty horrible for the people of that country, sadly.

Sigh...

Sad to see nukes being paid for when folk are starving, quite apart from anything else.