Good morning, Netizens...

 

According to the Associated Press, North Korea has said it successfully detonated a miniaturized nuclear device at a northeastern test site Tuesday, defying U.N. Security Council orders to shut down atomic activity or face more sanctions and international isolation.

 

The atomic test, North Korea's third, was conducted safely, or thus stated by North Korean state media, is ostensibly aimed at coping with "outrageous" U.S. hostility that "violently" undermines the North's peaceful, sovereign right to launch satellites.

 

North Korea makes no bones about it that they are attempting to build a missile with a nuclear warhead that would be capable of reaching the United States. North Korean state media have even gone so far as to release a macabre video of New York City falling under nuclear attack while a piano version of “We are the World” playing in the background.

 

We do not know whether this atomic test was a plutonium or a uranium device. The previous two devices were plutonium. We know that a uranium bomb, once they master it, is easier to make and they have deposits of uranium in North Korea so they can keep digging it up. If they have successfully detonated a uranium bomb and they have moved forward in the process of developing the technical capabilities to miniaturize it and put it on a war head, then in purely military terms it is troublesome, indeed.

 

What perhaps is even more troublesome is that, given North Korea's current economic sanctions which have had a negative impact on their national economy, they may be tempted, for example, to provide Iran with test data or fissile material or other information, thus expanding the number of unstable world governments with access to nuclear technology.

 

It is time to stop North Korea's atomic development in its tracks before it is too late. Of course, your opinion may differ.

 

Dave

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