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nuclear

North Korea Claims Successful Hydrogen Bomb Test

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On Tuesday, North Korea claimed it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.

They made the announcement about an hour after detection services around the world recorded a 5.1 seismic event off its northeast coast.

NYTimes reports:

“This is the self-defensive measure we have to take to defend our right to live in the face of the nuclear threats and blackmail by the United States and to guarantee the security of the Korean Peninsula,” a female North Korean announcer said, reading the statement on Central Television, the state-run network.

There is always some level of skepticism because of how isolated North Korea is.

However, if the claim is found to be accurate, this is its most significant threat to date.

NYTimes continues:

Outside analysts took the claim as the latest of several hard-to-verify assertions that the isolated country has made about its nuclear capabilities. But some also said that although North Korea did not yet have H-bomb capability, it might be developing and preparing to test a boosted fission bomb, more powerful than a traditional nuclear weapon.

Weapon designers can easily boost the destructive power of an atom bomb by putting at its core a small amount of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen.

Lee Sang-cheol, the top nonproliferation official at the South Korean Defense Ministry, told a forum in Seoul last month that although Mr. Kim’s hydrogen bomb boasts might be propaganda for his domestic audience, there was a “high likelihood” that North Korea might have been developing such a boosted fission weapon.

And according to a paper obtained by the South Korean news agency Yonhap last week, the Chemical, Biological and Radiological Command of the South Korean military “did not rule out the possibility” of a boosted fission bomb test by the North, although it added it “does not believe it is yet capable of directly testing hydrogen bombs.”

The Associated Press reports:

The White House says the U.S. government’s early analysis of underground activity in North Korea “is not consistent” with that country’s claim of having conducted a successful hydrogen bomb test.

 

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Iran Discovers Unexpectedly High Reserve of Uranium

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Iran is saying that it has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium, and they will start extracting it at a new facility.

Many thought the country had a relatively low supply and that they would eventually have to start importing uranium for their nuclear programs.

According to Reuters:

“I cannot announce (the level of) Iran’s uranium mine reserves. The important thing is that before aerial prospecting for uranium ores we were not too optimistic, but the new discoveries have made us confident about our reserves,” Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

This news casts some doubt on the Iran deal that has been so highly debated.

The question now is ‘What’s next?’

 

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South Korea Says North Ready to Detonate Nuke

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Global Security Newswire | North Korea is prepared to detonate a third nuclear test device should its present efforts at diplomatic engagement prove unsuccessful, South Korea’s lead intelligence official said on Tuesday (see GSN, April 18).

National Intelligence Service head Won Sei-hoon told South Korean lawmakers that “another atomic test is always possible as (North Korea) has various nuclear test sites and construction of (new) sites is under way,” Agence France-Presse reported.

“I believe North Korea will use military action such as nuclear and missile (tests) to turn the tables if its current tack of dialogue fails,” Won said.

News reports in February indicated the North was excavating a minimum of two new tunnels at the site of its previous two nuclear tests, which were conducted in 2006 and 2009.

Continue reading here

Iran Test-Fires Supersonic Anti-Warship Missile

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Iran test-fires new missile
Iran has demonstrated its capability to hit a floating target with precision guided, short range ballistic missile of the Fatah 110 (M-600) class. Photo: FARS news agency

Iran successfully test-fired a new surface-to-sea supersonic anti-warship ballistic missile. What they are calling the “Persian Gulf” is claimed to be capable of hitting warships and targets within a 300-kilometre range and has a warhead with 650 kilogram of explosives.

SatNews report:

During an operational demonstration the missile was fired at a target vessel floating in the Persian Gulf, scoring a direct hit. Accordingly, the new missile was named ‘Persian Gulf (Khalij Fars). The missile apparently uses mid-course inertial guidance (INS) and an electro-optical homing seeker to achieve terminal attack precision. Previous versions of the Fateh 110 (also designated M-600 in Syrian use) used a tipped nose, while the current model has a rounded nose presumably housing the guidance kit. As the new version demonstrated in this test, the accuracy of the new missile is far better than the 0.3 percent of the range, attributed for the earlier model of Fateh 110 which relied only on inertial guidance. This type of solid-rocket propelled missile can carry a 450 kg warhead.

Stuxnet Virus Could Cause Iranian ‘Chernobyl’

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It appears that the work of the Stuxnet Virus that targeted Iran is not finished. It is now being reported that the virus could cause a ‘Chernobyl’ disaster, or worse.

Associated Press Exclusive:

VIENNA (AP) — The control systems of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant have been penetrated by a computer worm unleashed last year, according to a foreign intelligence report that warns of a possible Chernobyl-like disaster once the site becomes fully operational.

Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, also has raised the specter of the 1986 reactor explosion in Ukraine, but suggested last week that the danger had passed.

The report, drawn up by a nation closely monitoring Iran’s nuclear program and obtained by The Associated Press, said such conclusions were premature and based on the “casual assessment” of Russian and Iran scientists at Bushehr.

With control systems disabled by the virus, the reactor would have the force of a “small nuclear bomb,” it said.

“The minimum possible damage would be a meltdown of the reactor,” it says. “However, external damage and massive environmental destruction could also occur … similar to the Chernobyl disaster.”

The virus, known as Stuxnet, has the ability to send centrifuges spinning out of control and temporarily crippled Iran’s uranium enrichment program. It is believed to have been the work of Israel or the United States, two nations convinced that Iran wants to turn nuclear fuel into weapons-grade uranium.     Continue reading . . .

Israel, US behind Stuxnet Virus

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Reports are now out about the Stuxnet virus, and it points to Israel and the United States. Tested in an Israeli nuclear facility for effectiveness, it was targeted toward Iran and slowing down their nuclear ambitions.

New York Times:

The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal.

Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military experts familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own.

Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms.

“To check out the worm, you have to know the machines,” said an American expert on nuclear intelligence. “The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out.”

Don’t Start on START Until Next Year

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by Ken Blackwell

Americans can tell when we are being lied to. We’re being lied to when Harry Reid tells us that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia is a bit of unfinished business that the Senate must ratify because it’s “urgent.” Urgent? If that had been the case, why didn’t Mr. Reid bring the measure up last summer? Or last fall?

Continue reading . . .

The WikiLeaks Vindication of George W. Bush

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by Larry Elder

The WikiLeaks de facto declassification of privileged material makes it case closed: Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction — and intended to restart his program once the heat was off.

President George W. Bush, in the 2003 State of the Union address, uttered the infamous “16 words”: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

Former Ambassador Joe Wilson sprang into action and, in an op-ed piece, in effect wrote, “No, the Cheney administration sent me to investigate the allegation — and I found it without merit.”

Put aside that Wilson’s CIA-employed wife, not the evil Vice President Dick Cheney — as Wilson implied — sent him on the African errand. Put aside that the British still stand by the intelligence on which Bush made the claim. And put aside that the anti-Bush Washington Post, in an editorial, concluded that Wilson had lied about not finding evidence to support the Iraq-in-Africa-for-uranium claim, since he told the CIA the opposite when he reported back from Africa.

Bush claimed that Iraq sought uranium, specifically “yellowcake.” What is yellowcake, and why would its presence or attempted acquisition corroborate the nearly unanimous assumption that Saddam possessed WMD?

Continue reading . . .

North Korean Artillary Hits South Korean Island

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Dozens of North Korean artillary shells have hit a South Korean island in what it says is retaliation against South Korea for firing first. While South Korea’s defense ministry official, Lee Hong-ki says “This is an intentional and planned attack… and it is clearly in violation of the armistice.”

FoxNews reports:

North Korea fired artillery barrages onto a South Korean island near their disputed border Tuesday, setting buildings alight and prompting South Korea to return fire and scramble fighter jets. At least one South Korean marine was killed and 13 wounded, the military said.

The firing came amid South Korean military drills in the area. North Korea’s military had sent a message to South Korea’s armed forces early Tuesday to demand that the drills stop, but the South continued them, said an official at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

During the drills, South Korean marines on the island shot artillery toward southern waters, away from North Korea, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of military rules.

The skirmish also came amid high tension over North Korea’s claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility and just six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent.

The artillery barrages struck the small South Korean-held island of Yeonpyeong, which houses military installations and a small civilian population in an area that has been the focus of two previous deadly battles between the Koreas.

One South Korean marine was killed, three were seriously wounded and 10 slightly wounded, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. Island residents were escaping to about 20 shelters in the island and sporadic shelling was continuing, the JCS said.

South Korea responded by firing K-9 155mm self-propelled howitzer, but the JCS official declined to say whether North Korean territory was hit.

YTN TV said several houses were on fire and shells were still falling on the island, which is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of the coast. The station broadcast pictures of thick columns of black smoke rising from the island, which has a population of 1,200 to 1,300. Screams and chaotic shouts could be heard on the video.

Risking a New Cold War

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by Patrick Buchanan

Before Republican senators vote down the strategic arms reduction treaty negotiated by the Obama administration, they should think long and hard about the consequences.

In substance, New START has none of the historic significance of Richard Nixon’s SALT I or ABM treaty, or Jimmy Carter’s SALT II, or Ronald Reagan’s INF treaty removing all intermediate-range missiles from Europe, or the strategic arms reductions treaties negotiated by George Bush I and Bush II.

The latter cut U.S. and Russian arsenals from 10,000-12,000 nuclear warheads targeted on each nation to 2,000 — a huge cut.

If Republicans could back those treaties, what is the case for rejecting New START? Barack Obama’s treaty reduces strategic warheads by 450, leaving each side 1,550.

Is this not enough to deter when we consider what the Chernobyl disaster did to the Soviet Union and what the knockdown of two buildings in New York has done to this country? Ten hydrogen bombs on the United States or Russia could set us back decades, let alone 1,000.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona is holding up the treaty until he gets more assurances that the administration will do the tests and upgrades necessary to maintain the reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons. He should receive those assurances.

Maintaining the credibility of the U.S. deterrent is a vital national interest. But does this justify holding the treaty hostage?

Continue reading . . .