USA & North Korea

Bravepants

Zola. wrote: »

Part of me thinks its ironic and quite cheeky that the USA are the world police on nukes, and they are the only country to ever drop them on people.

It was not this current generation that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That's like punishing a son for his father's actions.


Nukes these days are thousands of times more powerful than Fat Man and Little Boy. Modern nukes are fusion (hydrogen bombs) not fission (atomic bombs).


I would hope that we have learned from the devastation and the horrid aftermath.

JohnRo

The cold war is a non argument and certainly not comparable in my opinion.

Then as now it isn't just the US and NK involved, it's also China and Russia, who both have a land border, what they say and potentially do about the matter will determine if things start to spiral. That should also help to keep a lid on things.

..ironic and quite cheeky that the USA are the world police..

The western propaganda on NK is suffocating at times, US invasion and regime change war plans are acted out biannually, crushing economic sanctions, 30K permanent US battle ready military personnel in a military base the size of a city mean NK has every right to feel under attack because, like many other places being subjected to full spectrum US domination and targeted for brutal regime change, they are.. in that regard at least it's no surprise they want a viable nuke deterrent.

Glen_Clark

The key to it is China because their trade is keeping North Korea afloat.
We need someone who can persuade China to stop supplying North Korea with vital stuff like oil.
Unfortunately that requires tact and diplomacy which is difficult.
Wheras shouting about threatening fire and fury is easy.

kidmugsy

sourcrates wrote: »

Kim is playing a very dangerous game of brinkmanship, against a US president who is almost, as insane as he is.

I've seen no evidence that either is insane.

kidmugsy

JohnRo wrote: »

NK has every right to feel under attack

It isn't under attack.

TrustyOven

Bravepants wrote: »

Modern nukes are fusion (hydrogen bombs) not fission (atomic bombs).
.

Actually, they are both fission and fusion.

A fission bomb (within the thermonuclear / hydrogen bomb) detonates and super heats (with X-rays) the polystyrene foam, which turns into plasma which compresses a secondary plutonium "sparkplug" which then also starts to fission. Lithium-6 deuteride fuel then compresses and heats up creating tritium and then starts a fusion reaction.

There are different types - some are fission-fusion-fusion and some are fission-fusion-fission. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon#Design_variations

jimjames

JohnRo wrote: »

I suspect most folks are expecting cooler heads to prevail.

The difference now is that cool heads are not the ones on the nuclear triggers. I guess deliberately there aren't massive layers of approval before launch can be implemented so Trump might not have many people there to stop him if he gets a bit more angry.

atush

The USA has smaller tactical nukes, which limit the size of the explosion

TrustyOven

atush wrote: »

The USA has smaller tactical nukes, which limit the size of the explosion

The problem is, any nuclear weapons release is probably likely to spiral into larger nuclear war. Reminds me of the film The Day After, when the soviets or US detonated small-yield tactical nuclear weapons above advancing tanks in Germany... and this resulted in the two sides launching all their ICBMs with the result being devastating.

WobblyDog

TrustyOven wrote: »

The problem is, any nuclear weapons release is probably likely to spiral into larger nuclear war. Reminds me of the film The Day After, when the soviets or US detonated small-yield tactical nuclear weapons above advancing tanks in Germany... and this resulted in the two sides launching all their ICBMs with the result being devastating.

I'd be very surprised if it goes nuclear. I can't imagine Trump using nuclear weapons first, the nuclear taboo is too strong for even him to break. If NK uses nukes first, the entire world will punish it for dragging the planet into a post-nuclear-taboo era. Economic sanctions seem the most likely course, but with most of the West hooked on Chinese exports, I don't see that being effective.