The SOBs did it. > N. KOREA HOLDS UNDERGROUND NUKE TEST

[Charger Aficionado]

This went-down about a half-hour ago...
It is a HUGE THREAT to our National security. In 1993ish the Korean Times Newspaper verified that a NORTH KOREAN warhead was found ON a U.S. Territory. Our gov't kept it pretty quiet.  It was Alaska, but never-the-less they were taunting us. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200303/kt2003030417272311970.htm
These bastards have been one of the HOTTEST threats on the globe for some time. Watch them screw-around and press a button on something... Anyone want Ocean-front property?


<b>North Korea says nuclear test successful</b>
By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

SEOUL, South Korea -
North Korea said Monday it had performed its first nuclear weapons test, an underground explosion that defied international warnings but was hailed by the communist nation as a "great leap forward" for its people.
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The reported test drew harsh condemnation from world powers and some warned it would destabilize the region. The
U.N. Security Council was expected to discuss North Korea on Monday, and the United States and Japan were likely to press for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on the impoverished country.

The
U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a seismic event with a preliminary magnitude-4.2 in northeastern North Korea that coincided with the announced test. But the Colorado-based agency was unable to tell whether it was the result of an atomic explosion or a natural earthquake, USGS official Bruce Presgrave said.

Australia and
South Korea said there was seismic confirmation that pointed to a nuclear test. A top Russian military officer confirmed the device tested was a nuclear weapon, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

However, Japan said it could not immediately confirm a nuclear test had been conducted.

The magnitude of the tremor could indicate the test was equivalent to the force of 550 tons of TNT, said Park Chang-soo, spokesman at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, a state-run South Korean geological institute.

That is relatively small compared to the World War II atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945, which was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.

Although North Korea has long claimed it had the capability to produce a bomb, the reported test, if confirmed, would be the first proof of its membership in a small club of nuclear-armed nations. It would dramatically alter the strategic balance of power in the Pacific region and seriously undermine global anti-proliferation efforts.

The test Monday morning came a day after the ninth anniversary of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's appointment as head of the Korean Workers' Party. Tuesday will be the 61st anniversary of the party's founding.

Condemnation of North Korea from world powers came swiftly after the test was announced.

"A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in Northeast Asia," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

"We expect the U.N. Security Council to take immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act," he added. "The United States is closely monitoring the situation and reaffirms its commitment to protect and defend our allies in the region."

China, the North's closest ally, said Beijing "resolutely opposes" the test and hopes Pyongyang will return to the six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said a nuclear test by North Korea was unpardonable, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Abe was in Seoul for a summit. Japan's top government spokesman said if confirmed, the test would pose a serious threat to the stability in the region and a provocation.

South Korean presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young said: "Our government will sternly react under the principle that it cannot tolerate the North's possession of nuclear weapons." South Korea suspended an aid shipment scheduled Tuesday to the North.

South and North Korea, which fought the 1950-53 Korean War, are divided by the world's most heavily armed border.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun was holding an emergency meeting Monday of top security officials, and Seoul was consulting with allies on intelligence about the reported test, the presidential spokesman said. Roh was also to speak later with
President Bush, his office said.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said the alert level of the military had been raised.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said the underground test was performed successfully and there was no dangerous radioactive leakage as a result.

This is "a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation," KCNA said.

"It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the ... people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability," it said. "It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."

If a nuclear test is confirmed, North Korea would be the eighth country in the world known to have atomic weapons along with the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain, India, and Pakistan.
Israel also is believed to have nuclear bombs but does not confirm it.

The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs, using plutonium from its main nuclear reactor located at Yongbyon, north of the capital Pyongyang. It insists its nuclear program is necessary to deter a U.S. invasion.

The North also has active missile programs, but it is not believed to have an atomic bomb design small and light enough to be mounted on a long-range rocket that could strike targets as far as the U.S.

The announcement sent the international community scrambling to try to verify whether it was an actual nuclear test.

Russian military monitoring systems "detected the test of a nuclear weapon in North Korea," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Lt. Gen. Vladimir Verkhovtsev as saying. "It is 100 percent (certain) that it was an underground nuclear explosion," the agency quoted Verkhovtsev, the head of a Defense Ministry department, as saying.

South Korean intelligence officials said the seismic wave had been detected in North Hamkyung province, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. It said the test was conducted at 10:36 a.m. (9:36 p.m. EDT Sunday) in Hwaderi near Kilju city on the northeast coast, citing defense officials.

An official at South Korea's seismic monitoring center confirmed a tremor was felt at the time North Korea said it conducted the test and said it was not a natural occurrence. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition his name not be used, because he was not authorized to talk about the sensitive information to the media.

Australia also said there was seismic confirmation that North Korea conducted a nuclear test.

The Japanese prime minister was skeptical as he arrived for the summit in South Korea.

"We must collect and analyze information to determine whether a test was actually held," Abe said.

The North has refused for a year to attend six-party international talks aimed at persuading it to disarm. The country pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 after U.S. officials accused it of a secret nuclear program, allegedly violating an earlier nuclear pact between Washington and Pyongyang.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was expected later Monday to be nominated as the next secretary-general of the
United Nations by the Security Council. Ban has said he would use the post, which he would assume after
Kofi Annan's term expires at the end of the year, to press for a resolution of the North Korean nuclear standoff.

A U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in July after a series of North Korean missile launches imposed limited sanctions on North Korea and demanded that the reclusive communist nation suspend its ballistic missile program — a demand the North immediately rejected.

South Korean stocks plunged Monday following North Korea's announcement of the test. The South Korean won also fell sharply. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, fell as much as 3.6 percent after the announcement but recovered some of those losses by the close of the trading session.

[AKcharger]

The "Wolfpack" of the 8th Fighter Wing stands ready to lay waste to North Korea and deliver righteous and punishing blows to the tyrannical regime in Pyongyang.

AKCharger
8th Fighter Wing
Kunsan Air Base ROK

[Shakey]

Go get 'em guys!   

[Charger_Fan]

The "Wolfpack" of the 8th Fighter Wing stands ready to lay waste to North Korea and deliver righteous and punishing blows to the tyrannical regime in Pyongyang.

AKCharger
8th Fighter Wing
Kunsan Air Base ROK

Sweet, time to lay down the SPANK!!

[Todd Wilson]

I think we need to raise the price of gasoline!!!!!!!!!!!!



Todd

[chargerboy69]

The "Wolfpack" of the 8th Fighter Wing stands ready to lay waste to North Korea and deliver righteous and punishing blows to the tyrannical regime in Pyongyang.

AKCharger
8th Fighter Wing
Kunsan Air Base ROK

Kick ass. . . Thank you for your service.

[Big Lebowski]

I think we need to raise the price of gasoline!!!!!!!!!!!!



Todd

 Actually, I think gas prices will go down after we take out that fat little commie and his nuclear weapons program. Don't forget that the camel sodomizer in charge of Iran is also building a nuclear weapon. He plans to use it on everyone who doesn't convert to the religion of peace.

[Brock Samson]

You go boys! I'm right behind ya'! 

[chargerboy69]

I think we need to raise the price of gasoline!!!!!!!!!!!!



Todd

 Actually, I think gas prices will go down after we take out that fat little commie and his nuclear weapons program. Don't forget that the camel sodomizer in charge of Iran is also building a nuclear weapon. He plans to use it on everyone who doesn't convert to the religion of peace.

No, Iran says they want nuclear power for energy purposes only. Can anyone say BS. Thier country is floating on oil. Why do they need nuclear power? Oh thats right, a bomb.

[Lowprofile]

Doug was Right...........We should have taken them out when we had the chance. Once again, we pay the price because politicians fail to act decisively, worrying more about their political survival and how they will be judged by history, rather than doing the right thing and confronting the growing evil, regardless of the costs.

[Charger Aficionado]

Mac is a PIMP

[bull]

Simple solution: take a half dozen stealth bombers over N. Korea, drop several nukes over sensitive targets and then send a team of UN experts to "investigate" N. Korea's "accidental" nuking of itself.

[Charger_Fan]

Simple solution: take a half dozen stealth bombers over N. Korea, drop several nukes over sensitive targets and then send a team of UN experts to "investigate" N. Korea's "accidental" nuking of itself.

PERFECT!

[purple70rt]

Simple solution: take a half dozen stealth bombers over N. Korea, drop several nukes over sensitive targets and then send a team of UN experts to "investigate" N. Korea's "accidental" nuking of itself.

My god, I agree with Bull....finally.

[Charger Aficionado]

This guy IS F-in Looney:

The North, meanwhile, stepped up its threats aimed at Washington, saying it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the United States acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, the Yonhap news agency reported from Beijing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear_165;_ylt=AgT4vPhvfO8F1qGhIrbqd3yCscEA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Brock Samson]

It's ok boys,.. I'm goin in...

[Arthu®]

Why doesn't that suprise me? This guy has been yelling he has them for years, I mean he has litterally been telling everybody that wanted to know that he has the weapons and now you all are actually suprised? Come on...

Arthur

[Charger Aficionado]

Why doesn't that suprise me? This guy has been yelling he has them for years, I mean he has litterally been telling everybody that wanted to know that he has the weapons and now you all are actually suprised? Come on...

I don't think that is the main point here...  It is that there is somone LOONEY enough out there to parade such a deadly device in this manner.  I'm sure several countries have clandestine/covert programs to make these, but none are THREATENING with them. 

[BigBlackDodge]

However, Japan said it could not immediately confirm a nuclear test had been conducted.

The magnitude of the tremor could indicate the test was equivalent to the force of 550 tons of TNT, said Park Chang-soo, spokesman at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, a state-run South Korean geological institute.

That is relatively small compared to the World War II atomic bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Aug. 6, 1945, which was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.


I hope they are bluffing with a TNT underground bomb. They are trying to blackmail the world with something they don't have........I hope! Time will tell.

BBD

[golden73]

Sounds like a job for the Marines...

[4402tuff4u]

All these countries that normally would not feel their cheerios are doing so cause we are currently in a mess with Iraq. We have a major pist off lion by it's tail and we really don't have the resources to do anything else about it. We should just continue the diplomatic avenue with the other 6 countries involved. We should get the whole world involved in the North Korean issue, because it does affect the whole world. China is the greatest influence on North Korea and they could diffuse this crisis. Has to be settled peacefully because the option is not pretty.

[Brock Samson]

china says they should be punished...

[bull]

china says they should be punished...

China needs to get off its keester and take its belt off for a good old fashioned beating of N. Korea. What are they waiting for?

[bull]

Like BBD said, it cannot yet be confirmed that the test was a nuke. The Japanese are going to do some tests over the alleged test site in search of any radioactivity because some believe the blast was not consistant with the seismic magnitude of a nuke. I hope it was just N. Korea setting off a crapload of TNT in an effort to make the world believe it has nuclear capabilities.


Here we go: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/10/report_official.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_test_1
http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-18/1160501046187350.xml&storylist=international
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061010-103837-5072r

And now some news sources are saying the N. Koreans just tested another "nuke" a little while ago.

[moparsuebear]

AKcharger..... I feel so safe knowing you are over there protecting us, keeping those jets flying! Take em out, take em down, do your stuff. I miss you! See you in December!!!!!  
big hugs from your Subear