US satellites spot nuclear activity

Maybe North Korea is doing a little more than sabre-rattling. They have been threatening things for a few days, however many analysts were of the opinion it was a negotiating ploy to ease US economic sanctions. Their recent attempts to launch long and short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan appear to have been along the same lines.

Still, this seems like something concrete may be about to happen.



And exactly *what* is in this for the North Koreans? If they think sanctions are bad now, how exactly will detonating a nuclear weapon improve things for them?

They surely have deterrent enough as it is, in that they could reduce Seoul to rubble with conventional weapons within 2 hours of any war breaking out between the two Koreas.

[edit on 5-10-2006 by TaupeDragon]

[edit on 5-10-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

Hasnt anybody learnt anything from the Intel debacle in Iraq ?
Boots on the ground are needed to confirm the presences of Nuclear weapons . Without someone on the ground you cant tell if the North Koreans are just moving vehicles around as a part of sabre rattling. You cant rely on technology alone this has alreadly been proven at great cost in econmic and human lives.

Great I see it now.. just like their attempt to launch an ICBM.

They press the little red button to detonate the nuke, launching them into the nuclear age. Nothing happens. The begin to dig down very confused to find what could have gone wrong.. and then it detonates and N Korea, S Korea, and Japan get hit with radiation. We should not trust high technology with these backwards fools.

Originally posted by xpert11
Hasnt anybody learnt anything from the Intel debacle in Iraq ?
Boots on the ground are needed to confirm the presences of Nuclear weapons . Without someone on the ground you cant tell if the North Koreans are just moving vehicles around as a part of sabre rattling. You cant rely on technology alone this has alreadly been proven at great cost in econmic and human lives.

we didnt have satellite photographs of weapons either in Iraq....Iraq was mostly hear say from the global intelligence community which failed all together and is now the burden of the United States.

France, Great Britain, and even russia said they had these weapons. Guess what folks...we were all wrong...and the US will flip the bill for it, but hey...I guess since we broke it we have to fix it.

Great misleading subject line.

Originally posted by 123143
Great misleading subject line.

What is misleading? they are moving materials to a test site...what does that indicate to you?

I think they may go through with this test just to provoke a reaction.

I wonder why they dont test it above ground though?

I thought that was just a treaty between the US and the former USSR?

FYI the US has been launching a WC-135C over North Korea out of Kadena in recent days, this aircraft flies over a certain area and collect air samples, they are then tested for nuclear radiation to see if such material may be present on the ground. We also have satellites that can to an extent do the same mission, but with different equipment. Also, it is still too early to say definitively that they will test a nuclear weapon (which is why the article clearly states "The official insisted that the findings were not conclusive.").

However North Korea is insisting on this course of action and if the activity at this nuclear test site grows progressively larger then we will have more definitive answers. Some key and easily recognizable equipment will have to be present if the nuclear test is to be carried out, like for example when a missile is placed on a launch pad. Once we spot those and perhaps get positive radiation readings (if we haven't already) plus other intelligence information then there will be no reason to wait for a mushroom cloud before taking action.

[edit on 5-10-2006 by WestPoint23]

Rockpuck I agree a 100% Bud. I get this image of the rocket going up and coming str8 back down..We really need to take a page from early on in vietnam...Bomb the hee-bee-jee-bees out of them. Lets bomb every military install they have and go ahead and take kim right out of the picture. We really don't need a nuclear north korea biting at our ankles.......We cant make the same mistake as vietnam here. There general said in an interview on pbs, "foolish americans, if you would have just kept bombing, we would have had to surrender" Time to bring out the big guns boys

Who knows, maybe they'll fix the problem for us.

There missles dont seem to reliable..

go ahead and test that nuke kimmy... just ensure it doesn malfunction and come town over ur own head! instead of the testing ground!

After reading this thread for a while I have noticed a misconception here. If they do test theiir nuke there will be no missile. It will be some form of warhead simply detonated underground from my understanding. Anyone with a lil more knowledge should be able to clarify this for me.

Yeah more than likely...

but still.. one can only hope!

I know the proliferation is shocking on all means,
but an arms race in asia..

China already has them..
Japans always really HAD the ability...


and if there is ever a major war between these countries.. the nukes will fly regardless.


so... where is the really bad points about them all heading towards nukes?

Originally posted by iggster
After reading this thread for a while I have noticed a misconception here. If they do test theiir nuke there will be no missile.

Just to clarify I used the "missile on a launch pad" scenario as an example of what an obvious lead up to a test can look like. I have no doubt that if North Korea goes ahead and tests a nuclear weapon that it will not involve a missile. I do not believe they have the technology (yet) to make a nuclear weapon compact enough to fit inside their long range missiles; and it would be way too risky even for them, in terms of security/environmental fallout and geopolitical/military reaction. Plus all of the activity is centered around their only potential test site, which is an underground facility.

Originally posted by GiantPanda1979
Rockpuck I agree a 100% Bud. I get this image of the rocket going up and coming str8 back down..We really need to take a page from early on in vietnam...Bomb the hee-bee-jee-bees out of them. Lets bomb every military install they have and go ahead and take kim right out of the picture. We really don't need a nuclear north korea biting at our ankles.......We cant make the same mistake as vietnam here. There general said in an interview on pbs, "foolish americans, if you would have just kept bombing, we would have had to surrender" Time to bring out the big guns boys

I've heard this a few times and no-one has yet explained what they would do about the thousands of artillery pieces pointed at Seoul. I don't think you could take them all out before they did some major damage to S.Korea.

Containment of N.Korea might have worked up to a point but once they go down the nuclear path they force our hand. We can't allow them to have nuclear weapons and yet we can't take out the weapons facilities without potentially incurring a massive loss of life.

we didnt have satellite photographs of weapons either in Iraq....Iraq was mostly hear say from the global intelligence community which failed all together and is now the burden of the United States.

France, Great Britain, and even russia said they had these weapons. Guess what folks...we were all wrong...and the US will flip the bill for it, but hey...I guess since we broke it we have to fix it.

Remember it was the cia whio mislead the worlds intelligence community over iraq and not the other way aroud

It was america that wanted war with iraq all other contries were initialy opposed

[edit on 6-10-2006 by reaper2]

Well if they detonate a Nuke there will be no denying that. How long does it take to figure out a nuke blast from a regular seizmic distrubance? Not long, I'd imagine.

If they actually are successful in doing an underground test we'll be able to pick-up the detenonation (seismically and through radiation detection) immediately. Not only that, we'll have a very good assessment of the size.

Isn't it amazing how these spy satellites are able to see underground.

I'm all for N Korea having nukes (it is there right after all) but id rather they not test them, we don't need more radioactive crap on this place we call Earth.

I bet all we have to do is before ther are set to set it off is to use high energy pulses into there electronics to distablize there equipment. Easy , done. Thats why we need to monitor it. When its about to happen use the emp's we have to take it out.

I am not really worried about N korea setting off a nuke...

I AM worried that a successful test, opens them for business...
"BUY 2 nukes, get one free" signs will be all over the black market...

That alone, would make me support an attack on N. korean installations, even if it did ruffle Chinas feathers...

IMHO even China realizes that N Korea is a volitale player, and would be best off the board... of course, that move would probably sacrifice Taiwan, since the Chinese are all about "tit for tat" trading...

But I am sure (IMO) that deals would be made, behind closed doors well before any attack on N Korea was done... and those meetings will decide the fate of the country, not the attack itself.

A very dangerous game that the troll doll is playing... he should know better than to mess with a war monger president looking for the next profit zone...

to note...

many will tell you that there is a theory (a strong one) that North Korea does not have a nuclear arsenal, not even one single nuclear weapon. all this is, is another attention seeking drama by a Kimmy Jong. nothing more.