U.S. detects signs N. Korea preparing for 2nd nuke

[Freedom_from_Chains]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING DETAILS)
The United States has detected fresh signs that North Korea may be preparing for a second nuclear test, according to U.S. media reports Monday.

U.S spy satellites have detected "suspicious vehicle movements" that could be preparations for another test near the site where North Korea conducted its first underground nuclear explosion test on Oct. 9, ABC News said, quoting unidentified U.S. officials.

NBC News also reported unidentified U.S. officials as saying U.S. spy satellites are picking up signs of truck and people movements.

The news reports came after the United States officially confirmed earlier Monday for the first time that Pyongyang carried out a nuclear test on Oct. 9 in northeastern North Korea, thus also effectively confirming Pyongyang's possession of nuclear weapons.

Since its announcement Oct. 9 that it "successfully" conducted its first nuclear test, North Korea has repeatedly said it intends to take further "physical" actions against what it calls the "hostile" U.S. stance.

Washington called the North Korean test claim itself a "provocative" act, and led efforts in the U.N. Security Council to respond, which resulted in the unanimous adoption Saturday of a binding resolution requiring U.N. members to take economic and diplomatic sanctions against Pyongyang.

Earlier Monday, the U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's office issued a brief statement saying, "Analysis of air samples collected on Oct. 11, 2006 detected radioactive debris which confirms that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of Punggye on Oct. 9, 2006."

"The explosion yield was less than a kiloton," the top U.S. intelligence office said. A kiloton nuclear explosion equals a blast of 1,000 tons of TNT.

But the office did not give any further details such as whether the test was a failure or a successful one as claimed by North Korea.





(con't) http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/16/D8KQ1QLO2.html

[babylonsister]

1. They so want to find a 'smoking gun', don't they.

Has anyone besides the US determined the first one was actually nuclear?

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. I thought I saw something yesterday saying that Russia

said it was a nuke.

[babylonsister]

8. I just googled but didn't find anything.

:shrug:

[Freedom_from_Chains]

10. Well I'm not finding anything either but I am sure I saw something

the other day. However, when I just checked Prada I find this interesting story.

North Korea faked nuclear tests to win time and diplomatic position

[babylonsister]

11. Look who said this:

It may not be the test they wanted, but there's very little doubt that it happened," says Philip Coyle, a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, and the longest-serving director of Operational Test and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Defense.

I have no doubt they sent something off, but I think they were just puffing up their chest, so to speak, to show they're a force to be reckoned with, or to at least give that allusion.
Didn't Kay say they weren't even close to having WMDs? Checking now...

Yes, he did!

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_18260.shtml

snip//

David Kay, who has been critical of the Bush administration's faulty pre-war intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, says Washington needs to proceed cautiously because serious questions remain about its ability to assess realities on the ground in Iran.

While the government in Tehran has established what he calls "a substantial foundation" for a nuclear weapons program, Kay asserts any serious threat is at least five years and possibly 10 or more years away.

"Iran does not today, and in my judgment will not for some time, pose a nuclear threat to the United States or the state of the region," Kay said.

[Webster Green]

2. Bullshit!

I don't believe the first one was a nuke.

Why? Because my government is telling me it was a nuke, and I already know that they lie about everything.

[Flabbergasted]

3. Yes Folks the US Governement has recently seen "Vehicle and

Pedestrian" movements in NK. We are unsure what is going on but we do know for sure that there is something "moving" on North Korea.

[pwb]

5. we have 7500 nukes just on our submarines.

just sayin.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

7. Really, and we're concerned about somebody getting one.

They even look like they are going to launch it and we can bury them with the push of a button.

[Psephos]

12. Might want to recheck; the actual number is less than half that

As of 2002, the United States had 3,600 nuclear warheads (Type W76) available for deployment on submarine-launched Trident I and II missiles.

Ohio-class submarines are the only sea-borne platform the U.S. employs for nuclear weapons. There are 14 such submarines on active duty in the U.S. Navy. Each of these carries 24 Trident missiles. Each Trident can carry up to eight individually-targeted W76 warheads. That multiplies out to a theoretical maximum of 2688 warheads in "ready to fire" status at any given moment. The actual number is smaller due to submaximal deployments, maintenance, submarine port time, and other operational considerations.

Under various arms-reduction treaties, roughly a third of U.S. warheads of all types are either maintained in a non-operational state, or slated to be decommissioned by 2009.

http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datab12.asp

Those are still big numbers, IMO.

Peace

[krispos42]

14. I think those warheads are 475 kilotons each, as well.

2688*475=1,276,800 kilotons or 1,276.8 megatons or 1.2768 gigatons.

Have you taken into account nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles carried by Los Angeles-class attack subs? If memory serves those can go over a thousand miles with a nuke.

[AllexxisF1]

19. Actually, if I remember correctly

Have you taken into account nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles carried by Los Angeles-class attack subs? If memory serves those can go over a thousand miles with a nuke.-Quote

Actually if I remember correctly submarine launched nuclear tipped cruise missles may have been banned in the last of the SALT treaties with the Soviet Union. Submarines are of course allowed to carry conventional warheads on cruise missles but not nuclear. This goes for land based nuclear tipped cruise missles as well.

[krispos42]

22. I don't think anybody expects Bush to follow the SALT treaty

Didn't he pull out of the ABM treaty on the basis that the entity that it was with, the Soviet Union, was dissolved and therefore invalid?

Besides, I'm sure that,under the Unitary Executive Theory, Bush will be able to creatively re-define the nuclear warheads as something else and get the Deptartment of Energy to agree with him. Perhaps they are in fact "massive civil engineering explosives", and the US is just doing some "urban renewal" in Tehran. Bush will no doubt cite some 1950's or 60'a DoE study (that heis office will creatively re-edit) about using nukes to make mountain passes in the Rockies and Appalachians and claim that's all he's doing in North Korea or Iran. Some unauthorized earthmoving, that's all.

[Megahurtz]

24. LOL Hypocrites. n/t

[Monkeyman]

6. Ya right

[Ian David]

9. What if they're just using conventional explosives and radioactive waste..

to make it LOOK like they've got a real bomb?

[Sherman A1]

13. a very good question

and one that needs to be answered before we go all goofy over this.

[enigma000]

21. Why? To jerk us around?

and they would also be jerking around China. Why do that to their only ally?

[anotherdrew]

15. gee, maybe it was small, because they WANTED it small

perhaps they're saying, "see, we not only made a nuke, we made a small one" (that will fit on our missiles or in suitcases). Our side pretending it was a failed test is smelling to me like bluster.

[Ian David]

17. It's much, much, MUCH harder to make a smaller nuke. Not likely. n/t

[Eurobabe]

16. If they are testing, has anyone seen any calculations: release atmosphere?

God dammit people, STOP THIS SHIT (nuclear testing) you are going to give everyone thyroid cancer!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

[BushOut06]

18. North Korea does NOT have nuclear weapons, END OF STORY

Why is everyone buying this? This is coming from the exact same propaganda machine that had everyone convinced that Iraq had biological and chemical weapons! We're going to trust this intelligence network now? Shit, North Korea can barely keep their electric grid online - just check the nighttime satellite photos that are readily available online. They are one of the most technologically backwards countries on earth, and can't afford jack shit. They can barely keep their armed forces clothed and equipped.

This is nothing more than saber rattling on Kim Jong Il's part. He's been doing it for years. How easy is it to take several tons of explosives, throw in some nuclear waste material, and make it look like a low-yield nuclear test?

Of course, BushCo is buying into this. I bet that he KNOWS that North Korea doesn't have any nukes, just like he knew the truth about Iraq all along. But a "nuclear" North Korea fits in much better with his plans of fear & terror.

Don't buy into it!

[AllexxisF1]

20. Sorry Dude, but your way off.

North Korea does have the bomb and it has been verified not only by us but by the Russians and Chinese. Security analysts have been in agreement that the DPRK has had weapons for quite some time (possibly past two decades).

A story like this could not be faked and fool not only our allies but Russia and China as well. It's widely agreed that they did set off a device that did not necessarily work as expected. Which would explain the possible second test that may happen soon.

[savemefromdumbya]

23. apparently it wasn't nuclear

so how can they have a second?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

25. I thought everyone (including the US) has agreed that it was now

Just that it was a wee little nuke less than a kiloton, but nuclear all the same.

[savemefromdumbya]

29. not me

[Lone_Star_Dem]

30. I see

On what do you base your denial?

[twaddler01]

26. Question is, valid or fear tactics?

I'm looking more towards fear tactics here...This administration loves fear tactics.....

[OKIsItJustMe]

27. AP: N. Korea apparently preparing nuke test

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KOREAS_NUCLEAR?SITE=TXSAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Oct 17, 6:02 PM EDT

N. Korea apparently preparing nuke test

By BO-MI LIM
Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Satellite images indicate North Korea appears to be getting ready for a second nuclear test, officials said Tuesday, as the defiant communist regime held huge rallies and proclaimed that U.N. sanctions amount to a declaration of war.

China, the North's longtime ally and biggest trading partner, warned Pyongyang not to aggravate tensions. The U.N. has condemned the Oct. 9 atomic blast, and U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill told reporters in Seoul on Tuesday that another nuclear explosion would be "a very belligerent answer" to the world.

As the White House acknowledged that the isolated nation might try a second test, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched a diplomatic drive to persuade Asian allies and Russia to intensify North Korea's isolation by enforcing sanctions that the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved on Saturday.

Concern over a second test stems partly from new satellite imagery showing increased activity around at least two other North Korean sites, a senior U.S. defense official said.

...

I wish they wouldn't play these games with George W. Bush in the White House.

[twaddler01]

28. This is starting to remind me of a history class...

something big could happen any minute with Georgie boy illegally in power.