Comments on: Seoul worried about Japanese nukes: Hankyoreh

By: Nordkorea rockt-it! at bechmann.org/journal

Nordkorea rockt-it! at bechmann.org/journal — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:39:22 +0000

[...] Bei The Marmot’s Hole verfolgt man die Sorgen der südkoreanischen Regierung ob einer japanischen nuklearen Bewaffnung als Folge der Atomtests Pyöngyangs. Autor Robert Koehler hält den Verdacht, dass japanische nationalistische Kreise die Situation nur ausnutzen würden, um das Land nuklear zu bewaffnen, für kompletten Unfug: “And silly me, here I was thinking it had something to do with Pyongyang kidnapping Japanese citizens, firing missiles at and over Japan, testing nuclear weapons, smuggling drugs into Japan, pouring onto Japan venomous rhetoric and generally going out of its way to make Tokyo feel insecure.” [...]

By: bluejives

bluejives — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:56:13 +0000

The key to making an atomic bomb is knowing how to calculate critical mass. The rest is just a matter of producing a more effective and powerful explosion. Heck, you can find all that information on Wikipedia.

Calculating the critical mass is just a physics textbook exercise. That’s the easy part.

The most difficult part of constructing a nuke is the actual, nitty-gritty, trial-and-error, getting-your-hands-dirty engineering problems like enriching uranium to obtain a certain percentage of pure isotopes using either centrifuges or cascaded filters. The physical design methodology of the warhead and fuse mechanism are disciplines in their own right in the art of building the bomb. The design is also a function of the delivery system, is it going to be mounted inside a missile or carried by a bomber or a submarine?

In the indeterminate future, when the dust has settled, Korea has been unified, USFK is no longer present in Korea, and all this has become a distant memory, it would be highly fascinating to compare the hidden story of the people involved and the effort that went into the NK nuke project and compare it with that of the original Manhattan Project.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 16:29:44 +0000

Actually, I agree with Baduk on this one. Japan and South Korea probably have nukes.

(By the way, Korea had a nuclear program in the 70s and Japan had one in the 40s.)

It’s not was if we are talking about cutting edge technology. The Manahattan project was over 60 years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N....._materials

(This information was still strictly controled just a few years ago. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t a Physics professor at the University of Toronto fired in the early 1990’s for teaching how a sophomore class how to calculate critical mass and make a bomb?)

By: Hatch SZ

Hatch SZ — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:51:16 +0000

I thought I had read somewhere that Japan can have nukes ready in one month. So when they are talking about going nuclear, they are only talking about whether to have nuclear weapons now–not whether to set up some program from scratch. Everything is in place.

By: jiwonsi

jiwonsi — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 07:45:46 +0000

The Japanese Prime minister has just said that this isn’t on the agenda. They’re not going to discuss it anytime soon.

By: Zonath

Zonath — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 07:08:08 +0000

Well… Japan may as well do something with the several tons of plutonium it has lying around.

By: michael

michael — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:16:42 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rice

By: fred_random

fred_random — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:13:41 +0000

It’s as if you live next to an insane neighbor who steals money, kicks your dog and stockpiles handguns. The guy across the street has been cordial, if impersonal, and occasionally lends you a cup of sugar (though his father was an SOB and tried to take your house). Your neighbor threatens you with a shotgun. Do you immediately start screaming at the guy across the street?

Also, in response to Baduk, I note that only Americans would send Rice to Japan.

By: judge judy

judge judy — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:04:32 +0000

aigo, baduk.

if the norks do keep pushing, japan will go nuclear (if they aren’t already). i think that the timing is optimal for this. the noh-nothings will lose both koreas to china or the US.

go USA!

By: michael

michael — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:02:13 +0000

Fools die indeed. Where’ve you been Mr. Baduk?

Let’s see…which nation is more likely to fire nukes at the other…hmm…which nations have, respectively, a government of shoe-throwing hotheads and one of the world’s largest armies…hmm….