North Korea threatens US with a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

Castiel · 9 Mar 2013 at 05:24

kwerk said:
Only a few thousand people have ever been killed by nuclear bombs, the risk is very exaggerated.

Almost quarter of a million killed in the Japanese bombings alone is hardly a few thousand.....

Participant · 9 Mar 2013 at 08:32

Castiel said:
Almost quarter of a million killed in the Japanese bombings alone is hardly a few thousand.....

Firstly, that was obvious kwerk flame bait. As a purported intelligent poster I thought you might have realised that.

Secondly, become familiar with your friend the edit button.

You'll never make mod at this rate!

estebanrey · 9 Mar 2013 at 08:46

Castiel said:
Almost quarter of a million killed in the Japanese bombings alone is hardly a few thousand.....

That's the high estimate, 200k is a more probable number.

But kwerk's post isn't stupid because of the numbers, it's stupid because of the difference in technology and proliferation. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were comparable to explosions of about 15 to 20 kilotons of TNT, the thermonuclear weapons of today are much more powerful. An average U.S. weapon would explode with a yield of 300 kilotons of TNT (and they now have thousands of them).

4T5 · 9 Mar 2013 at 08:52

Anybody else thinking "Wargames"

DailyGeek · 9 Mar 2013 at 08:59

4T5 said:
Anybody else thinking "Wargames"

As long as it doesn't end up more like 'Threads'

Ðudeth · 9 Mar 2013 at 09:47

lol, all this from a country that had a dead leader still signing off documents and laws 10 years after he died!

Castiel · 9 Mar 2013 at 10:14

Robbie G said:
Firstly, that was obvious kwerk flame bait. As a purported intelligent poster I thought you might have realised that.

Secondly, become familiar with your friend the edit button.

You'll never make mod at this rate!

Castiel · 9 Mar 2013 at 10:19

estebanrey said:
That's the high estimate, 200k is a more probable number.

But kwerk's post isn't stupid because of the numbers, it's stupid because of the difference in technology and proliferation. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were comparable to explosions of about 15 to 20 kilotons of TNT, the thermonuclear weapons of today are much more powerful. An average U.S. weapon would explode with a yield of 300 kilotons of TNT (and they now have thousands of them).

US State Dept for Energy put the estimated figure for casualties attributed to the Hiroshima Bombing alone as being near to or exceeding 200k by 1950 alone...saying 'almost quarter of a million' is not so high, it is being conservative when considering both bombings and the resulting short and long term casualties attributed to them.

http://web.archive.org/web/20101112134708/http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm

Cold_And_Miserable · 9 Mar 2013 at 10:23

What would happen to Samsung if the South is attacked with everything in the KPA arsenal?

Wiki says the KPA could have thermonuclear and EMP weapons.

n111ck · 9 Mar 2013 at 10:31

PanMaster said:
What would happen to Samsung if the South is attacked with everything in the KPA arsenal?

Wiki says the KPA could have thermonuclear and EMP weapons.

They would stop copying Apple and invent the wheel again!!

youdsy · 9 Mar 2013 at 11:41

McGray said:
Man U v Liverpool is probably the biggest rivalry in English football.

to Liverpool and its fans yeh.

they like to pretend their in contention for the title.

heard they award themselves a little trophy if they beat UTD

KautoStar · 9 Mar 2013 at 12:31

Love how this thread swings from thermonuclear war to Liverpool v Man Utd with a kwerk troll post thrown in, that somehow still managed to hook a few.

xxalxx · 9 Mar 2013 at 13:00

^ It was all the Nazi's fault!

Right that's Godwin's law fulfilled as well

Xordium · 9 Mar 2013 at 14:46

Castiel said:
Don't forget power projection, strategic influence, forward deployed presence, doesn't need flight or operational permission from a third party, independant authority and operating capability, diplomatic authority (its the big stick bit), and generally if you are a relatively small nation with very little naval or air superiority then a Carrier Battlegroup is pretty darned intimidating.

Yer well I figured I a longer explanation would be wasted considering the comments before. We missed the biggest of course though. They USN and USMC would politically have to be involved both from top down and at their request to justify expenditure and status. Don't know how high you went up the chain but this never ceased to amaze me.

Iraklis F.C. · 9 Mar 2013 at 16:19

I can only feel sorry for the poor NK chaps, the sky will literally fall on their heads if they stage a nuclear attack...from starvation to radiation....

covenantuk · 10 Mar 2013 at 12:40

estebanrey said:
Not much use unless you can launch it though

They can.

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

Woden · 10 Mar 2013 at 13:02

covenantuk said:
They can.

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

A 1/3 sucess rate? There is also a huge difference between being able to put one third of your satellites into orbit and being able to strike a target 4000 miles away.

englishpremier · 10 Mar 2013 at 13:11

dacads said:
Didn't they also threaten to wipe out South Korea?

The south also said that North Korea would be removed from the face of the earth.

They're both as bad as each other in that regard.

Orionaut · 10 Mar 2013 at 13:21

Woden said:
A 1/3 sucess rate? There is also a huge difference between being able to put one third of your satellites into orbit and being able to strike a target 4000 miles away.

The DPRK is having better success with their rocket program than the US did when they first started out! Though the DPRK is an easy target for ridicule it would be most unwise to underestimate them!

Dis86 · 10 Mar 2013 at 13:55

Orionaut said:
The DPRK is having better success with their rocket program than the US did when they first started out! Though the DPRK is an easy target for ridicule it would be most unwise to underestimate them!

Yes but they have 50 years worth of other peoples work to take ideas from...