[News] Earthquake detected in North Korea; Nuclear weapon detonated

[Livewire]

BREAKING NEWS

SEOUL, South Korea — An earthquake was detected Tuesday in North Korea just north of a site where the country has conducted nuclear tests, providing strong indication that Pyongyang has gone ahead with a highly anticipated third test. There was, however, no confirmation of the test.

The South Korean Defense Ministry, which raised its military alert level after the quake, said it was trying to determine whether it was a test. Nuclear blasts can create tremors but they are distinct from those caused by natural earthquakes.

The U.N. organization monitoring nuclear tests says it has detected an "unusual seismic event" in North Korea.

The U.S. Geological Survey as well as earthquake monitoring stations in South Korea detected an earthquake just north of a site where North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in 2009.

"There is a high possibility that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test," said Chi Heoncheol, an earthquake specialist at the government-funded Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. Chi said a magnitude 3.9 magnitude earthquake and a magnitude 4.5 earthquake were detected in the North's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

"We think it is possible it came about as a result of a nuclear test by North Korea from looking at past cases," Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference Tuesday, noting that they were still gathering information.

The United States and its allies have been on edge since North Korea said last month it will conduct its third nuclear test to protest toughened sanctions over a December rocket launch that the U.N. called a cover for a banned missile test.

North Korea's politburo vowed to continue firing "powerful long-range rockets," but a statement by state media Tuesday made no mention of a nuclear test.

North Korea's National Defense Commission said Jan. 23 that the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches. North Korea accuses Washington of leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its December rocket launch.

Last October, a spokesman from the commission told state media that the country had built a missile capable of striking the United States, but did not provide further details. A missile featured in an April 2012 military parade appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, but its authenticity has not been verified by foreign experts.

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Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

[Source


Annndd hot off the presses, we have what is probably a nuclear test by the North Koreans. As if today wasn't crazy enough as is.

Any thoughts? I'll add more info as it becomes available. Story broke at 11:00 PM EST.

According to the South Koreans & the UN, this is now a nuclear test

Source #2

[Bloodex]

Oh brilliant. At this rate, this generation won't see the world without nukes blowing up cities, I swear.

[Team Fail]

I hope Korea doesn't start trying to take aim at other countries now. Or else half the world is at their disposal.

[droomph]

On one hand, I would like to play Fallout in real life, but…

…I can't be bothered with the expensive plane trip to Asia, honestly.

[Livewire]

Ok, well now the South Koreans and UN have said that this is indeed a nuclear weapon test. Oh boy.

[Team Fail]

Originally Posted by Livewire

Ok, well now the South Koreans and UN have said that this is indeed a nuclear weapon test. Oh boy.

Well crap. Let's hope they stop. But who's to say they even will.

[QuilavaKing]

I wonder if war is inevitable at this point... I just hope no nukes are actually used in it.

[CarcharOdin]

On one hand, I doubt this will escalate into nuclear war. I think the whole concept of provoking nuclear capable nations into nuking each other into oblivion has always been scary enough to nuclear capable nations that they don't do it, which is why nuclear weapons have sometimes also been considered weapons that have deterred war instead of provoking it.

On the other hand, North Korea's a crazy effing place and it wouldn't surprise me too much if they started launching at other nations; I presume they'd start with South Korea first.

If the latter turns out to be a strong possibility, we need to start assigning priorities. droomph, you gather the Rad-Away. Team Fail, stockpile arms and ammo. I'll be in charge of hoarding the Nuka Cola.

[Syncai]

They've confirmed it was a nuclear test s:.

[Mr. X]

It's hard to say who they would target first - The US is at the top of their list, but a single nuke isn't going to cause crippling damage, even if it targets a major city.

My bets are on S. Korea or Japan.

Frankly though, I don't see why S. Korea hasn't invaded N. Korea yet. Given the current political climate, N. Korea doesn't have that many allies, and the two countries are technically still at war. S. Korea could easily justify their invasion because of N. Korea's nuclear tests, and a lot of countries would support them in this.

Also, I was just playing New Vegas, going through the Lonesome Road DLC. I finished it before seeing this thread. (I nuked both factions because **** Caesar's Legion, and I wanted the scorched power armor.)

[Went]

North wouldn't target the South as their goal is achieving the reunification. If you blow the entire country into oblivioin, there isn't much left to reunificate.

Secondly, if they do start a war, China would probably invade them in a week because the last thing they need is a nuclear war (or just a regular one) going on in their backyard. And third, if the thing goes wrong, a nuke from the US would probably end the entire thing (and wipe Pyongyang ooff the Earth) within a day.

I still think this is not going to result in a WWIII, or even in a small scale war. This is just a bluff. Because, really, have Israel or Pakistan used their nukes in any of the dozens of wars they have been involved in?

[Lightning]

Originally Posted by Mr. X

Frankly though, I don't see why S. Korea hasn't invaded N. Korea yet. Given the current political climate, N. Korea doesn't have that many allies, and the two countries are technically still at war. S. Korea could easily justify their invasion because of N. Korea's nuclear tests, and a lot of countries would support them in this.

South Korea doesn't want a war. They also aren't super eager to provoke North Korea. Yeah, they'd win, because they have a lot of powerful allies including the US if it came down to it, but it's almost surprising at this point that many South Koreans are interested in the idea of peaceful reunification, nevermind reunification through force. North Korea's pretty far gone. They have a lot of debt, a lot of starving people, and they've been so isolated that rebuilding the country will take a lot of effort and resources. South Korea will have to take on that burden if/when they reunify so it's not as easy as just marching in and taking command and there's not a whole lot of motivation to do that.

Originally Posted by Went

Secondly, if they do start a war, China would probably invade them in a week because the last thing they need is a nuclear war (or just a regular one) going on in their backyard. And third, if the thing goes wrong, a nuke from the US would probably end the entire thing (and wipe Pyongyang ooff the Earth) within a day.

China's essentially NK's only ally in the world, but China wants to be seen as a legitimate world power and it knows that association with NK isn't going to help with that. China's warned NK in the past about its nuclear testing and the fact that they're still doing it doesn't bode well for NK. If China threatens to cut off NK's resource supply, there's not much NK can do but comply because they won't have a whole lot of trade partners left after that. I don't think things would even need to escalate to war for China to put a stop to it. But time will tell if this is the last straw or if China's going to let it slide even after the last warning...

[Keiran777]

If they target anyone, they would most likely aid Bashar al-Assad in his destruction of Syria, whether that be with nukes or not. But I honestly can't see anything going well for NK even if they do ally with Russia and the Syrian Government; therefore, I don't think they'll do anything at all.

[TRIFORCE89]

What good would provoking or trying to call the bluff of other stronger countries do them? I don't get it.

If they had the capabilities of shooting one long-range, I would think they'd use it. The atrocities of what goes on inside that country to their own people, makes me think they'd have total disregard for people in other countries.

[Elendil]

They're going balls deep when it comes to this nuclear warfare stuff aren't they? I hope nothing comes out of this, cause causing earthquakes from nuclear testing is not something that can be taken lightly in the eyes of the rest of the world.

[Scarf]

Shows of military force like this make me think that NK is desperate. Which could be good or bad. It's bad because desperate people can do crazy things. It's good because it could mean they're close to breaking down completely. One hopes that there are people inside NK's government who aren't total crazies and wouldn't let NK do something totally unthinkable like actually use one of its nukes on someone.

[Fenne-kun]

I'm kind of worried that I'll wake up dead nowadays ;_; though that wouldn't probably happen. Still, it's really fascinating to see how isolated NK is to the world. They've only just introduced hamburgers! They know nothing about the newest technology, and of course - no Pokemon.

[BlazingLink]

North Korea is like a cornered dog at the minute, when instead of spending money to feed it's own people for years, it'd rather go on the offensive.

I honestly hope that this doesn't escalate to war, yes, but if it does, I'm in favor of us being in the Second Korean War.

[Reb0rn]

It's one thing when people kill eachother, but an entire other thing to also destroy the planet.
So when **** hits the fan, it'll also spray over all of nature.

Originally Posted by Fenne-kun

I'm kind of worried that I'll wake up dead nowadays ;_; though that wouldn't probably happen. Still, it's really fascinating to see how isolated NK is to the world. They've only just introduced hamburgers! They know nothing about the newest technology, and of course - no Pokemon.

[gallows humor] Don't worry about waking up dead.[/gallows humor]