re: North Korea threatens EMP, nuke attack on U.S.

One Second After does a great job of describing the effects of a successful EMP attack on the US. Newt Gingrich wrote the forward to the book.

Cliff notes version of the book: 90% of our population would be dead within a year.

The US Government did a major study on the effects of an EMP attack after 9/11. It wasn't pretty.

Report by the EMP Commission

One of the main things about EMP is that it's considered a "poor mans" nuke attack. You only need 1 missile and warhead to really screw everything up.

There is NO WAY we should let the North Koreans obtain this ability.

This is from the opening page of the report:

Several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the
United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse
(EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a
high level of sophistication.

EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of
catastrophic consequences. EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of
sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical
infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of US society, as well as to the ability of the
United States and Western nations to project influence and military power.

The common element that can produce such an impact from EMP is primarily
electronics, so pervasive in all aspects of our society and military, coupled through
critical infrastructures. Our vulnerability is increasing daily as our use of and dependence
on electronics continues to grow. The impact of EMP is asymmetric in relation to
potential protagonists who are not as dependent on modern electronics.

The current vulnerability of our critical infrastructures can both invite and reward
attack if not corrected. Correction is feasible and well within the Nation's means and
resources to accomplish.

If this happens, we may lose our lights for a while but The last "victory" North Korea will ever have. I don't even like thinking of how much they would suffer

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Personally I think POTUS should threaten to destroy their miserable little country if needed.

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Nope. China's problem.

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What's unforgivable is we've had 15 years to insulate ourselves and we haven't done it.

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We have a much more effective missile defense system than anyone publicly leads on.

People would be killing each other within a week for food if they didnt have grocery stores, functional vehicles or an iphone

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If this happens, we may lose our lights for a while but The last "victory" North Korea will ever have. I don't even like thinking of how much they would suffer

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and emp pulse would devastate the economy of the US for a decade. the higher up the more widespread the damage.

think about every car, house electronics, cellphone, data relay, plane, train, electrical grid, transformer, gone in seconds.

it would cost trillions to repair and take years.

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Personally I think POTUS should threaten to destroy their miserable little country if needed.

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Do you want to start WWIII?

Because that's how you start WWIII.

The government yes. Maybe in days. Occupying that country would wreck us though.

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How big do you think a North Korean EMP (if it didnt blow up in their faces) would be?

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I dont know their yield capabilities, I think the largest they have is around 10k tons. I dont think they have anything that could hurt us with an EMP except for maybe a small city.

its an empty threat by NK