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North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb Is Much Bigger than Previously Thought

Rogue Valley

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North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb Is Much Bigger than Previously Thought

A new look at 2017 test data reveals an explosion 16 times as powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima.

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6/4/19
Scientists looking anew at a 2017 North Korean nuclear test discovered that the explosion was likely about two-thirds more powerful than U.S. officials previously thought. Earlier data put the yield somewhere between 30 and 300 kilotons; the U.S. intelligence community said 140 kilotons. That was already the most powerful device tested by North Korea, topping a 2016 test by about an order of magnitude. But a new look at seismological data suggests that the blast was between 148 and 328 kilotons, and probably around 250 kilotons. A 250-kiloton weapon would be about 16 times more powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima. Detonated over Washington, D.C., it would have knocked down virtually every residential structure in the downtown area and inflicted third-degree burns on everyone within a three-mile radius. Estimating the size of the bombs that North Korea tests underground is no easy matter outside of the country. The regime doesn’t release information such as the depth of the testing sites, the density of the surrounding rock and soil, etc. Outsiders are left to look at seismological sound waves of the sort that governments use to measure the size of earthquakes. (Underground nuclear bomb tests produce direct and compressed waveforms, not the wavey ones of natural earthquakes.) Scientists use data from teleseismic stations around the world that measure P, or primary, waves. These are the initial waves that occur in earthquakes when two big tectonic plates slip past each other. The P waves indicate the size of the S, or secondary, waves that knock down buildings.

The 2017 North Korean test produced an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude. But how you look at that data shapes the conclusion that you reach. The new research uses a statistical trick called a “relative waveform equalization procedure,” essentially a bit of tuning, like removing static noise from an audio signal, to enable the researchers to better compute “two very closely located explosions recorded at multiple stations,” according to the paper. Steven Gibbons, a geophysicist with the program for Array Seismology and Test-Ban-Treaty Verification at the Norwegian Seismic Array, or NORSAR, who was not affiliated with the study, told the American Geophysical Union, “They’ve modeled what the reflection would look like for different yields and depths and solved for what the signal would look like if you didn’t have to account for this returning wave. The most impressive thing in the paper for me is how similar these waveforms are. This is what gives me confidence that they’ve done a good job.”

Unhappy with the results of US/NK nuclear talks in Hanoi, Kim has apparently ordered his nuclear negotiating team to be either shot or imprisoned.

Related: North Korea Executed and Purged Top Nuclear Negotiators, South Korean Report Says
 
North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb Is Much Bigger than Previously Thought

A new look at 2017 test data reveals an explosion 16 times as powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima.

defense-large.jpg




Unhappy with the results of US/NK nuclear talks in Hanoi, Kim has apparently ordered his nuclear negotiating team to be either shot or imprisoned.

Related: North Korea Executed and Purged Top Nuclear Negotiators, South Korean Report Says

Yet we're inches from having a war with Iran, a country who was abiding by a nuke agreement, and our allies have begged Trump to keep past agreements we had with Iran.. ... While Trump's buddy NK Kim has lied, continued shooting off missiles and continued his nuke program..

Trump's going to get us into a war with Iran... Count on it.
 
Well, this is going to seem cold. But, good.

They had a choice between starving with their dignity with the rest of the NK people, or joining up with evil and benefiting. They made their choice, **** em. Hell, maybe we can get him to execute so many people he will degrade his support structure and a revolution happens.

I hate Trump, he's a ****ing idiot. But I'm not displeased with how NK is going. It'd have been super ****ing suspicious if they just had an agreement from day one. What did they agree on specifically, we going to be seeing a Trump tower in Pyongyang type of suspicious.

Fact is, NK is in the most negotiating mood I've seen in my lifetime. Is it because they think Trump is the weakest President in the history of the US? Yes. Is it because they think he'll make a big mistake and give them almost everything they want? Yes. Are they right? Probably. Would Trump ever shut up if he got a good deal? Nope. Would he earn the bragging rights if he got a good deal? Yes. Should we torpedo a deal over Kim executing members of his own administration? Definitely not.

The overall goal is to increase human rights in NK. That's a widescale goal, if all it takes for the opposition to thwart our goal is violate more human rights, we will never make progress. We either have to ignore a few executions and mass starvation during negotiations. Or commit to a war. Is the only way I see it.

The weapon we should be using on the NK is capitalism. Our capitalism corrupted China's communism and made the whole country a cheap labor resource for us, with the natural resources on discount to boot. We can do the same there.

A free trade agreement, and an exchange of debt will all but end human rights violations. They have to have something to lose, in order to fear losing it. If we give them a decade of golden prosperity, the latest technologies, and the caloric diets of an American. That will become their status quo, and humans fight awful hard to maintain their status quos when they have them in spot they like them.
 
Yet we're inches from having a war with Iran, a country who was abiding by a nuke agreement, and our allies have begged Trump to keep past agreements we had with Iran.. ... While Trump's buddy NK Kim has lied, continued shooting off missiles and continued his nuke program..

Trump's going to get us into a war with Iran... Count on it.

I wouldn't say inches, last I read, they are planning on sticking to the deal anyway and won't object to the US re entering it after Trump loses.

I mean if that is the case, that's pretty reasonable. And not at all a footing of we are close to war.
 
I wouldn't say inches, last I read, they are planning on sticking to the deal anyway and won't object to the US re entering it after Trump loses.

I mean if that is the case, that's pretty reasonable. And not at all a footing of we are close to war.

Do you think Trump and Bolton care if Iran keeps sticking with the previous deal?

The 'agreement' was penned under Obama.. That's reason enough for Trump to not care and look for a reason to go to war. He needs to minimize anything good that happened during Obama's terms. He needs to keep throwing red meat to his base who HATE Obama.

Look what they just did with Cuba... No more cruise ships, no more educational; trips.. To a country that is NO threat. You know why..
 
Do you think Trump and Bolton care if Iran keeps sticking with the previous deal?

The 'agreement' was penned under Obama.. That's reason enough for Trump to not care and look for a reason to go to war. He needs to minimize anything good that happened during Obama's terms. He needs to keep throwing red meat to his base who HATE Obama.

Look what they just did with Cuba... No more cruise ships, no more educational; trips.. To a country that is NO threat. You know why..

I think Iran can wait til 2020 to show their hand. If Trump loses, the deal is on. If he wins, they'll likely take a hardline approach.

At this point, I can't see anyone being on the fence or liable to change their mind on Trump. We have the election today, or any day in the future results will be the same.

A video could be leaked of Trump literally sucking Putin's dick and calling him master. And his the election results will still be the same.

Iran probably knows that, and is taking a wait and see approach.

It's what I would do in their position.
 
Am I really supposed to be afraid of those pathetic commies?
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