North Korea Air Sample Shows Radiation

Apocalypse111 writes, "According to CNN.com, air samples taken over North Korea have not yet shown any radiation from the event on Monday that North Korea claims was a nuclear test. This is not definitive proof that the event was non-nuclear, as it may either have been so small and deep that it did not let any radioactive debris escape, or perhaps the North Koreans sealed the site." Furthering speculation over whether North Korea has actually exploded a nuclear device, vk38 writes to point out a (free) article in today's Wall Street Journal claiming that the blast could have been set off by exploding fertilizer (ammonium nitrate). The article points to the Texas City disaster of 1947, in which 7,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in the hold of a ship with the estimated power of 2 to 4 kilotons of TNT.
Update: 10/14 08:03 GMT by Z : The story at CNN has been updated: "A preliminary analysis of air samples from North Korea shows 'radioactive debris consistent with a North Korea nuclear test,' according to a statement from the office of the top U.S. intelligence official."

Oh my gawd

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG, they perfected Cold Fusion!

Choreography!

[Malakusen]

Maybe all the North Koreans jumped up and down at the same time.

Hardware?

[CopaceticOpus]

I think it's funny that this article is under the Hardware section. Maybe we could get Tom's Hardware to produce a 25-page full benchmark test of this nuclear explosion v. competing nuclear tests, and then we'll really get to the bottom of this.

Re:Of course they don't

[spillingvoid]

I agree. The guy lies so much that it is impossible to tell whats going on. Though I do hope he bursts in to flames tonight for no reason.

Re:Of course they don't

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I hear they blasted AC/DC's TNT in such a high volume inside that cave it made the whole place tremble.

Isn't this like a fairy tale?

[Maxo-Texas]

I have nukes!

No you don't

Boom!

That wasn't a nuke!

Boom!

Sorry, just don't believe you!

Boom!

No no.. never. That was just gas.

errrr.

Oh.. you used all your material and you are out now?

(reminds me of puss and boots with the mouse).

Re:Of course they don't

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe just his pants will.

Re:C'mon

[IcyNeko]

With the amount of crap that comes out of Kim's mouth? Not hard to imagine.

Re:Choreography!

[ackthpt]

Maybe all the North Koreans jumped up and down at the same time.

Oddly enough, external microphones on the jet picked up something that sounded like singing... "I'm so wronery..."

Team America

[WilyCoder]

In between bouts of decrying "Sooo Wone-wy", Kim was quoted as saying that news of the faked nuke test was "Inebbidable!"

a sign of the times

[tehlinux]

Now Kim Jong-il is spreading FUD...

Re:If North Korea says so...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Are we justified sanctioning and otherwise punishing it, even if it lied?

Well, consider this: if someone comes to you and says "hey, I just crapped in your locker" without laughing, what do you do? either you punch him in the face rightaway for having crapped in your locker, or you don't believe him, look inside your locker, discover no turd, then turn around and punch him in the face for being a stupid asshole. Either way, you punch him in the face.

Re:If North Korea says so...

[krell]

"what do you do? either you punch him in the face rightaway for having crapped in your locker, or you don't believe him..."

Why, I bomb the locker for a few weeks and then send in 150,000 troops. What else could I possible DO in a situation like this???

Bush Lies Again

[sanman2]

Damn that Bush -- another false claim of WMD.

Just because NKorea is also falsely claiming they're real, doesn't mean that Bush can slander them by agreeing.

F@^t in the wind

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of the line from "Shawshank Redemption" where the wardon is commenting about the prisoner's escape and says, "So, he up and vanished like a fart in the wind." :-)

Re:It doesn't matter

[BrettJB]

Now wait just a minute there! I'm darn well prepared to shed a little blood if it assures my access to quality kim chee at reasonable prices, and I don't think I'm alone in that sentiment!

In other news

[CarnivoreMan]

Sony recently confirmed its disposal of the previously mentioned exploding batteries [slashdot.org] by means of burying them in a landfill of North Korea. The landfill was stuffed to capacity and sealed off early last week. Sony reports it intends to bury the remaining defective units somewhere in Iran.

Re:Choreography!

[Y0tsuya]

I wonder if Kim Jong Il has ever watched that movie.

The Dear Leader watches everything. He is all-knowing. The Dear Leader was born on Mt. Paektu the Sacred Mountain. His birth was attended simultaneously by a double rainbow and a radiant star in the heavens. Surely that's a sign of Godhood. He is the light of our lives. We are blessed to have his benevolent gaze shining over our great nation.

Re:If North Korea says so...

[Lotek]

This falls under the time - honored Texas tradition of "He needed Punchin'."

Re:Oh my gawd

[Anonymous Coward]

Well perhaps there was a large underground laptop battery storage facility. Sony must be doing something with all those recalled batteries. ... One belw up and set off a chain reaction. :)

Re:Oh my gawd

[SnotBob]

Good for them. I'm sticking with PHP.

correction

[geekoid]

Why, I bomb the locker for a few weeks and then send in 150,000 troops to the locker next to it. What else could I possible DO in a situation like this???"

Fixed it.

They're covering for something else...

[joeme1]

They've developed a method for predicting earthquakes and made up the story about the nuclear explosions so they can keep their technology secret a little longer. It's all a big cover up.

Hello, the size of the explosion doesn't matter

[BlueCoder]

This is all about payola. The western powers and china don't want the North Koreans selling weapons grade nuclear fuel on the open market. The size of the explosion is irrelevent.

It's simply a statement in poker game. You didn't believe we could do it... Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Now pay up!

The truth is that if North Korea fuel actually was used in a terrorist attack on the US, north korea would be blown off the map and there would be raidiaon fallout in asia for at least 20 to 40 years and to a lesser extent all over the rest of the world.

China already knows the score, they will be notified of any immmenent attack and given the option of taking North Korea out themselves when the time comes in exchange for something like a hundred billion dollars. Of course south korea would be devestated and that's why we don't just do it now.

Re:Underground Nuclear Explosions

[l0cust]

IANAE (I am not an expert)..

This must be the only place on God's Earth where people post weird acronyms AND their full form along with it. I mean whats the bloody point? The whole purpose of acronyms is to save writing/typing space and time. Now I am sure some good soul started this trend when he was analyzing his post content in real time and posted the non-abbreviated form just in case someone does not 'get it'. But then people wanted to be like him because he must have been like a Geek God or something so everyone jumped on the bandwagon and started explaining their acronyms because everyone knows that this way you waste much less time than typing only the acronyms or ..you know.. normal text.

Disclaimer: IANSPTRR(I am not someone prone to random rantings)