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Subject: Does Korea have the nukes yet?
FJV    12/12/2003 12:44:06 PM
Something is bothering me. Every nation that developed nukes had to run (several) nuclear tests to get the stuff working. Now I haven't seen any news item that indicate underground explosions at a nuclear level were registered in North Korea. This would be the first time I've seen a country develope nukes without tests.
 
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Final Historian    RE:Does Korea have the nukes yet?   12/12/2003 2:36:39 PM
That is most likely because they don't have many nukes to use to begin with. If they only have 2, then if they test 1 they only have one left. So they won't test a nuke until they have enough left over to pose a credible detterent.
 
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Final Historian    RE:Does Korea have the nukes yet?   12/12/2003 2:36:39 PM
That is most likely because they don't have many nukes to use to begin with. If they only have 2, then if they test 1 they only have one left. So they won't test a nuke until they have enough left over to pose a credible detterent.
 
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Final Historian    RE:Does Korea have the nukes yet?   12/12/2003 2:37:02 PM
Sorry about the double post there, and the poor spelling.
 
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Big Bad Pariah    RE:Does Korea have the nukes yet?   7/28/2004 3:42:09 AM
North Korea most likely has around 5 or 6 nuclear weapons by now. However, they are still trying to develop warheads that can be delivered via ballistic missiles. As for testing, Israel had a nuclear arsenal for nearly 20 years before it actually tested a weapon off the coast of South Africa. So North Korea doesn't really need to test a weapon at this stage.
 
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elcid    develope nukes without tests   8/27/2004 11:40:23 PM
Actually, the very first nuclear weapon used in anger was an undested design. The gun type uranium bomb used on Hiroshima was never tested. There was only enough highly enriched uranium for one weapon, so you could test it and have zero bombs or use it and have zero tests. But everyone knew it would work - the concept is so simple - and it was dropped first because it was more reliable than the implosion type weapons (which were actually developmental devices, very very unreliable - a B-29 was damaged in a test with a uncharged bomb the day before Nagasaki - conventional explosive detonation issues.] Further, NK HAS tested the implosion devices. If these work, implosion bombs will almost certainly work. Further still, there are computer programs to test bombs, and NK is probably using these. The US has some - stolen by someone too - and France not only has some but sells them (to Sweden at least). Israel probably also has them, and probably sells them.
 
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elcid    RE:Does Korea have the nukes yet?   8/27/2004 11:50:18 PM
Dr. Kahn (of Pakistan) says he saw three bombs several years ago. Certainly there is enough fuel to make more than ten weapons. US SECDEF Rumsfield thought they had operational weapons a couple years ago - and there is a "strategic missile command" armed with something - but no one knows if that something is cw, bw, nw or all three? [They operate cruise and ballistic missiles of moderate ranges]. It is assumed - probably wrongly - that NK can only make huge weapons like the US did in 1945. But this is pretty silly - no one would do it that way any more. It is not that hard to make a 1000 kg nuclear weapon. What is hard is security once you make it. Who do you trust with it? How do you control it? NK is not likely to have figured this out, and to the extent it has, it likely includes measures such as "no warheads ready to go" - like in PRC. If we raided the launch complexes we likely would get the missiles, but no warheads. If we raided the warhead production/development center, we likely would get no launchers. I say raid em both, get everything.
 
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