Nukes 2.0

If you haven't heard, North Korea allegedly conducted a nuclear weapon test last weekend. The media response to this has been somewhat ambiguous. The problem, as i understand it, is that the test was underground, rather than, say, a missile test as had been anticipated. Since it was underground, of course, no one saw it, nor did satellites image it. The evidence comes from seismic readings that showed activity of a magnitude of 3.6 (or 4.2, depending on whom you ask) on the Richter scale at the time that North Korea said they would be conducting the test.

There's various things that i find interesting (and lots that is scary) about this. Prior to the time North Korea said they would test, news reports were questioning whether it would be a missile test. After the test time, we clearly knew it wasn't a missile test (presumably no missiles were observed), yet no one would acknowledge that it was indeed a nuclear weapon test. Instead it was alleged. The evidence was circumstantial; it could have perhaps been a convenient earthquake. Perhaps N. Korea fabricated the whole thing by simply pounding on the earth's mantle lightly at the right moment.

What's most distressing to me, though, is that we don't know. I mean, the civilian population. I've heard that the US has stations hard-wired to the earth's mantle to detect just such a thing and i don't doubt it. The idea that the US military would still, more than a few hours after the event, not know whether it was true, is just ludicrous. We started the nuclear age, so we should damn well be able to tell when another party is in the game.

Let's be clear about what sort of test it was. The (alleged) test was a nuclear explosion, the run-away nuclear reaction which is distinct from controlled nuclear burn that occurs in a power reactor. What N. Korea clearly did not do was to put the device, the nuclear bomb, onto the front of a missile and send the thing airborne. That would have been a missile test. It would certainly have been observed and, probably more importantly, would be perceived as much more threatening (where would the missile have been fired, for example). No matter, N. Korea conducted non-nuclear missile tests several years ago. It got everyone's panties in a wad at the time.

I'm pretty much the least well-informed person on matters of politics, nations, or history. You could probably find more data in fifteen minutes of googling, as i should be doing at this moment. But, having spoken today with someone who didn't know this occurred, i feel i must pass it along to anyone who happens to wind up here.

What my ignorance of world affairs leaves me most troubled about in regards to this whole things is simply what it means. Already the price of oil apparently will rise as a result. I don't understand why. But what are the long-term consequences? Pakistan already burst the nuclear bubble (so to speak) in 1998 and, so far, little has come of it. But i think this moves us into a new era in nuclear weapons. We're not in a cold war with one other super power. Instead, the super-powers have signed a Non-Proliferation Treaty, but the other guys just flat out disregard the rules. This is Nukes 2.0: the user makes the rules.