So i read the following in a news article and just wonder if any here believe this is a real threat? and do you believe God is going to use NK to bring down the usa? it would be a huge blow to a country that considers itself so big, and strong if a country that is considered weaker took it down. i keep thinking about Achilles heel, could this be ours?
thoughts, comments? rdg
----- If North Korea were to engage in a suicidal undertaking with the launch of one of these vehicles, the concern is that it could explode a high-altitude nuclear device over the United States, creating an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy major portions of the U.S. electrical grid system as well as the nations critical infrastructures.
These officials point to the three-stage missile North Korea launched last December that also orbited a package, which experts say could have been a test to orbit a nuclear weapon that then would be deorbited on command anywhere over the U.S. and exploded at a high altitude, creating an EMP effect.
North Koreas continuing threats of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against U.S. targets suggest to U.S. officials that its military is confident in its missiles and that its recent nuclear testing for miniaturization of a warhead to be placed on a missile similarly was successful.
These officials are looking at the prospect that upon launch of the missile and a potential nuclear payload, it would take a polar path.
The fact that U.S. military officials are expressing quiet but increasing concern that North Korea could launch an EMP attack has raised alarms over the preservation of the U.S. national grid and such critical infrastructures as communications, energy, food and water delivery and space systems.
In addition to elements within the U.S. intelligence community, retired Ambassador Henry F. Cooper has warned of the prospect of an EMP attack from North Korea.
He pointed to the recent orbiting of a North Korean satellite which weighed a few hundred pounds. When a nuclear weapon payload that fits that weight constraint is joined with its recently successful three-stage missile, he said it could be detonated above the atmosphere over any place on earth, including the U.S.
Since this attack configuration would be above the earths atmosphere, the nuclear device would not require heavy shielding to survive re-entry and when detonated it would produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could have devastating consequences, he said.
A founder of High Frontier, a non-governmental authority on missile defense issues, arms control and nuclear weapons, Cooper developed the framework for President Ronald Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative and was director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, or SDIO, during the Bush administration.
Given the news that the North Koreans have moved some of their ballistic missiles closer to the East Coast from the West Coast of the country, Cooper said this will shorten their range and flight time to hit potential targets.
North Koreas threats deserve greater weight than they have been given thus far, he said. The EMP from a high altitude burst over the U.S. could collapse the electric power grid
and within a year lead to the death of hundreds of millions of Americans for lack of food, medicine, etc.
The resulting chaos could reduce our society from its just-in-time economy for most if not all of the essentials of life to the ways of the 19th century, without local support from the agrarian society of that era, he said. In effect, it would level the playing field with the despotic North Koran economic situation an ideal asymmetric attack strategy if ever there was one.
Cooper called for an augmentation of U.S. missile defenses.
In particular, we (High Frontier) recommend our sea-based missile defense capabilities be improved as quickly as possible to be all they can be to borrow an Army phrase, he said. The Aegis BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) system has an excellent test record 26 hits out of 31 attempts, including shooting down a satellite in outer space, above the atmosphere.
In this connection, the Aegis systems which are being deployed off of Korea would be essential to intercept any nuclear package the North Koreans could push into orbit to prevent the potential for a high-altitude nuclear explosion that would have devastating EMP results on the U.S. homeland.
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