Useful Fools

The New York Times is reporting that North Korea is now transporting spent nuclear fuel to its plutonium reprocessing plant. If not stopped in the next month or so, North Korea could produce a number of nuclear weapons - enough that they could (and probably would) sell some to terrorists!

Thus the US may be forced to destroy the plant with air strikes, and do it within the next month or two.

Fortunately the plant is above ground. Unfortunately, North Korea holds 20,000,000 people in the Seoul area of South Korea hostage, and can also send chemical weapons loaded missiles into Japan’s population centers.

Should North Korea miscalculate and launch such an attack, the United States would have no choice but to immolate North Korea with nuclear weapons.

It is probably no accident that the classified National Security Presidential Directive 17 was just leaked. It formally authorizes the use of nuclear weapons as a response to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the US or its allies. While most articles are interpreting this in light of the Iraq situation, the use of nukes is far more likely if the Korean situation spins out of control.

Likewise, one should note that recent force deployments from San Diego could go to either Korea or the Persian Gulf.

Folks, this could get very hairy, very quickly!

For miscellaneous facts about nuclear weapons and radiation, check this summary.