Latest from Live Science in North-korea

North Korea launches intercontinental ballistic missile to space, reaches record altitude

Elizabeth Howell — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 19:38:08 +0000

North Korea reportedly reached space on Wednesday, Oct. 30 with its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched in nearly a year.

The ICBM's launch just days before the U.S. federal election on Nov. 5 was likely not coincidental, according to the Associated Press. The governments of U.S. and Japan both confirmed the launch, which flew for 86 minutes and soared to a record of 4,350 miles (7,000 km), the Washington Post stated, roughly 1,000 miles above the previous mark.

North Korea, which calls itself the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, has offered increasing support of the internationally condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. This action has caused concern with the United States and its allies. For example, American, Japanese and South Korean troops have conducted several military exercises in recent months in the Pacific Ocean, the Post added, which the North Korean government sees as antagonistic actions.

Japan and South Korea (officially called the Republic of Korea) are both allies of the United States as well as signatories of the American led-Artemis Accords that, in part, aim to establish peaceful norms for space exploration.

Recently, both the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (which includes Americans as core partners, and engagement with Japan and South Korea) said North Korea's decision to send roughly 10,000 troops to Russia is a "very, very serious issue" that could have ripple effects in the Pacific area as well as Europe, the Post's report stated.

The type of ICBM used this time has not yet been confirmed in media reports. North Korea's last such launch in December 2023 was a Hwasong-18 missile that has been used at least three times in test fires, Al Jazeera stated.

North Korea, a reclusive communist state, has pursued an isolationist policy for about the last 80 years. Its citizens are said to lack basic services, according to Britannica. The country is pursuing closer ties with Russia in recent years.

How many nuclear bombs have been used?

Sierra Bouchér — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 09:00:00 +0000

On July 16, 1945, the U.S. conducted the world's first nuclear bomb test in the New Mexico desert as part of the Manhattan Project, which led to the detonations of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki just weeks later. Since then, at least seven other countries have tested their own weapons, unleashing radiation around the world.

But how many nuclear bombs have actually gone off?

Although the exact answer isn't known, scientists estimate that at least 2,056 nuclear weapons have been tested. According to the Arms Control Association, the U.S. has tested 1,030 nuclear bombs and utilized two in warfare, the Soviet Union/Russia has tested 715, France has tested 210, the United Kingdom and China have each tested 45, North Korea has tested six, India has tested three and Pakistan has tested two. (A suspected additional test, known as the Vela incident, would bring the tally to 2,057.)

While nuclear testing has not been common since the 1990s, it has had extensive political, environmental and public health impacts that extend to this day. The international community now condemns it. But for almost 20 years, from 1945 to 1963, nuclear testing was commonplace for many countries as they vied for status as world powers.

Nuclear testing skyrocketed during the Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR following World War II. According to the Arms Control Association, 1962 holds the record for most tests conducted in one year, when 178 nuclear tests were conducted, of which 97% were set off by the U.S. and the USSR. The U.K. also conducted two tests, and France conducted one.

But 1962 was also a key turning point for nuclear tensions. That same year, the Cuban Missile Crisis marked the closest the U.S. and USSR came to nuclear conflict. Many people around the world had begun protesting the nuclear arms race, and the public began to understand the impact testing had on health.

A landmark 1961 study published in the journal Science tested baby teeth in children in St. Louis for strontium-90, a cancer-causing radioactive isotope created by nuclear explosions and easily absorbed by children. The study showed that strontium-90 levels were 50% higher in the baby teeth of children in the 1960s than in the 1950s, despite St. Louis being hundreds of miles away from the blast sites in Nevada.

The study generated vast public concern about testing, and helped push the U.S. into signing the Limited Nuclear Test Ban in 1963, Tilman Ruff, the former co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, told Live Science in an email.

Less than a year later, in 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was introduced to the United Nations and wholeheartedly adopted. The treaty prohibited nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and underwater, which were all drastically more harmful than underground tests.

"By 1963, nearly two decades of bomb testing had poisoned the air, land and water with hundreds of radioisotopes," Robert Alvarez, an expert with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, wrote in an email to Live Science.

The world had seen the devastating impacts of nuclear testing gone-awry. During the 1954 Castle Bravo test, unfavorable wind conditions and unexpectedly high radiation yields caused a local population in the Marshall Islands to be exposed to the near-lethal radiation doses, the highest ever following a single nuclear test, according to an article published in the journal International Review of the Red Cross. "The Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands remains a radiological hazard, because of life-threatening fallout from the 1954 Bravo test," Alvarez said.

President John F. Kennedy was among the world leaders who signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963. (Image credit: Getty Images)

In all, 108 countries, including the U.S. and the USSR, signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, and an era of slow disarmament began. Still, hundreds of nuclear bombs would continue to be tested underground for decades to come. Countries like China, India, Pakistan and North Korea also started testing nuclear bombs, despite the efforts of the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 to limit the growth of global nuclear weapons programs.

It wasn't until the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was proposed in 1996 that testing slowed to a standstill. While technically not ratified into law, it has been signed by 187 countries.

The CTBT's monitoring system also ensures that nuclear testing can't be hidden. This system, put in place when the CTBT was signed in 1996, uses 321 stations equipped with seismic, hydroacoustic, infrared and radionuclide technologies to detect nuclear testing worldwide. This monitoring system encourages countries that haven't signed the CTBT to disclose their nuclear testing.

The most recent nuclear test was conducted in 2017 by North Korea, which has not signed the CTBT. The CTBT organization's monitoring system recorded the test, which measured at least 140 kilotons, Alvarez wrote — eight times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

How have nuclear bombs and tests affected our planet?

"The concern and protests of people worldwide about radioactive fallout from nuclear testing has played a major role" in shutting down nuclear testing programs, Ruff said. As nuclear testing continued, science revealing the detrimental effects on the health of people and the environment grew. A 2006 study estimated that 22,000 additional radiation-related cancers and 1,800 additional deaths from radiation-related leukemia were expected to occur in the United States from nuclear testing-related fallout of the 1950 and 1960s.

"For people in the immediate vicinity and downwind of nuclear test explosions, nuclear testing has had profound and long-term effects on their health and communities," Ruff said.

While the U.S. utilized multiple testing sites in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, its most powerful bombs were tested in the Marshall Islands, in the Central Pacific Ocean. Starting in 1946, the islands and their inhabitants experienced "the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs each day over the twelve years of the tests," according to the International Review of the Red Cross article, which continued even after the Castle Bravo test disaster.

On top of the health hazards, nuclear testing in places like the Marshall Islands also created "broader social effects of displacement, loss of use of traditional lands for cultural and food gathering purposes, social stresses and disruption, and impoverishment," Ruff said.

However, day-to-day radiation across the U.S. has fallen dramatically since the end of atmospheric nuclear testing, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Could nuclear testing start again?

Many countries still have nuclear weapons, even if they aren't testing them. The world's nine current nuclear states — China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — have approximately 13,000 nuclear warheads combined.

RELATED MYSTERIES

—'The night turned into day': How Manhattan Project scientists reacted to the world's first atomic bomb test

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North Korea's most recent nuclear test set off a wave of concern from South Korea, which was heightened by the intensive missile tests North Korea conducted in 2022 and 2023. For the first time, South Korea suggested that developing its own nuclear program may be a possibility.

If South Korea or other nuclear-armed countries decide to test their weapons, it would likely prompt other nuclear-armed countries to restart their nuclear tests as well.

"Resumption of nuclear testing would be an extremely provocative and backwards step for the prospects of peace," Ruff wrote.

Korean War: Causes, combatants and key battles

Michael E. Haskew — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 16:53:36 +0000

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950 when the communist Korean People’s Army (PKA) invaded neighboring South Korea, crossing the border known as the 38th parallel. The fighting halted with the conclusion of an armistice on July 27, 1953; however, no formal peace treaty has been concluded.

North and South Korea technically remain at war today.

Causes of the Korean War

Shortly after the conclusion of World War II, the Korean Peninsula was divided at the 38th Parallel, and Kim Il-sung returned to his homeland after 26 years in exile. An avowed communist, Kim was the chosen surrogate of the Soviet Union to rule the client state of North Korea. In ostensibly democratic South Korea, Syngman Rhee, a pro-Western career politician, was elected president. From the earliest days of the Cold War, leaders North and South sought to reunify the peninsula under common rule.

"Nobody was satisfied with the division of Korea after World War II, not the Americans, the Soviets, the Chinese, or Koreans themselves," Tom Hanson, retired U.S. Army colonel and author of the book "Combat Ready? The Eighth U.S. Army on the Eve of the Korean War" (Texas A&M University Press, 2010) told Live Science in a telephone interview.

"The Japanese had colonized and exploited Korea ruthlessly for decades. There were Korean expatriates living in the United States, and Syngman Rhee was one of them. Expatriate Koreans also lived in China, and some sought shelter with Mao’s Eighth Route Army during World War II, thinking Mao would lead the liberation of Korea," Hanson said. "Kim Il-sung was anointed by the Soviets as their man in Korea. They gave him military assistance to field a modern army. The Koreans are a proud and patriotic people, South and North, and they would prefer today to have a unified country."

North Korea invades the South

North Korean and Chinese troops celebrate their victory on June 25th, 1950. (Image credit: Keystone-France / Contributor via Getty Images)

The North Koreans had assembled seven infantry divisions and an armored brigade, up to 90,000 troops, for the invasion, and their early progress was rapid. The defending South Korean Army had been organized to deal with a communist insurgency and possessed no tanks or artillery.

"The U.S. held back aircraft, long-range artillery, and tanks and created a light infantry army with counterinsurgency mission and doctrine. At the time of the invasion, there was no American or South Korean armor in the country, and the last U.S. armed forces had left Korea in June 1949. Eighth Army in Japan was the only U.S. force west of the international date line," Hanson said.

Within three days communist forces had captured the South Korean capital city of Seoul. They steadily advanced with victories at Chuncheon, Chochiwon, and the Kum River. In early July the first American forces, under the United Nations banner, had arrived in Korea. An understrength 500-man detachment from the 24th Infantry Division, Task Force Smith, was outnumbered 10-1 and overwhelmed at Osan. By the end of July, the key towns of Taejon and Yongdong had fallen to the communists as the U.S. 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry Divisions arrived in Korea. The 1st Marine Provisional Brigade deployed in August.

In early August, U.N. forces under General Walton H. Walker established a defensive line around the vital port of Pusan on the East China Sea. Encompassing 140 miles, the Pusan Perimeter was the last line of defense against the communist onslaught in South Korea. Initially,the U.N. troop complement was insufficient to defend the entire perimeter; however, Walker issued his famous "stand or die order," and the line held against repeated North Korean assaults that eventually eroded their combat efficiency as supply lines were stretched thin.

Pusan was a heroic effort, and I would call it desperate. General Walton Walker does not get the credit he deserves for managing that fight. He had to defend an extensive perimeter that was being probed at virtually every point by tough people who, by that time, had significant combat experience against the Americans. He was fighting on a shoestring while holding the line," Hanson said.

Battle of Inchon

The port of Inchon after Allied forces landed and set up their camp on the beach. (Image credit: Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images)

While General Walker’s embattled Eighth Army held on at Pusan, U.N. reinforcements deployed rapidly to the threatened area, and General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of U.N. forces in Korea, planned an amphibious counterthrust at the port of Inchon in the northwest of the Korean Peninsula, 25 miles from Seoul. The operation was fraught with risk, not least because the tides fluctuated up to 36 feet within the confines of the harbor.

Nevertheless, MacArthur knew that a successful landing of the U.N. X Corps could sever North Korean communication and supply lines to the south and possibly cut off thousands of enemy troops that had threatened Pusan for the previous two months. On Sept. 15, 1950, MacArthur launched Operation Chromite, and eventually 75,000 troops of the U.S. 1st Marine Division and the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Division came ashore. The landing at Inchon was a resounding success, as the North Koreans were caught by surprise and several counterattacks were beaten back.

"The marines landed mostly unopposed, but then slogged through a deadly gauntlet before Seoul finally fell at the end of September. Against this the North Koreans could do nothing; Kim Il-sung placed about two thousand poorly trained troops to defend the harbor, and for unknown reasons, failed to mine the port," wrote Bruce Cumings, author of "The Korean War: A History" (Modern Library, 2011).

"I think MacArthur was extraordinarily lucky at Inchon,' Hanson said. "He understood that the North Koreans had shot their bolt with their offensive and were tied up at the Pusan Perimeter. An assault so far from Pusan was a calculated risk, but he knew that if he kicked the door open the whole house would fall in on itself."

The Inchon landings coincided with an Eighth Army breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, and the resulting North Korean withdrawal became a rout with an estimated 35,000 communist soldiers killed or captured. Seoul was liberated in late September, and the momentum of the U.N. offensive steadily grew. U.N. troops crossed the 38th parallel into North Korea, captured the capital of Pyongyang on 19 October, and reached the Yalu River, the frontier with Chinese Manchuria.

Battle of Inchon Map

China enters the war

After the victory at Inchon, General MacArthur discounted ominous signs of Chinese intervention in Korea, even after the government of Mao Tse-tung had issued repeated warnings. Although some Chinese troops had been encountered during the drive to the Yalu, their presence was a mere foretaste of the large military force that was standing in the wings.

On Nov. 15, 1950, Mao sent 300,000 Chinese troops that caught frontline U.N. units by surprise and overwhelmed them. MacArthur’s quest to defeat the communists and unify Korea under democratic rule was now an impossibility. Three days after the massive Chinese offensive commenced, he cabled President Truman: "We face an entirely new war." Truman had warned MacArthur to avoid operations that might provoke the Chinese, but those warnings had gone unheeded.

U.N. forces were sent reeling. Outnumbered four to one, 30,000 U.N. troops surrounded at the Chosin Reservoir in horrific cold weather managed to fight their way out of encirclement, the survivors reaching the port of Hungnam, where they were evacuated with the rest of the X Corps. The Eighth Army retreated from northwest Korea as well, and communist forces again occupied Seoul.

MacArthur isn’t worried about the Chinese until Chinese soldiers are on the battlefield in early November, but then he wants the military assets to convince the Chinese not to be involved. After the disaster at the Chosin Reservoir, MacArthur wants local release authority for the use of nuclear weapons and the introduction of nationalist Chinese troops. Truman says, 'Hell no!'," Hanson said.

By the spring of 1951, Truman and MacArthur were at loggerheads over the conduct of the war in Korea, and Truman relieved MacArthur of command in April, replacing him with General Matthew Ridgway.

Fighting to a stalemate

Meanwhile, after weeks of heavy fighting, communist forces had absorbed tremendous casualties, and their advance had ground to a halt following their defeat in February 1951 at Chipyong-ni, considered a turning point of the war by Jamie l. Hickman, author of "Turning Korea Around: An Analysis of Mission Command at Chipyong-Ni," for the Journal of Defense Management.

General Walker had been killed in an automobile accident in December 1950, and Ridgway had taken command of Eighth Army. He further set about restoring the morale of the U.N. forces and launched successful counteroffensives that drove the communist forces back and once again liberated Seoul.

Once the U.N. forces had regained the initiative, the enemy was pushed back to the vicinity of the 38th parallel. Ridgway and Eighth Army commander General James Van Fleet then begin to pursue a strategy with both offensive and defensive components. Although they had blunted the communist offensive and regained tremendous amounts of lost territory, they did not possess the strength to launch a decisive, war-winning second invasion of the North.

U.N. strategists pursued limited attacks to extend their lines and consolidate positions as they were able while remaining vigilant against a potential major communist counterattack and minimizing the probability of taking heavy casualties.

For the next two years, the Korean War was fought to a stalemate. Peace negotiations began at Kaesong in July 1951, but the Chinese and North Koreans broke off the talks in August. In the autumn of 1951, the war was punctuated with fierce fighting at otherwise nondescript points along the opposing lines. They gained such rueful names as Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge. For seven months beginning in June 1952, soldiers fought and died for control of high ground that came to be known as Old Baldy. After five separate battles had been fought there, the defending U.N. commanders deemed Old Baldy and nearby Pork Chop Hill not worth the price of additional casualties and abandoned both.

Truce in the fighting

A painting of North Korean and U.N. negotiators signing the 1953 armistice in Panmunjom, creating the demilitarized zone. (Image credit: Ed Vebell / Contributor)

In October 1951, armistice negotiations resumed at the village of Panmunjom . However, the pace was glacial. Points of contention included not only the occupation of territory, but also the repatriation of prisoners of war captured by U.N. forces. "Many of the original Chinese army troops were ethnic Koreans, and they did not want to be repatriated to China," Hanson said, "and this became a humanitarian problem for Truman."

To resolve the prisoner exchange issue, a Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission was constituted and chaired by General K.S. Thimayya of India. A Demilitarized Zone was established, and it remains in effect today. The armistice agreement, effectively a cease-fire, was signed at 10 a.m. on 27 July 1953, and the two sides were allowed three days to withdraw to positions that were 1.25 miles from the cease-fire line.

In three years of fighting, U.N. forces had lost nearly 171,000 killed, 566,000 wounded, and 32,600 missing, while communist losses are not confirmed but believed to approach 900,000 killed, 687,000 wounded, and more than 145,000 missing. Estimates of civilian casualties are as high as three million. In the nearly 70 years since the fighting ended, border incidents, defections, and provocations have occurred on numerous occasions.

Today, the Korean Peninsula remains divided, and only recently has the possibility of a real peace treaty formally ending the war resurfaced. North Korea is largely isolated from the rest of the world. Its third-generation leader, Kim Jong-un maintains a firm grip on the people and has at times destabilized the region with threats of nuclear weapons and renewed hostilities. In contrast, South Korea is a prosperous, industrialized nation.

In 1995, the U.S. government dedicated the Korean War Veterans Memorial to the nearly six million Americans who served during the conflict and the 36,000 who died. The U.S. military currently maintains an active presence of approximately 30,000 troops in South Korea.

Additional resources

If you want to learn more about U.S. military involvement in the Pacific and Asia then you'll definitely want to read about the Battle of Iwo Jima.

An estimated 36,000 Americans died in the Korean War, but what was the deadliest day in U.S. history? We have the answer for you.

Bibliography

Truman Library
Department of State: Office of the Historian
U.S. Army Center Of Military History
National Museum of the Marine Corps
CBS News: The Korean War Timeline
"Oxford Companion to Military History" edited by Richard Holmes (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
"Turning Korea Around: An Analysis of Mission Command at Chipyong-Ni," by Jamie l. Hickman, the Journal of Defense Management
"The Korean War: A History" by Bruce Cumings (Modern Library, 2011)
"The Korean War" by Max Hastings (Simon & Schuster, 1988)
"Combat Ready? The Eighth U.S. Army on the Eve of the Korean War" by Thomas E. Hanson (Texas A&M University Press, 2010)
"The Korean War: An International History" by William Stueck (Princeton University Press, 1997)
"The Korean War: An International History" by Wada Haruki (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018)

What is cyberwarfare?

marksmith@journalist.com (Mark Smith) — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 21:48:50 +0000

The world is in the grip of a new age of conflict, cyberwarfare.

Countries are using hackers to target power grids, financial markets and government computer systems of rival nations, all with potential results that are every bit as devastating as any bullet or bomb.

The idea of using tech to pilfer information goes back a long way, as far back as 1834, in fact, with two French brothers — the Blanc brothers — who used to earn a living trading in government bonds, according to communication specialists DeepBlue. They found a way to get ahead of the competition by bribing a telegraph operator to include deliberate mistakes in messages being transmitted from Paris. This let them get a heads up on financial deals before anyone else did. But as technology got more sophisticated, so did the crimes the crooks were capable of pulling off. However, it wasn’t until almost 150 years later that the first person would be charged with a cyber crime.

Back in 1981 a man called Ian Murphy — imaginatively nicknamed Captain Zap — hacked into U.S. telecoms company AT&T and changed its internal clock to charge off-peak fees to people making peak-time calls, according to Wired.com . Although he thought he was doing these people a favor by letting them use the phone on the cheap, the company — having lost millions of dollars — and the U.S. government were none too impressed, so he was given 1,000 hours of community service and a fine as punishment.

These days, when you think about what most teenagers get up to with their computers it probably conjures up images of video games or Facebook — not hacking into the computers of the people who put a man on the moon and built the space shuttle. But that’s exactly what 15-year-old Jonathan James decided to do. Installing backdoors — gaps in computer code that allow hackers to easily infiltrate a system — into the U.S. Department of Defense, he was able to intercept and read thousands of private emails flying all over the place, including some with top-secret information, according to the New York Times. He then used what he found to steal a piece of NASA software and shut down systems for three weeks.

From crooks to nations

Cyber attacks have traditionally been carried out by lone criminals — and usually for a variety of reasons. Some like to test their skills against a system and share their successes with others in their shadowy community. Some do it purely for the money, such as Russian hacker group Evil Corp, who are thought to have stolen over $100 million (£77 million) from ordinary people around the world, according to the BBC. Others do it for what they see as 'good reasons', such as finding gaps in a company’s network so they can take steps to fix it before any serious damage is done.

The first group — the bad guys — are referred to in the hacking community as ‘black hat’ hackers, while the latter — who think of themselves as the ‘good guys’ — are called ‘white hat’ hackers, according to cyber security provider Kaspersky. Often when a black hat hacker is caught, if they’re good enough at what they do, law enforcement or industry will actually give them a job tracking down other hackers and helping to fix flaws in a computer system. But as technology has become more sophisticated, hacking has become a profession with thousands employed by governments as a new tool in their arsenal of war. Often overseen by spy agencies, they’re told to carry out attacks on rival countries’ infrastructure and steal secret information.

The WannaCry Hack

Few attacks have been as devastating or as shadowy as one that took place just a couple of years ago: the WannaCry attack.

It started just like any other morning on May 12, 2017, an unsuspecting computer user opened what appeared to be a harmless email. The email contained an attachment which, once opened, downloaded ransomware onto their system.

Ransomware is computer code that’s been designed to encrypt a system — scrambling all the data on a hard drive — and only unscrambles it when a user gives into the hacker’s demands, such as paying money, hence the name ransomware, according to cybersecurity provider McAfee.

If you’d been one of those affected by the WannaCry attack, you’d have logged onto your computer and seen a message asking you for money, with all of your private information such as your pictures, bank records, games, videos — everything — completely scrambled.

Hackers have got their own artificial helpers – rogue computer programs called malware. (Image credit: Getty Images)

It began to spread around the world like wildfire. The first company to report problems was Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, with multiple staff finding they’d been locked out of their computers.

By 11:00 the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) reported problems, with 80 out of 236 hospital trusts having their computers locked out, leading to many of its patients having to be diverted to alternative accident and emergency departments, according to The National Audit Office (NAO), the UK’s independent public spending watchdog.

The attack didn’t stop there. Chinese petrol stations had their payment systems cut off, German railways lost control of their passenger information system and FedEx’s logistical operations were disrupted in the United States. French car maker Renault and the Russian Ministry of the Interior were also hit.

Within hours the WannaCry virus had spread to 230,000 computers in 150 countries before being stopped by an analyst who discovered a ‘kill switch’ that shut it down, but it is to this day regarded as one of the most destructive cyber attacks ever seen, according to Kaspersky.

The reason the malware was able to spread so quickly is that it exploited security vulnerabilities in old versions of Microsoft Windows. This vulnerability had allegedly been discovered by the United State’s National Security Agency (NSA), according to Microsoft. The NSA allegedly then turned it into a cyber weapon called EternalBlue, according to the cybersecurity provider Avast. This cyber weapon was later stolen by a hacker group called the Shadow Brokers, and it’s thought it was used to help the malware spread rapidly. The US and UK governments would later single out hackers with links to North Korean intelligence agencies with the attack, according to the BBC.

Future attacks

If you take a look around you, you’ll probably see a smartphone, tablet, laptop or a smart TV. Maybe there’s some other smart tech in your home: a doorbell that links to your phone or a thermostat you can turn up or down by text. On the drive maybe there’s a car with all the mod cons like GPS. But every single one of these things could be used as a weapon in a cyber war.

We’re surrounded by modern computer technology, and increasingly it’s all connected to one another as part of the ‘internet of things’ — the tech that links smart devices together.

A 2017 briefing by US intelligence claimed connected thermostats, cameras and cookers could all be used either to spy or cause disruption if they were hacked. The FBI has previously warned that smart TV speakers, which are designed to listen to our voices, could be hacked for surveillance purposes, according to the Independent.

What’s clear is that whether it’s in our own homes or outside on the virtual battlefield, a conflict between those who want to take control of technology will continue to rage for the foreseeable future.

Interview with a hacker

From child hacker to bug hunter, Tommy DeVoss started hacking aged ten and was jailed in 2000 for breaking into military computers. He now earns "bug bounties" for finding problems in company computer systems.

Former hackers doing good are helping to protect us, says Tommy. (Image credit: Courtesy of HackerOne)

Why did you become a black hat hacker?

At school I would finish my work in ten minutes and spend the rest of the lesson playing on the computer. I was ten or 11 when I stumbled across a chatroom whose members taught me how to hack — I was just a bored kid doing it for fun. I first got into trouble in high school and was ordered to stay away from computers, but I didn’t. With others, I broke into secure government systems and was caught again and spent four years in prison. I was told if I got caught again then I wouldn’t get out.

In 2016 I discovered bug bounty programs [via the ‘HackerOne’ organisation] and could return to the hobby I loved, but this time working for good.

Walk us through a typical hacking attack

When hacking a website, I pick a target that has a bug bounty program and spend some time looking at and using it.

Next, I look for interesting places where you might be able to do something like upload files, or where the website tries to fetch data from another website.

I would then try to upload files that could introduce a vulnerability, for example, if there is an option to upload a profile picture. Then I could potentially upload a code execution. If there is an area like an RSS feed generator, I can see if I can get it to pull data from an internal server that I shouldn’t have access to.

How do you see the future of hacking and cyber security developing?

As more things are connected to the internet, we will see more attacks on things in the real world. 25 years ago when I started out, we used to joke about causing real-world damage; it wasn’t feasible then, but it is now.

Additional resources

For tips and advice on how to stay stay online, check out the National Cyber Security Centre or the National Cybersecurity Alliance .

North Korea tests new hypersonic weapon: reports

Mike Wall — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 12:12:19 +0000

North Korea is apparently getting into the hypersonic arms race.

The nuclear-armed nation conducted a test launch Tuesday (Sept. 28) of a new "hypersonic missile" called Hwasong-8, state-run outlet KCNA reported on Wednesday (Sept. 29), according to KCNA Watch, which aggregates news released by official North Korean media.

Hwasong-8 was topped with a hypersonic gliding vehicle (HGV) warhead, KCNA wrote. Hypersonic craft travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound, or Mach 5, and are highly maneuverable. They're much tougher to track and intercept than intercontinental ballistic missiles, which follow predictable trajectories.

The United States, Russia and China have prioritized the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years. The U.S. has been working on a number of different hypersonic designs over the past decade, for instance, and scored an important success with one, the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, during a trial last week, Pentagon officials announced Monday (Sept. 27).

KCNA declared Tuesday's Hwasong-8 mission, which launched from North Korea's east coast, a success as well.

"In the first test launch, national defense scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile in the active section and also its technical specifications, including the guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead," KCNA's report reads.

Outside experts aren't so sure, however. Missile specialist Chang Young-keun told Reuters that the Hwasong-8's HGV reached a top speed of just Mach 2.5 during Tuesday's test, citing analyses by South Korean military intelligence.

"The North's HGV technology is not comparable to those of the U.S., Russia or China and for now seems to aim for short-range that can target South Korea or Japan," Chang, who's based at the Korea Aerospace University in Goyang, South Korea, told Reuters.

In addition, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that North Korean hypersonics tech is far from battle ready and that both the U.S. and South Korea are capable of detecting and neutralizing the Hwasong-8, the BBC reported Wednesday.

North Korea's Short-Range Missile Test Spotted from Space

Mike Wall — Tue, 07 May 2019 10:52:37 +0000

North Korea is back at it.

The rogue nation conducted its first missile test in 18 months early Saturday morning (May 4), launching a short-range vehicle east into the Pacific Ocean.

An Earth-observing Dove satellite built by San Francisco-based company Planet Labs happened to be overhead shortly after the launch and captured a stunning shot of the missile's curving, wind-whipped smoke trail.

"North Korean missile trail from space! Damn improbable; but if we take >million images/day, we'll get one-in-a-million shots!" Planet Labs co-founder and CEO Will Marshall said via Twitter yesterday (May 5).

Planet Lab's Dove cubesats are smaller than a loaf of bread but can capture imagery with a resolution of 10 feet to 16.5 feet (3 to 5 meters). The company currently has more than 100 operational Doves in low-Earth orbit.

North Korean missile trail from space! Damn improbable; but if we take >million images/day we’ll get one in a million shots! Great work @ArmsControlWonk RT @ZcohenCNN: Exclusive: satellite image shows smoke trail of Friday rocket launch via @planetlabs https://t.co/61b8POxaAV pic.twitter.com/XXLo2W2yUBMay 5, 2019

Projectiles associated with the North Korean test traveled between 44 miles and 149 miles (70 to 240 kilometers) before splashing down in the Pacific, the Associated Press reported, citing South Korean military officials.

The newly tested craft appears to be based on Russia's 9K720 Iskander, a mobile, short-range ballistic missile, the AP reported. The Iskander can carry a nuclear weapon and has a range of about 310 miles (500 km).

The last missile that North Korea tested was a very different kind of vehicle. In November 2017, the nation launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which splashed down in the Pacific about 620 miles (1,000 km) away after 54 minutes of flight.

Details of that flight suggest that the ICBM has a range of more than 8,100 miles (13,000 km), experts said at the time. If that's the case, the missile could theoretically reach the U.S. East Coast.

The international community has imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on North Korea over the nation's pursuit of ICBM and nuclear-weapons technology — penalties that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants lightened or lifted. In meetings with U.S. officials since that November 2017 test, Kim has said he won't perform any more ICBM or nuclear tests.

Saturday's missile launch doesn't violate that promise. But it seems to signal that Kim is dissatisfied with the state of negotiations and may be planning more dramatic signs of protest, experts said.

"This is a pretty classic move from them to start small and work their way up," Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, told CNN. "It's a warning that there's more to come."

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom orFacebook.

Here's the Science Behind Finding North Korea's Nuclear Weapons

Stephanie Pappas — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 19:18:09 +0000

Negotiations over denuclearization of North Korea collapsed this morning after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un insisted the United States lift all economic sanctions in return for any nuclear disarmament.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that talks with North Korea will soon resume, according to the Associated Press. However, before the Trump administration announced the lack of agreement, U.S. negotiators had already backed off the demand that Kim and his government allow access and transparency to the international community concerning their nuclear weapons program.

North Korea, like all countries with a nuclear program, is quite secretive about its research and testing. No one knows exactly how much nuclear material North Korea has or even exactly what kinds of warheads they've developed. [North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)]

But North Korea won't necessarily have to let the entire world poke around its nuclear facilities to show that they've slowed or stopped their pursuit of nuclear arms. According to nuclear security experts, there are many ways to monitor the situation remotely — but they can provide only limited information without North Korea's cooperation.

"There is a whole panoply of technologies," said Sharon Squassoni, a professor and nuclear security expert at The George Washington University.

Testing, testing

North Korea has been claiming to be on the verge of shutting down its nuclear weapons program for as long as the country has admitted to having nuclear weapons. In 2005, then-leader Kim Jong Il admitted the country had nukes, and then signed an international statement promising to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In 2006, the country tested its first nuclear bomb.

That history of failed negotiations has security experts cautious about any potential for progress to be made between Trump and Kim, particularly since neither side has been very clear on what they consider "denuclearization," Squassoni said. Still, the meeting did represent an opportunity to bring North Korea back into a dialogue, said Alexander Glaser, the director of the Nuclear Futures lab at Princeton University. Even if North Korea refuses to share full information about its program, Glaser said, it might be possible to create a phased approach involving some remote monitoring and some onsite inspections that could prove whether the country is really meeting its promises.

The easiest aspect of the program to track is whether North Korea is actively testing nuclear bombs. North Korea's cooperation is not required. Nuclear explosions are pretty obvious, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) already runs a commission to monitor the atmosphere, oceans and subsurface for any testing. Infrasound monitors are capable of detecting aboveground explosions, and underwater microphones can detect undersea testing (both of which were banned under the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963).

Underground nuclear tests show up on seismometers that are designed to detect earthquakes. There are many such arrays, run by research organizations, governments and even private entities, and quite a few of those upload all their data online, said Jeffrey Park, a geophysicist at Yale University. That means that anyone with an internet connection can detect an underground nuclear test, as long as they know what to look for. [The 22 Weirdest Military Weapons]

"We ordinarily have fairly good ideas about where nuclear testing is going on," Park said, "So any kind of tremor near a nuclear test site attracts a lot of attention."

Nuclear tests create a lot of what geophysicists call "p-waves," which are compressional waves created by the big blast pushing everything outward, all at once. These waves look quite different from the signals created by earthquakes, Park said. Earthquakes are caused by faults sliding side-by-side, so their seismic signals are dominated by shear-wave energy.

Knowns and unknowns

Thanks to remote seismic monitoring, the international community can tell within seconds to minutes if Kim's regime has denoted something at its underground testing site, Punggye-ri. By triangulating the source of waves detected at different seismic stations, scientists can even tell exactly where at the site the explosions occurred, even if they were as close as a kilometer apart from one another. North Korea detonated bombs at Punggye-ri in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017. The first two tests are widely considered to be failures, Park said. The 2013 and 2016 tests, he said, were indicative of a first-generation plutonium fission bomb, not unlike the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.

North Korea claims that the 2016 and 2017 bombs were both thermonuclear, or hydrogen bombs, which generate explosions via nuclear fusion rather than fission. Some outside experts think the North Korean government really does have a thermonuclear bomb, though others, including Park, are skeptical. For the purpose of gaining recognition on the world stage, Pyongyang would like everyone to believe its nuclear program is strong, Park said, but it's not clear that the testing done so far indicates the existence of a thermonuclear bomb.

"There's a lot we don't know," Squassoni said.

Many of those unknowns are challenging to fill in without cooperation from Kim's regime. For example, Squassoni said, North Korea has only one plutonium reactor, so outside experts could make an educated guess as to how much plutonium the country had to work with. But intelligence operations and one 2010 tour given to Stanford University experts have revealed that North Korea can also enrich uranium, which is done in facilities that are far easier to hide than a huge reactor. There is at least one uranium-enrichment facility in the country, Glaser said, and probably at least one more at an unknown location. (Either uranium or plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons.)

"There may even be a third site that we are not aware of," he said.

Another easy-to-conceal facet of the nuclear program is the development of delivery systems. It does North Korea little good to have a 1945-style bomb, Park said; those require delivery by enormous bombers. What the country needs to be truly threatening is a warhead that can be delivered by missile. North Korea suspended missile launches in 2018, and maintaining that moratorium was almost certainly part of the negotiations in Hanoi, Glaser said.

Remote cooperation

Learning about what's going on inside nuclear facilities is a tough challenge, said Squassoni, who once worked in the U.S. State Department and who is now on the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (the group responsible for the Doomsday Clock). Informants on the inside are hard to come by. And North Korea is not likely to hand over a list off all their facilities to the international community. [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End]

"We have a ballpark sense of the nuclear program, but I'm sure there would be some surprises if we got access," Squassoni said.

If the North Korean government were willing to let out even a little information at a time, the world could monitor much of their activity from afar, Glaser said. Satellite reconnaissance can be used to ensure that there is no activity at plutonium- or uranium- production facilities; the same can be true for missile-launch sites (which are still being maintained despite the moratorium on launches). Air monitoring and soil or vegetation samples could show any hint of production of radioactive materials. With enough information and enough time, scientists could conduct a sort of "nuclear archaeology," Glaser said, by figuring out how much uranium had been mined in North Korea and then comparing that to the number of warheads the country claims. That accounting could make it clear whether the country was hiding anything.

Even in a best-case scenario, confirmation of denuclearization couldn't happen overnight, Glaser said.

"It will take years to confirm the completeness of the declaration, or to have high confidence in the absence of undeclared items," he said. "There is no way around this."

Originally published on Live Science.

Satellite Images Reveal North Korea's Missile Program Is Very Much Alive

Rafi Letzter — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 16:19:30 +0000

North Korea's missile program is still very much alive, according to a report published this weekend.

Experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C., defense and national security think tank, published commercial satellite images showing that a missile base called Sakkanmol remains capable and active. They reported that not only has the base not been dismantled, but that they have identified 13 more just like it, and that the total number could be as high as 20.

This seems to contradict President Donald Trump's Nov. 7 claim that North Korean nuclear talks were proceeding well and producing results.

"We're very happy with how it's going with North Korea," Trump said at a news conference. "We think it's going fine. We're in no rush. We're in no hurry. The sanctions are on. The missiles have stopped. The rockets have stopped. The hostages are home. The great heroes are home." [North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)]

(Reports on the ongoing negotiations also dispute this.)

Trump has repeatedly said that his administration's diplomatic efforts have eliminated the danger from North Korea, tweeting after meeting with Kim Jong-un in June that "there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."

North Korea has pushed a similar narrative with the partial (but never completed) public dismantling of its Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

The CSIS report tells a very different story.

North Korean missile bases, according to the authors of the report, are very different from what Americans might imagine. There are no hidden silos with doors swinging open in the middle of a cornfield. There's no central underground bunker where young military officers hunch over computer screens to direct an attack.

Instead, a North Korean missile base is essentially a site for the servicing and maintenance of a hidden fleet of missile and trucks.

North Korean war plans assume, the authors wrote, that enemy warplanes would rapidly overwhelm the small country's airspace and begin hunting its missile fleet. So, the missiles ride around on the backs of trucks through underground tunnels. Those trucks are ready to scatter at a moment's notice onto open roads in the event of a war.

At that point, each truck would drive to a predesignated launch site — usually no more than a suitable flat clearing along the side of the road — fire a missile, and then move on to a second site to fire again.

Sakkanmol, the researchers showed in their satellite photos, is equipped for just this sort of operation. It has buildings for servicing missiles, housing facilities, agricultural buildings and a hidden, protected tunnel complex with seven entrances. Right now, it appears to be equipped with short-range ballistic missiles for targeting South Korea, but it "could easily accommodate more capable medium-range ballistic missiles" to threaten a wider area. The missiles at the site are not necessarily nuclear, but they could be so equipped.

This report follows earlier reporting that North Korea has moved to hide its nuclear weapon development program, rather than to end it.

Originally published on Live Science.

What Secrets Lurk in Kim Jong Un's Personal Toilet?

Brandon Specktor — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 19:44:19 +0000

Some of us carry a security blanket to feel more comfortable when we are far away from home. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly carries a security toilet.

According to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, Kim arrived in Singapore this morning (June 11) for a nuclear disarmament summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, and he brought his personal toilet with him. [North Korea: A Hermit Country From Above (Photos)]

Indeed, it is said that Kim never leaves home without a personal lavatory, and actually travels with several toilets every time he's on the road, the South Korean news site Daily NK previously reported. The leader's amenities include an emergency "chamber pot" in his Mercedes, that report said, as well as a designated toilet car in his motorcade. A separate mobile commode designed to handle "mountainous terrain and snow" may also join the leader's caravan as needed, according to an unnamed source privy to the leader's privy, Daily NK reported.

While anyone who has ever taken a road trip can understand the appeal of entirely avoiding public restrooms, Kim's mobile throne is also said to serve a national security purpose. Lee Yun-keol, a former member of a North Korean Guard Command unit, told The Washington Post that "the leader's excretions contain information about his health status so they can't be left behind." As Chosun Ilbo put it, the mobile lavatories "deny determined sewer divers insights into the supreme leader's stools."

How many secrets could Kim's stools actually hold? It turns out, a lot. [5 Things Your Poop Says About Your Health]

"The digestive tract contains more bacterial cells than there are cells in the entire body," Dr. Jean-Pierre Raufman, a gastroenterologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, previously told Live Science.

Not only is this dense bacterial biome like a fingerprint that contains the pooper's unique DNA, but it can also reveal whether that person's bowels are absorbing the nutrients they need and rejecting the germs they don't.

According to Raufman, the shade of Kim's stool could indicate, for example, whether the leader is bleeding internally or taking medication to treat an iron deficiency. Overly narrow stools could indicate a blockage in Kim's colon, which could be a sign of intestinal cancer. A poor diet or reliance on certain medications could result in constipation — which, if untreated, could lead to hemorrhoids or rectal bleeding. Persistent diarrhea, on the other hand, could be a sign of chronic disease such as irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn's disease.

Kim, who often relies on images of strength and power to bolster his leadership, would likely sooner keep his health status — and his poos — to himself (and his medical team). On this, at least, we can't say we blame him.

Originally published on Live Science.

Nuclear Bomb Test Moved North Korea Mountain

Yasemin Saplakoglu — Thu, 10 May 2018 20:29:55 +0000

North Korea conducted its latest nuclear test at Punggye-ri on Sept. 3, and it was the most massive one yet, registering on sensors as a 6.3-magnitude earthquake. Around 8 minutes later, geologists detected a smaller rumbling of 4.1 magnitude that got scientists speculating: Could the nuclear test site, hidden inside a mountain, have collapsed?

A massive collapse could render the test site useless for future nuclear tests and may even increase the risk of radioactive gases escaping from the rock and into the air, scientists said.

The case for this so-called "tired mountain syndrome" was bolstered three weeks ago, when North Korea announced that it planned to shut the main testing facility at Mount Mantap where five of the six tests, including the last explosion, took place. A few weeks ago, a group of Chinese geologists claimed in a study published in Geophysical Research Letters that the mountain had collapsed following the latest nuclear test.

Now, scientists reporting today (May 10) in the journal Science have used satellite images to find that Mount Mantap indeed moved and compressed following the explosion. But according to the scientists, the mountain and test sites probably didn't collapse completely. [7 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea].

Previously, scientists have gauged nuclear explosions by the ground shaking the blasts produced, using seismic data similar to how earthquakes are measured. But in this new study, the team analyzed satellite images taken by the German TerraSar-X satellite and Japan's ALOS-2 satellites, and compared the landscape of Mount Mantap before and after the explosion. These satellites use what's called a synthetic aperture radar, which beams electromagnetic waves down to Earth and then measures the reflected light, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. By doing so, the technology can create high-resolution images even under suboptimal conditions of bad weather (because microwaves can penetrate clouds) and low light.

Using these images, the team found that Mount Mantap moved by around 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) and shrank by 1.6 feet (0.5 m). This may indicate a collapse of tunnels in the mountain according to Teng Wang, senior research fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore in the Nanyang Technological University and the first author of the paper.

"But we could not tell if this is the [complete] collapse of the whole test site or the collapse of the tunnel, as there is no direct evidence for it," Wang said. People would need to investigate on-site to figure that out, he added.

The team also analyzed seismic data and found that the direction the waves traveled was exactly the opposite of the actual explosion. So, since the explosion would have been outward, the second 4.1-magnitude rumbling might have been inward, indicating a collapse as the previous study did.

But the ground shaking could have resulted from the collapse of a void in the rocks that was created by a previous explosion or even the most recent explosion, said Douglas Dreger, an Earth and planetary science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the paper. Or, he added, it could have been a tunnel, a partial tunnel, or a multiple tunnels.

"I wouldn't say that the whole mountain collapsed, I wouldn't draw the catastrophic conclusion," Dreger said.

The researchers estimated that the strength of the explosion was about 120 to 304 kilotons, or 10 times that dropped on Hiroshima, according to a statement. (Other estimates differ, with one saying it was as strong as 17 times that of Hiroshima, according to The Washington Post).

Wang hopes this study will push forward the use of satellite imaging to research underground nuclear tests.

Originally published on Live Science.

Why Is North Korea Shutting Down Its Nuclear Test Site?

ysaplakoglu@livescience.com (Yasemin Saplakoglu) — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 23:06:48 +0000

Last week, North Korea announced that it will cease all nuclear testing and will shut down its main testing facility at Mount Mantap. Although some believe the decision came because of easing tensions between the country and the world, others think Mount Mantap may have come down with a bad case of "tired mountain syndrome."

But what exactly is tired mountain syndrome, and how does a mountain "catch" it?

It turns out that repeated nuclear blasts can weaken the rock around underground nuclear test sites, eventually making them unsafe or unusable — which might have happened with North Korea's preferred testing grounds. [North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)]

Powerful explosions

The hermit country's latest nuclear test, conducted in September 2017 at Punggye-ri, was at least 17 times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, according to The Washington Post.

In fact, the explosion registered as a magnitude-6.3 earthquake, and before-and-after satellite shots showed visible movement at Mount Mantap — a 7,200-foot-high (2,200 meters) mountain under which deeply buried tunnels house most of the tests. Some geologists think that the mountain is cracking under the pressure.

"You can take a piece of rock and set it on the ground, take a hammer, tap it; nothing will happen," said Dale Anderson, a seismologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. You keep tapping it — and, say — the 21st time, "it will break and crack open."

When a nuclear explosion goes off inside a mountain, it breaks the surrounding rock, and the energy propagates out like a wave (imagine throwing a pebble into a lake). But as more explosions go off around the same — but not exact — spot, rocks that are farther away also begin to crumble under repeated stress.

"The accumulated effect of these explosions that weaken rocks and create that fracturing [farther away from the point of explosion] is what we call tired mountain syndrome," Anderson told Live Science.

Tired mountain syndrome can also stymie scientists trying to measure how strong an explosion is, he said. The propagating energy scatters around these fractured rocks before reaching the sensors, so the explosion registers as a lot weaker than it actually is, he added.

But this effect "has nothing to do with being able to use the facility," Anderson said.

In fact, a country can keep using the site but must adjust the mathematical equations it uses so that the final magnitude of the explosion takes tired mountain syndrome into account.

Toxic seepage

If nuclear test sites are shut down, Anderson said, it's usually a direct consequence of the syndrome. Mountains with this condition become much more permeable, meaning that more pathways open up for gas and liquid to travel through the rock. This means there's a greater chance for radioactive gas — with the most concerning being xenon — to escape the rock and seep out to the surface, Anderson said.

"Mother nature has already fractured the rock," Anderson said. "When an explosion goes off, sometimes damage [from it] will connect with natural fractures, and you can conceivably get a pathway up to the surface, and gases will seep out."

The process by which gas could be pulled up and through the rock is called barometric pumping.

A group of Chinese geologists said on Wednesday (April 25) that they believe the nuclear test site had collapsed and that Mount Mantap was in "fragile fragments," according to The Washington Post. But William Leith, the senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey — who with one other scientist coined the term to describe a Soviet nuclear testing site in 2001— doesn't think it is.

In an interview with CBC Radio in October, when asked if the mountain in North Korea was tired, he said, "I would say, 'not very tired.' And that's because they've only had, as far as we know, six underground nuclear explosions, and there's a lot of mountain left there."

In comparison, he and his colleagues first used the term to describe Degelen Mountain in the former Soviet Union (now Kazakhstan), which was battered by more than 200 explosions.

North Korea's mountain may be tired — but whether it's completely exhausted is difficult to say.

Originally published on Live Science.

Will North Korea's Synchronized Cheerleaders Soften the Country's Image?

Stephanie Pappas — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:03:57 +0000

The breakout stars of the 2018 Winter Olympics aren't skiers or figure skaters. They're 229 North Korean cheerleaders who have wowed the international media with their synchronized chants and identical outfits.

The cheerleaders have made headlines throughout the games for everything from their fashion choices to their tightly supervised hotel conditions and bathroom visits to their reaction to the surprise appearance of an impersonator playing Kim Jong-un, North Korea's authoritarian leader.

No one really knows North Korea's motivation behind sending this unusual squad to the Pyeongchang games, but experts in the country's policy believe it may be an attempt to retain a little bit of limelight and soften the closed-off country's image. Whether it's working, though, seems to be an open question. [In Photos: North Korea's Cheerleading Squad]

Army of beauties

The North Korean squad, sometimes known as the "Army of Beauties," has appeared at several Asian sporting events since 2002. According to The New York Times, which interviewed a defector who used to be on the squad, the women are chosen for their looks, height, talent and family connections. They're tightly controlled, with handlers shepherding them from event to event and even to meals at the Olympic Games. The job comes with the privilege of travel outside of North Korea's famously restrictive borders, but it might also bring danger. In 2006, South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported that 21 cheerleaders on the squad had been sent to prison camp, possibly for breaking their oath not to discuss what they had seen on a trip to the Busan Asian Games in South Korea.

The anonymity of the individual women and their eerie synchronization is novel to outsiders, said Nancy Snow, a professor of public diplomacy and a specialist in propaganda at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies in Japan.

"Every time you see them performing, a lot of press is right there getting close-ups trying to get some sort of a tell to see if, gosh, can they be like us?" Snow told Live Science. "But there's still this distance there."

As a propaganda effort, Snow said, the cheerleaders might be a "softening agent" meant to keep the North Korean regime on the global stage and to subtly smooth over relationships between it and its Asian neighbors. It's no mistake the group sent to do the job is female, she said — the squad's look and demure refusal to do anything more than smile and mouth inoffensive platitudes plays into notions of traditional femininity.

"We can't help but look and try to maybe get eye contact," Snow said.

The cheerleaders' beauty plays another role beyond mystique, said Annika Culver, a professor of East Asian history at Florida State University.

"It provides a different picture than this kind of bleak country where everyone is oppressed," Culver told Live Science. That message is likely tailored toward South Korea, she said; the Kim regime is being buffeted by economic sanctions against it and would probably like to see steps like the reopening of Kaesong, an industrial region in North Korea where South Korean companies can employ North Korean workers. That region closed amidst tensions in 2016.

Political stage

The Olympics have always been a place for political or diplomatic messaging, said Patrick Merle, an assistant professor of communication and information at Florida State University who was involved in coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympics as a journalist. The Summer Olympics, being larger and involving more countries than the Winter Olympics, are more typically a political platform, Merle said. In 1936, Berlin hosted the summer games under the leadership of Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who attempted to use them to showcase what he saw as Aryan superiority — and who was partially stymied when African-American track star Jesse Owens won four gold medals.

In 1968 in Mexico City, two black athletes raised their fists in what one called a "human rights salute" to protest the treatment of black Americans. The 2016 Summer Games in Rio hosted an all-refugee team, which not only gave displaced athletes an opportunity to compete, but highlighted the plight of people driven from war-torn nations.

It's harder to pinpoint whether these international messages effect much change, Merle told Live Science. On their own, he said, they probably have a limited impact.

"It's a soft-power approach where it definitely raises awareness, it puts the issue on the public-opinion agenda and that is in essence already a first good step to changing minds and to changing perspectives and changing attitudes," he said. "But you need more."

The impact of North Korea's cheerleaders appears mixed. The British newspaper The Guardian interviewed South Korean spectators at a hockey game where the cheerleaders were present. Some said the squad made them feel closer to North Korea; others expressed sympathy for the women.

However, if attention is the goal, the cheerleaders seem to be snapping that up in large amounts. The squad has been the subject of intense media attention, to the extent that the women were unable to complete a planned walk on the beach on Feb. 14 because of a scrum of journalists.

Original article on Live Science.

Enriched Uranium Particle Appears Over Alaska — and No One Knows Why

Rafi Letzter — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 11:57:08 +0000

There's a whiff of something radioactive in the air.

A research plane flying over the Aleutian Islands on Aug. 3, 2016 detected a single speck of enriched uranium floating about 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) above Alaska's far-western island chain, according to a new research paper that will be published in April in The Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.

The uranium sample was tiny and harmless, a small chunk of a mote of dust just 580 nanometers wide (about half the size of a red blood cell). And it was completely alone; no other radioactive material turned up in that stretch of sky. But, the researchers wrote, it was "definitely not from a natural source."

And the scientists can't explain how it got there.

The plane's onboard mass spectrometer, brought along to analyze standard-issue pollution, detected just a single uranium particle, mixed with traces of chemicals from burning oil, the authors reported. And on its own, that find wouldn't be too remarkable — uranium is the heaviest element commonly found on Earth, after all.

"Particulate matter containing uranium can originate from sources such as combustion of coals with trace uranium, windblown crustal material, and mining and processing of ores, whether it be for the uranium itself or other minerals such as rare earths [a group of chemically similar elements that aren't actually that rare, but are difficult to mine] and phosphate," the researchers wrote. [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]

What makes this particle unusual is that it was rich in an isotope called uranium-235, or U-235, which made up about 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent of its mass, according to the paper. Naturally occurring uranium typically contains just 0.7 percent U-235, with the rest given over to the much more common uranium-238.

That's a big deal.

As Richard Rhodes described in his book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," published by Simon and Schuster in 1987, uranium-235, an atom made up of 92 protons and 143 neutrons, is special because it can easily sustain a nuclear chain reaction. That's the process of one atom splitting, flinging neutrons out into space, those neutrons smashing into the atom's neighbors and causing them to split, and so on. Uranium-238, with its extra three neutrons, just doesn't give itself over to sustained chain reactions of the kind needed for nuclear power, or nuclear weapons.

Rhodes wrote that refining uranium-235 out of large natural samples of mostly uranium-238 was one of the most important challenges during the race to build the first atomic bomb in the 20th century. And that process remains a challenge today.

The Aleutian Islands sample, with its relatively high percentage of uranium-235 content, is already refined enough to serve in a nuclear reactor, the researchers wrote. (A bomb requires something closer to 90 percent uranium-235 content.)

Finding a sample of refined uranium in the open air is bizarre and remarkable, but it's not dangerous on its own, experts said.

"It's not a significant amount of radioactive debris by itself," Dan Murphy, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist and one of the paper's authors, told Gizmodo, which originally reported on the paper. “But it’s the implication [of this finding is] that there's some very small source of uranium that we don’t don't understand."

For one thing, as the paper stated, the particle is much smaller than the particles of uranium dust that emerge from typical nuclear facilities. It's possible, the authors suggested, that a forest fire or something similar kicked up old particles from an event like the Chernobyl meltdown — but there haven't been any recent incidents that would be obvious culprits for that kind of thing.

Beyond the uranium particle itself, the air sample the plane collected wasn't unusual, with its only notable feature being some diluted trace burnt-oil pollution, the researchers wrote. Based on prevailing air currents, it's likely the particle came to Alaska from somewhere within a broad swath of Asia, including China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

But, the researchers cautioned, the science of figuring out just how individual particles might have arrived in a given patch of air is too inexact to determine the mysterious uranium's origin with any certainty.

Originally published on Live Science.

How Do Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles Work?

lgeggel@livescience.com (Laura Geggel) — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 14:41:30 +0000

How do intercontinental ballistic missiles — including the one North Korea launched Tuesday (Nov. 28) that flew more than 10 times higher than the International Space Station — work?

The answer depends on the type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), but most of these rockets launch from a device on the ground, travel into outer space and finally re-enter Earth's atmosphere, plummeting rapidly until they hit their target.

As of now, no country has fired an ICBM as an act of war against another country, although some countries have tested these missiles in practice exercises, said Philip Coyle, a senior science adviser with The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C. But even though North Korea's tests are also exercises, the provocative nature of these tests has many world leaders on edge, according to news reports. [Doom and Gloom: Top 10 Post-Apocalyptic Worlds]

An ICBM, as its name implies, can travel from one continent to another. Once launched, ICBMs travel in a parabola, much like a baseball flying through the air. Just like a baseball, an ICBM can be released at any angle. But in North Korea's case, the ICBMs are being launched "almost straight up," Coyle told Live Science. "They fly straight up against the force of gravity and come down some distance from North Korea … If they're long-range, [the North Koreans] usually drop them on the other side of Japan, which, of course, makes Japan very nervous."

It's important to note that North Korea wouldn't aim its ICBMs straight up if it wanted to launch an actual attack. "They'd launch toward their target, which might be thousands of miles away," Coyle said. That means that even though the Hwasong-15, the latest ICBM, traveled about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from its launch site, it could travel much farther — likely more than 8,100 miles (13,000 km) from its launch site if it had a standard trajectory, according to a Nov. 28 blog written by missile expert David Wright.

However, it's challenging to know how far a battle-ready North Korean ICBM would fly, as its "practice" ICBM likely had a light payload or none at all. Such a payload — like a nuclear warhead — would weigh down the ICBM and limit the distance it could travel, Coyle said.

Three phases

At takeoff, the ICBM enters the boost phase. During this phase, the rockets send the ICBM into the air, pushing it upward for about 2 to 5 minutes, until it reaches space, Coyle said. ICBMs can have up to three rocket stages. Each one is discarded (or ejected) after it burns out. In other words, after the first stage stops burning, rocket No. 2 takes over, and so on.

Moreover, these rockets can have liquid or solid propellant. Liquid propellants "generally burn longer in the boost phase than solid-propellant rockets [do]," Coyle said. In contrast, solid propellants "provide their energy in a shorter amount of time and burn faster."

Liquid and solid propellants can send rockets equally far, "but most countries start out with liquid propellant technology because it's well understood," Coyle said. "[As] they graduate, they move to solid propellant to get the faster burn times. It also avoids the hazards of dealing with dangerous liquids that are both flammable and toxic."

In the second phase, the ICBM enters space as it continues on its ballistic trajectory. "It's flying through space very fast, maybe 15,000 mph or 17,000 mph [24,140 or 27,360 km/h]," Coyle said. "It's taking advantage of the fact that there's no air resistance out there."

Some ICBMs have technology that allows them to take a star shot — that is, they can use the location of the stars to help them better orient toward their target, Coyle said.

In the third phase, the ICBM re-enters the atmosphere and hits its target within minutes. If the ICBM has rocket thrusters, it might use them to better orient itself toward its target, Coyle said. However, because of the intense heat encountered when they re-enter the atmosphere, ICBMs can burn up and fall apart unless they have proper heat shields, Coyle noted.

For the Hwasong-15, the entire trajectory took 54 minutes, significantly longer than North Korea's 37-minute test on July 4, 2017, and its 47-minute test on July 28, 2017, Wright wrote on his blog.

However, although some countries have ICBMs — including the United States, Russia, China and India — none have fired them in a deliberate attack against another country, Coyle said. "We all have tested them to show we can do it, [which is] exactly what North Korea is doing now. [But] we've never actually used them in war, and the reason is it would be all-out nuclear war and we'd all be dead."

You can read about the United States' defense against ICBMs and nuclear weapons in this Live Science article.

Original article on Live Science.

North Korea's Latest Missile Test Suggests It Could Reach US East Coast

Mike Wall — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 17:48:58 +0000

North Korea's latest test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) suggests that the nuclear-armed rogue nation can now hit the U.S. East Coast, experts say.

The missile that North Korea lofted on Tuesday (Nov. 28) splashed down about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from its launch site, after flying for 54 minutes and reaching a maximum altitude of about 2,800 miles (4,500 km), according to media reports and statements from Pentagon officials.

"If these numbers are correct, then, if flown on a standard trajectory rather than this lofted trajectory, this missile would have a range of more than 13,000 km (8,100 miles)," missile expert David Wright wrote in a blog post Tuesday. [In Images: North Korea's Rocket and Missile Program]

"This is significantly longer than North Korea's previous long-range tests, which flew on lofted trajectories for 37 minutes (July 4) and 47 minutes (July 28)," added Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C., and in fact any part of the continental United States."

Rockets and ballistic missiles share a common past. See how ballistic missiles work in our full infographic. (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com contributor)

But this doesn't necessarily mean that the entire U.S. mainland is now vulnerable to a nuclear attack by North Korea (which has repeatedly threatened to destroy the United States, South Korea and Japan), Wright added.

"We do not know how heavy a payload this missile carried, but given the increase in range, it seems likely that it carried a very light mock warhead," he wrote in the blog post. "If true, that means it would be incapable of carrying a nuclear warhead to this long distance, since such a warhead would be much heavier."

North Korea has been working for years to develop an ICBM, a missile that can travel at least 3,400 miles (5,500 km) from its launch site.

The nation has made great strides toward this goal in 2017, with the two July launches and Tuesday's effort, but may still have some technological hurdles to clear. For example, near the end of the July 28 test, the missile's re-entry vehicle, which would protect the warhead during an operational launch, apparently broke apart. (It's hard to know exactly what's going on with North Korea's missile and nuclear-weapons programs, because the nation is so isolated and secretive.)

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Hydrogen Bomb vs. Atomic Bomb: What's the Difference?

Stephanie Pappas — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 20:53:00 +0000

"I think that it could be an H-bomb test at an unprecedented level, perhaps over the Pacific," North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters this week during a gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, according to CBS News. Ri added that, "it is up to our leader."

Hydrogen bombs, or thermonuclear bombs, are more powerful than atomic or "fission" bombs. The difference between thermonuclear bombs and fission bombs begins at the atomic level. [The 10 Greatest Explosions Ever]

Fission bombs, like those used to devastate the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II, work by splitting the nucleus of an atom. When the neutrons, or neutral particles, of the atom's nucleus split, some hit the nuclei of nearby atoms, splitting them, too. The result is a very explosive chain reaction. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki exploded with the yield of 15 kilotons and 20 kilotons of TNT, respectively, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In contrast, the first test of a thermonuclear weapon, or hydrogen bomb, in the United States in November 1952 yielded an explosion on the order of 10,000 kilotons of TNT. Thermonuclear bombs start with the same fission reaction that powers atomic bombs — but the majority of the uranium or plutonium in atomic bombs actually goes unused. In a thermonuclear bomb, an additional step means that more of the bomb's explosive power becomes available.

First, an igniting explosion compresses a sphere of plutonium-239, the material that will then undergo fission. Inside this pit of plutonium-239 is a chamber of hydrogen gas. The high temperatures and pressures created by the plutonium-239 fission cause the hydrogen atoms to fuse. This fusion process releases neutrons, which feed back into the plutonium-239, splitting more atoms and boosting the fission chain reaction.

Governments around the world use global monitoring systems to detect nuclear tests as part of the effort to enforce the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). There are 183 signatories to this treaty, but it is not in force because key nations, including the United States, did not ratify it. Since 1996, Pakistan, India and North Korea have carried out nuclear tests. Nevertheless, the treaty put in place a system of seismic monitoring that can differentiate a nuclear explosion from an earthquake. The CTBT International Monitoring System also includes stations that detect the infrasound — sound whose frequency is too low for human ears to detect — from explosions. Eighty radionuclide monitoring stations around the globe measure atmospheric fallout, which can prove that an explosion detected by other monitoring systems was, in fact, nuclear.

Original article on Live Science.

Elon Musk: AI Poses Bigger Threat to Humanity Than North Korea

Denise Chow — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 18:05:21 +0000

Simmering tensions between the United States and North Korea have many people concerned about the possibility of nuclear war, but Elon Musk says the North Korean government doesn't pose as much of a threat to humanity as the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO tweeted on Aug. 11: "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea." The tweet was accompanied by a photo that features a pensive woman and a tag line that reads, "In the end the machines will win."

Concerns about the possibility of nuclear missile strikes have escalated in recent weeks, particularly after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened each other with shows of force. The North Korean government even issued a statement saying it is "examining" plans for a missile strike near the U.S. territory of Guam.

But, Musk thinks humanity's most pressing concern could be closer to home.

The billionaire entrepreneur has been outspoken about the dangers of AI, and the need to take action before it's too late. In July, he spoke at the National Governors Association summer meeting and urged lawmakers to regulate AI now before it poses a grave threat to humanity. And in 2014, Musk said artificial intelligence is humanity's "biggest existential threat."

Original article on Live Science.

North Korea Threatens Guam: Facts About the US Territory

Tia Ghose — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:20:28 +0000

Introduction

(Image credit: Keystone/Getty)

The North Korean government recently released a statement saying it was "examining" plans for a strike on the U.S. territory of Guam.

For many Americans, this is the first time that Guam, a tiny island hidden in the remote stretches of the Western Pacific Ocean, has entered their consciousness. But where is Guam, how did the United States acquire it and why would North Korea want to attack it?

From its early history to its political significance, here are 10 facts about the tiny Micronesian island.

It's a distant locale

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Guam sits in an area of the Pacific Ocean that could fairly be described as "the middle of nowhere."

It's located about 1,500 miles (2,490 kilometers) from the Philippines and about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) from Japan. It is part of the 500-mile-long (800 km) volcanic archipelago known as the Mariana Islands, according to "Destiny's Landfall: A history of Guam" (University of Hawaii Press, 2011). Its nearest neighbor within the Mariana Islands is about 270 miles (436 km) away.

It's a tiny but beautiful island

(Image credit: Google)

Guam is the largest of the 15 islands in the Marianas. Still, with just 210 square miles (543 square km) of land, it's about half the size of Los Angeles. The island had a population of about 162,000 in 2016, according to the World Bank.

The island is known for its white-sand beaches, and the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean trench on the planet, isn't far away.

The island chain was formed along a subduction zone — where one tectonic plate is diving beneath another — around 60 million years ago. However, it has risen above and subsided beneath the waves several times over the course of those millennia, and has millions of limestone and reef shelves formed from the skeletons of mollusks and other calcium-rich sea creatures, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

The island is also home to several unique species, such as the flightless koko bird, the damselfish and the Serianthes tree, according to the University of Guam. During World War II, brown tree snakes somehow slithered their way onto the island. The tree snakes have become huge pests and have wiped out many of the local birds and reptiles, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Humans have a long history here

(Image credit: Album/Florilegius/Newscom)

The Chamorro people, whose ancestors originally sailed from Southeast Asia, have occupied the island chain for about 4,000 years. "Chamorro," which is actually the name the Spanish used to identify the inhabitants when they first encountered them, is based on a variant of the local indigenous population's name for their high-caste members, the chamorri, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

The original indigenous people of Guam are Austronesian. Linguistic clues suggest they are most closely related to the people of Taiwan and the Philippines, according to "Destiny's Landfall." However, over years of colonial rule, the Chamorro have mixed with people from Spain, Germany, the Philippines, America and many other nations.

The first European contact was Magellan

(Image credit: Joe Rosenthal/AP)

Europeans first made contact with people in this area of the Pacific in 1521, when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan first set foot on the island. Magellan had been searching for the spice islands of the Moluccas. He and his men were on poorly outfitted ships and were too ignorant of the ocean's bounty to fish for their meals, so they survived on rats, sawdust and ox-hide rigging, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

When the explorers made landfall on Guam, they were surrounded by proas, the sleek and nimble boats of the local Chamorro people, who began to take items off the Portuguese vessels. In retaliation, Magellan's men fired crossbows and killed several of the local Chamorro. The Chamorro managed to steal a skiff from the Europeans, who left and then returned the next day to take the skiff back. In the process, they burned several villages and proas and killed eight more Chamorro, before taking on more supplies and heading out again, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

For most of the next 100 years, however, there were only intermittent contacts with European sailors, including Spanish ships that docked about once a year before moving on to Acapulco, on Mexico's Pacific coast. However, in 1668, the Spanish invaded and colonized the island. They also brought missionaries, who would largely convert the island population to Roman Catholicism. [The World's Catholic Population]

Guam offers military advantages

(Image credit: Sgt H F Williams/Hulton Archive/Getty)

For most of the last few centuries, Guam has been occupied militarily by a parade of different foreign powers, from Spain to Germany to Japan to the United States. This constant military domination is likely due, in part, to the island's unique geography and location. It is the largest landmass in Micronesia and the highest island in the vicinity, and it also has several safe harbors and multiple airstrips, making it perfect for a military outpost. Additionally, it sits at the intersection of the trade winds and the equatorial current, meaning that for centuries, sailors could take advantage of the prevailing winds and currents to land there for restocking or a break on the way to other destinations, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

America has a long history with Guam

(Image credit: Sgt H F Williams/Hulton Archive/Getty)

America first captured Guam during the Spanish-American War in 1898. It was initially used as a way station en route to the Philippines, but its military importance grew as it became the main communication channel for a telegraph line that connected the United States mainland with Hawaii and the Philippines, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

At the time, Japan was the dominant maritime power in the Pacific, and was rapidly expanding its influence in order to access more resources. Japan occupied the island of Saipan within the Mariana Islands, just 100 miles (161 km) away, according to "Guam 1941 & 1944: Loss and Reconquest" (Bloomsbury, 2011). American leaders were concerned about the possibility of a war with Japan and some military leaders wanted to beef up military fortifications on Guam, which would serve as a crucial link in their efforts to hold the Philippines. However, support from Congress was minimal and intense military fortifications never occurred.

America instituted Jim Crow laws on the island in 1907, segregating locals from American enlisted men in terms of housing and schooling. Laws preventing intermarriage between the locals and most Navy enlisted men also took effect around this time. Guam started using American currency in 1909 and also began observing all United States federal holidays around that time. However, none of the locals could vote. But under American rule, the local people gradually did experience an increase in their standard of living, with fewer disease outbreaks and greater educational opportunities, according to "Destiny's Landfall."

Japan controlled Guam during World War II

(Image credit: Keystone/Getty)

Japan invaded Guam on Dec. 8, 1941, just a few days after its attack on Pearl Harbor. [Secret Spies, Sunken Ships: 8 Pearl Harbor Mysteries]

At the time, about 700 people defended the island, which had relatively little other military fortifications. After a token resistance, the American forces gave up. The Japanese immediately renamed the island, and would hold it for another two-and-a-half years.

Over the next few years, American forces devised an elaborate multistep plan for capturing islands, including Guam, in the Pacific. This plan was first set in motion in January 1944, with the initial conquest of the Kwajalein Atoll. Guam's recapture was part of a series of steps designed to retake islands in the South Pacific from Japanese forces, including the recapture of Saipan and Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, on the way to the Philippines. The American military retook the island of Guam from Japanese forces in the Second Battle of Guam, which lasted for about two months and ended in August 1944.

The plan called for heavy air bombardment by planes stationed at the Marshall Islands, then bombardment by ship, according to "Guam 1941 & 1944: Loss and Reconquest." American forces landed on the island in late July, and by Aug. 8, the Japanese had given up their resistance. (One Japanese holdout, Shōichi Yokoi, was found hiding in the island's jungles 28 years later, however, the New York Times reported.)

Guam residents are ambivalent about independence

(Image credit: Three Lions/Getty)

Despite more than 100 years of American occupation, the territory of Guam has continued to be in a kind of limbo: While it's not considered to be an independent nation, and its occupants are U.S. citizens with U.S. passports, they cannot vote in general elections for president. Guam has a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, but the individual cannot vote. (If the inhabitants of Guam move to the United States, they can vote.)

In 1950, President Harry Truman signed the Guam Organic Act of 1950, which allows native people on the island some level of self-governance, with their own elected governor, court system and legislature, and a bill of rights (which is skimpier than the one afforded Americans on the mainland, but it does provide for rights such as separation of church and state). Federal taxes would also go back to Guam's coffers, according to that act.

However, many people in Guam still chafe over this in-between status. Guam is currently an unincorporated territory, but in theory it could vote for full-fledged statehood or for full sovereignty. In several referenda over the years, however, people in Guam have consistently voted to maintain the status quo, with some improvements.

Why North Korea singled out Guam

(Image credit: U.S. Navy)

So why did North Korea single out Guam as a likely place of attack? Aside from being a strategic hub for centuries, Guam has the advantage of being able to quickly ramp up its military protections for U.S. allies (and North Korean enemies) such as South Korea and Japan. Guam is home to about 6,000 troops and several huge military outposts, including Andersen Air Force Base and the Naval Base Guam, and is home to a nuclear submarine homing station for the United States.

In addition, Guam is home to the terminal high-altitude area defense battery (THAAD), which is designed to shoot down missiles as they reenter the atmosphere. (A second THAAD system is placed in South Korea).

Originally published on Live Science.

Fire and Fury: How to Survive a Nuclear Attack

Tia Ghose — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 11:05:51 +0000

North Korea has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead that could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile, and has now threatened to attack Guam, a U.S. territory, according to several news reports.

In response, President Donald Trump used some apocalyptic rhetoric of his own.

"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump told reporters on Tuesday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to news reports. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." [7 Strange Facts About North Korea]

The saber rattling has raised concerns about the possibility of a nuclear attack on U.S. soil and heightened fears of doomsday. But is a global nuclear winter just around the corner?

While the effects of a detonation on American soil would certainly be scary and could set off a larger global catastrophe, one nuclear attack in itself isn't a certain death sentence, as many people assume, said Michael May, a professor emeritus at the Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

In addition, survival rates depend on whether the weapons are deployed by a well-armed hostile nation like Russia; a country, like North Korea, that has with a limited nuclear arsenal; or a terrorist group, he said. It also depends on how far people are from the epicenter, May said.

Likeliest attacks

When most people think of nuclear war, they imagine a Cold War-type, mutually assured destruction scenario in which two countries lob a flurry of nuclear weapons at each other, decimating each other's military, food and power infrastructure and raining radioactive fallout on large swaths of the world.

But despite the current tensions with Russia, a terrorist attack using a dirty bomb — a nuclear weapon patched together from explosives and radioactive nuclear waste — or a lone attack from a country such as North Korea is slightly more likely, May said. While the United States has a prototype nuclear missile-defense shield, this technology doesn't work very well, Live Science previously reported. Still, the likeliest scenario would be one detonation, rather than the hundreds that would leave America a post-apocalyptic wasteland, May said. [Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End]

"If it's a lone, single weapon, [then] outside that central area, there's a pretty good chance of survival," May told Live Science.

Even Cold War analyses that forecasted a complete war of annihilation between Russia and the United States would likely result in "only" 40 million casualties on American soil, said May. Of course, the food and water infrastructure would likely be destroyed in such a scenario, leading to catastrophe, he added.

Immediate blast zone

The worst effects would likely be felt in the heart of an urban blast zone, May said.

For instance, for a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon, equivalent to the size of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, would immediately kill about 50 percent of the people within a 2-mile (3.2 kilometers) radius of ground detonation, according to a 2007 report from a Preventive Defense Project workshop. Those deaths would be caused by fires, intense radiation exposure and other fatal injuries. Some of these people would be injured by pressure from the explosion, while most would be exposed to injuries from collapsed buildings or from flying shrapnel; most buildings in a 0.5-mile (0.6 km) radius of the detonation would be knocked down or heavily damaged.

Injuries to extremities would be extremely common, according to the Preventive Defense Project study. A few people would be injured by thermal burns caused by the fireball after the detonation. People in this area may also be exposed to extremely high levels of radioactivity, and many first responders and search-and-rescue workers would have to wait to enter these areas until the radiation levels had dropped, meaning assistance would be limited. [Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth]

People with subsurface basements in the primary blast zone may be able to survive the primary blast, assuming there's only one, May said.

Even those who are a mile away from the epicenter of the explosion may have time to increase their survival odds; the light flash from the detonation travels much faster than the pressure and shock waves, meaning people may have a bit of time to close their eyes, move away from windows, duck and cover themselves, according to the Preventive Defense Workshop report.

Radioactive fallout

The next immediate hazard to deal with is the radioactive fallout. When a nuclear bomb explodes, it pulverizes thousands of tons of earth, comingling that material with radioactive particles from the explosion. This process forms the iconic mushroom cloud, and as those thousands of tons of radioactive bits of ash, rock and dust float toward the ground, they emit radioactivity. The largest, heaviest particles of this nuclear snow settle first and are mostly contained in the initial blast area. Smaller particles may float higher and farther and reach 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) downwind, but the bulk of their radioactivity rapidly decays over time and they often take a long time to settle back to ground level.

In the absence of snow or rain — which would help to pull the fallout to the ground faster — far-flung particles may have minimal radioactivity by the time they float to Earth, according to the handbook "Nuclear War Survival Skills" (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1987)

By 48 hours after the blast, an area that is initially exposed to 1,000 roentgens per hour of radiation will experience only 10 roentgens per hour of radiation, according to "Nuclear War Survival Skills." About half of the people who experience a total radiation dose of about 350 roentgens over a couple of days are likely to die from acute radiation poisoning, according to the handbook. (A typical abdominal computed tomography scan may expose people to less than one roentgen.)

Those in the blast area can take some measures to protect themselves, if they have some warning. For example, they can go into a heavily reinforced building and stay away from windows; fall to the ground and cover their bodies (duck and cover), waiting at least 30 seconds after the blast for the shock wave to hit; and remain in a shelter until word comes that it's safe to evacuate. After the blast, people should remove their outer clothing and shower if possible to remove radioactive particles. [Top 10 Largest Explosions Ever]

In a full-scale nuclear war, there may be more long-term contamination of the food supply. For instance, fallout may land on croplands and be taken up by the food supply, which could then cause longer-term problems such as cancer, May said. Radioactive iodine, in particular, could be a problem, he said.

"Cows are concentrating the iodine in the milk, and children concentrate the iodine in the milk into the thyroids," leading to thyroid cancer, May said.

EMPs

Nuclear detonations also cause electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that can damage a wide range of electrical and communications equipment, especially within a radius of 2 to 5 miles (3.2 to 8 km) from a ground-level, 10-kiloton explosion. Vehicles could stall, communications and cell towers would be disrupted, computers would be destroyed, and the water and electrical grid could also be destroyed. First responders that come in from outside the area with unaffected electronics should still be able to operate their devices, according to the 2007 report.

Preparing for a blast

Among preparatory steps people can take, the coordination and planning of first responders would likely have the biggest effect on casualty levels, but individuals can also take a few easy preventive steps, May said. The ultrawealthy may build high-end bomb shelters, but even the average person can take steps to minimize risks, he said. Some of those steps — such as having extra food, water and first-aid supplies available — will work for other emergencies, too.

Other steps may be unique to a nuclear attack. For instance, respiratory protection, such as cheap face masks or even cloths held over the nose and mouth, can help reduce radiation exposure, according to the workshop report.

Nuclear attacks would also necessitate equipment for measuring radiation. People who are waiting to emerge from their shelter after a blast will want to know which areas have dangerous levels of radiation.

"You might get yourself a radiation meter. They don't cost very much," May told Live Science.

Other safety tips: Keep a radio to maintain communications with the outside world. This radio can be placed in a metal storage box to protect it against EMPs, along with a sealed, large plastic bag for containment to protect against humidity, according to the "Nuclear War Survival Skills" handbook.

Originally published on Live Science.

Hwasong-14 Missile Test: Can North Korea's Rockets Reach the US?

Tom Metcalfe — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 16:57:13 +0000

North Korea's latest missile test has brought simmering tensions between the notoriously reclusive country and the United States to a head. But are fears of nuclear war premature? Are North Korean rockets capable of reaching American shores?

It's possible, according to John Schilling, an American aerospace engineer and North Korea analyst.

Schilling, whose experience includes developing rockets for the U.S. Air Force, said the latest North Korean missile is the first with sufficient range and payload capacity to deliver a single nuclear warhead into United States territory. [North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)]

The July 4 test launch was "definitely unprecedented," Schilling told Live Science. "They've used bits of technology that they've been testing in smaller missiles, but this is the first time they've tested a missile of this scale."

Schilling is a consultant for 38 North, a website devoted to expert analysis of North Korea, run by the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

The North Korean news agency KCNA broadcast a video of the launch and reported that the missile reached a maximum altitude of 1,741 miles (2,802 kilometers) and flew for 39 minutes before it impacted in the Sea of Japan "more than 930 km" (580 miles) from its launch site near Kusong, in the northwest of the country.

In a blog post, David Wright, director of the Global Security Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, estimated that the new missile has a theoretical maximum range of around 4,160 miles (6,700 km) from launch sites in North Korea.

"In its present form, it couldn't reach much farther than Alaska or maybe Hawaii," Schilling said, "but we think it can be fairly easily extended to cover the West Coast of the United States."

Nuclear threat

There can be little doubt about North Korea's intended targets for its missiles — the country's state media regularly issues dire warnings to South Korea, Japan and the United States, which it accuses of meddling in Korean affairs. [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare]

"I expect they will eventually try to develop something bigger to cover the entire United States, but would expect this one to go into service as a weapon, at least in the near term, over the next year or two," Schilling said.

That means North Korea is on the verge of creating a truly intercontinental nuclear threat: "Missiles of this scale are almost always equipped with nuclear warheads," he said. "It's just not cost-effective with anything less."

Schilling estimated that North Korea could have around 20 nuclear warheads that could be used on such a missile, "but there is substantial uncertainty on that," he said.

He also noted that, unlike earlier North Korean missiles, the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that was tested earlier this month is fitted with a payload shroud, which hides the payload from external view.

"That sort of design suggests that they're planning on incorporating decoys, in addition to just a single warhead — but that would be several years down the road, requiring additional development and testing," Schilling said.

Home grown

North Korea's nuclear missile program is made possible by a massive commitment of money and resources, reported the Washington Post, even though the country is thought to be one of the poorest in the world, and where inhabitants endure frequent power outages and shortages of basic supplies.

Schilling said each rocket based on the Hwasong-14 would probably costs tens of millions of dollars to build, and the North Koreans are expected to put several such rockets into service over the next few years.

The technologies used in the latest rocket also showed how North Korea's missile technology has advanced since its earlier reliance on missile technology from post-Soviet Russia, in addition to covert assistance in the past from Pakistan and Iran.

"We think this is a home-grown design." Schilling said. "Getting to this stage over the last 20 years has involved some foreign collaboration, but at this point, we think that they've taken the training wheels off, and they're doing this on their own, with just an incredibly focused effort from a relatively poor nation."

Reliability risk

Schilling said North Korea still faces many engineering challenges before the Hwasong-14 can be an effective weapon, particularly when it comes to ensuring that the missiles can function under the haste and uncertainty of combat conditions.

"We are actually surprised that this one worked at all — their missiles rarely work on the first try," he said.

Developing precise guidance systems for the missiles would be another challenge: "They've done launches which suggest they have guidance technology that would at least be accurate enough to hit city-sized targets," Schilling said. "Anything more precise than that would probably require a great deal of testing to calibrate the guidance systems."

The next stages of North Korea's missile development will probably only be known when it tests another missile. And only North Korea knows when that may be.

"That's hard to read," Schilling said. "They may just consider this success to be sufficient for the moment, and not risk embarrassing themselves with a failure."

Original article on Live Science.

Missile Test-Launched by North Korea Was an ICBM, US Officials Confirm

Mike Wall — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 21:08:20 +0000

North Korea did indeed test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) yesterday, as the nuclear-armed nation claimed, U.S. officials said.

"The United States strongly condemns North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement yesterday (July 4). "Testing an ICBM represents a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and partners, the region, and the world."

North Korean state-run media asserted that the newly tested ICBM will allow the nation — which has repeatedly threatened to destroy the United States, South Korea and Japan — to deliver nuclear weapons to targets anywhere in the world. But that claim is likely overblown, according to Western experts.

The available evidence suggests that the missile splashed down in the ocean about 590 miles (950 kilometers) from the launch site after flying for 37 minutes, said missile expert David Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"A flight time of 37 minutes would require it to reach a maximum altitude of more than 2,800 km (1700 miles)," Wright wrote in a blog postyesterday. "So if the reports are correct, that same missile could reach a maximum range of roughly 6,700 km (4,160 miles) on a standard trajectory. That range would not be enough to reach the lower 48 states or the large islands of Hawaii, but would allow it to reach all of Alaska."

Missiles that can fly at least 3,400 miles (5,500 km) are regarded as ICBMs. Western analysts believe North Korea has been working to develop such a vehicle for quite some time, though the exact route the nation is taking has remained a mystery. (North Korea is famously secretive, so it's hard to know much about its missile and rocket program with certainty.)

Yesterday's test was therefore revelatory. It apparently involved a KN-17 missile, which Pyongyang has test-launched before, topped with a second stage to make "a brand-new missile that has not been seen before," CNN reported, citing U.S. officials.

"The focus now is on the capability of that second stage, and how it technically contributed to making Pyongyang's latest test its first ever intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch," CNN wrote.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

What Can an Autopsy on Otto Warmbier Reveal?

Sara G. Miller — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 20:34:18 +0000

Update on June 20 at 10:15 p.m. ET:

Otto Warmbier's family has declined an autopsy, CNN has reported.

The Hamilton County Coronor's Office in Ohio received and examined Warmbier's body, but honored the family's request to not perform an autopsy, according to CNN. Instead, the investigators performed an "external examination."

Live Science published this article (below), earlier today:

An autopsy on Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 and died yesterday (June 19) in Cincinnati, will be conducted to further investigate his death, according to news reports.

An autopsy could confirm what doctors already suspect in the young man's case — that Warmbier experienced extensive brain injury — and potentially also offer some insight into what caused the brain injury, said Dr. Lori Shutter, the medical director of the neurovascular intensive care unit at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Hospital. Shutter is not involved in Warmbier's case.

Warmbier was released back to the United States on June 13 after being held in North Korea for 17 months, the Los Angeles Times reported.

But when Warmbier returned home, he was in a coma, and doctors determined that he had suffered "extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of his brain," which was most likely caused by cardiopulmonary arrest — meaning his heart stopped beating and didn't pump blood to the brain, The New York Times reported.

Shutter told Live Science that the coroner could potentially determine during an autopsy if there was a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain or a lack of blood flow to the brain. [3D Images: Exploring the Human Brain]

Generally speaking, a lack of oxygen in the brain causes widespread damage throughout the brain, whereas a lack of blood flow causes damage that is more pronounced in one part of the brain than in other parts, she said.

An investigator could also look for signs of trauma to the brain or blows to the head, which could also show up as a more localized injury, Shutter said. But the initial reports about Warmbier's condition don't indicate that there was direct trauma to his head or a skull fracture, she added.

Shutter noted that the information that doctors have so far about Warmbier's brain come from brain imaging. However, such images show only the big picture, she added. Actually looking at brain tissue under the microscope can reveal other changes that could possibly confirm assumptions doctors made based on the "big brushstrokes" of the brain images, she said.

An added challenge in Warmbier's case is the amount of time that has elapsed since his initial injury. There's evidence, from brain scans sent by the North Koreans, that Warmbier experienced this brain damage sometime before April 2016, according to The New York Times.

"This far out [from the injury], there's going to be a lot of scarring and changes over time, so you may not have quite as much information compared to an autopsy that was done shortly after the initial injury," Shutter said.

During an autopsy, investigators can also look at other organs besides the brain; a generalized autopsy would include an examination of each of the organs to see if there was damage. By looking at the heart, for example, it may be possible to find changes in the muscles that could point to a heart attack, Shutter said.

Ultimately, an autopsy can reveal structural changes in the body, Shutter said, but it can't tell you what caused these changes.

Normally, when doctors examine patients, they interview the patient or a family member about the patient's medical history — a thorough inquiry into the medical conditions a person ever had as well as what happened leading up to an injury or an illness, Shutter said.

"We try to put things together and say, 'We think this is what's going on,'" and then run tests, take images and watch how the injury or illness progresses, Shutter said. "Then, you can say, 'We're pretty certain that this is what it is.'"

But in Warmbier's case, "there's a big gap, of over a year long, where no one knows what happened to him," she said. "I don't know if we'll ever know," she added.

Shutter offered an analogy to help people understand the challenges investigators face. Somebody can break a bone when he or she is a child, and decades later when the person dies, you could do an autopsy and see that the bone had been broken. "You'd know I broke a bone, but you wouldn't know how I broke it," Shutter said. "There's no way you're going to know that."

Originally published on Live Science.

North Korea: A Hermit Country from Above (Photos)

Stephanie Pappas — Wed, 10 May 2017 11:11:28 +0000

Dark and Light

If any image can tell the story of North and South Korea in one frame, it's this shot taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in January 2014. The nighttime view shows South Korea lit up with electric lights. Seoul is so bright as to be nearly washed out. With a 2017 gross domestic product estimated at $1.4 trillion by the International Monetary Fund, South Korea is among the dozen most prosperous countries in the world. North Korea's GDP is estimated at around $25 billion. According to one 2016 estimate, the per-capita GDP of North Korea was $1,013 in 2015, lagging behind even undeveloped countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Mythological Mountain

This volcano on the border of China and North Korea is Paektu, or Baekdu, Mountain. It has long been a sacred place in Korean mythology and was said to be the birthplace of Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom. North Korea's Kim dynasty has seized on this mythology and claims that Kim Jong Il, the country's supreme leader between 1994 and 2011, was born there under a newly formed star. (According to Soviet records, Kim Jong Il was actually born in the former Soviet Union.)

Empty country

This 2012 image shows another stark nighttime view of North Korea and its more prosperous southern neighbor. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon)

This 2012 image shows another stark nighttime view of North Korea and its more prosperous southern neighbor. In 1953, when the armistice ending the Korean War was signed, North and South Korea had similar levels of economic development. While South Korea has since nurtured high-tech industries and economic growth, North Korea has faced "chronic economic problems" under the repressive Kim dynasty, according to the CIA World Factbook. A widespread famine in the 1990s, exacerbated by the Kim policy of "self reliance" and the closed economy that prevented food imports, killed between half a million and up to 3 million people, according to different estimates.

Agricultural Fires

An image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite in April 2014 shows pinpricks of fire across North Korea. (Image credit: NASA image courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz/LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC)

An image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite in April 2014 shows pinpricks of fire across North Korea. Some may have been wildfires, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Others, particularly those near rivers, were probably agricultural fires, set by farmers growing crops in mountainous, marginal land.

Engorged river

This image, taken by the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite, shows the Yalu River in August 2010, after weeks of rain swelled waterways and caused flooding and mudslides. (Image credit: NASA images courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC)

The Yalu, or Amnok, River runs for 490 miles (790 kilometers) along the border of North Korea and China. This image, taken by the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite, shows the river in August 2010, after weeks of rain swelled waterways and caused flooding and mudslides.

Baekdu in winter

A gorgeous view of Mount Baekdu and its crater lake, Heaven Lake. (Image credit: NASA)

A gorgeous view of Mount Baekdu and its crater lake, Heaven Lake. In Chinese, the peak is called Changbaishan (translates to "ever-white mountain"), a name that seems appropriate for this image captured on April 4, 2003. Mount Baekdu last erupted in 1903. In around A.D. 946, the mountain exploded in one of the largest-known volcanic eruptions in human history, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, depositing rock fragments as far away as northern Japan.

Fire scars

This 2014 image from NASA's Advanced Land Imager on its Earth Observing-1 satellite gives a sense of North Korea's rugged terrain as well as its agricultural practices. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon)

This 2014 image from NASA's Advanced Land Imager on its Earth Observing-1 satellite gives a sense of North Korea's rugged terrain as well as its agricultural practices. Burn scars seen near the river running down the center of the image are probably agricultural burns, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Farmers struggling to grow food in poor, mountainous land focus their efforts alongside river valleys and burn away debris from the previous year at planting time.

Monster storm

Tropical Storm Tembin blankets the entire Korean peninsula in this true-color image taken on Aug. 30, 2012, by the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. (Image credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team)

Tropical Storm Tembin blankets the entire Korean peninsula in this true-color image taken on Aug. 30, 2012, by the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. The storm hit just days after another storm, Typhoon Bolaven, made landfall. Prior to hitting the Korean peninsula, Tembin had hit Taiwan twice — first on Aug. 23 and then after looping back again on Aug. 27.

Hazy day

A hazy day in South Korea is clear in the North. This image from Feb. 6, 2007, was taken by NASA's MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. (Image credit: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team)

A hazy day in South Korea is clear in the North. This image from Feb. 6, 2007, was taken by NASA's MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite. The haze emanates from China, which has struggled with air pollution issues as its population becomes more car-dependent.

No man's land

This false-color image shows the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a buffer between South and North Korea that was established in 1953. (Image credit: NASA image created by Jesse Allen)

This false-color image shows the Korean Demilitarized Zone, a buffer between South and North Korea that was established in 1953 as part of the armistice that suspended the Korean War. Troops are stationed along both sides of this border, and burn scars in this image show some of the changes that both militaries have wrought on the DMZ in the context of patrolling and surveillance, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.

This image comes courtesy of the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus sensor on NASA's Landsat-7 satellite.

Line of truce

Another view of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in real color. (Image credit: Image courtesy Jesse Allen/NASA's Earth Observatory)

Another view of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in real color. The 2.5-mile-wide (4 kilometers) buffer is a mixture of mountains to the east and grasslands to the west. This image combines Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 satellite data from between 1989 and 1991 to get a cloud-free view of this largely depopulated swatch of land.

A divided peninsula

In this image taken by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite, the Korean peninsula's differences disappear. (Image credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC)

In this image taken by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite, the Korean peninsula's differences disappear. This view of both North and South Korea shows two small fires burning in the North (red dots).

China and North Korea

Phytoplankton blooms turn the water psychedelic in this November 2001 image captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. (Image credit: Jacques Descloitres/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team/NASA/GSFC)

Phytoplankton blooms turn the water psychedelic in this November 2001 image captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. The Bohai Sea is seen at the far left, with its three bays: Liaodong, Bohai and Laizhoid (from top, counterclockwise). The Korea Sea, part of the Yellow Sea, is visible as the darker region butting up against the Chinese and North Korean coastlines. According to NASA's Visible Earth, the murky sediments seen in the Bohai Sea are full of nutrients feeding the vivid blue plankton blooms.

Peering into Pyongyang

A 2014 GoPro camera tour of the city — approved by the country's government — shows broad boulevards and Soviet-style architecture. (Image credit: NASA GSFC/Landsat/LDCM EPO Team)

Pyongyang is North Korea's capital city and the home of most of the country's elites. It sits along the banks of the Taedong River and is home to approximately 3.2 million people, according to North Korea's 2008 census. A 2014 GoPro camera tour of the city — approved by the country's government — shows broad boulevards and Soviet-style architecture. Foreign reporters and visitors are rarely allowed outside of Pyongyang.

Snow over North Korea

A blanket of white snow covers North Korea, dipping across the Demilitarized Zone into South Korea. (Image credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team/NASA/GSFC)

A blanket of white snow covers North Korea, dipping across the Demilitarized Zone into South Korea. This image from December 2002 was taken by MODIS aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. North Korea's winters are long, as the CIA World Factbook puts it, "bitter." According to Weather-and-Climate.com, average temperatures in January hover around 26 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3 degrees Celsius), and there are 37 snowfall days on average in the winter months.

Dust plume

A tail of dust swirls over North Korea in this image taken by the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra Satellite in April 2002. The dust was blowing from East Asia toward the Sea of Japan. (Image credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team/NASA/GSFC)

A tail of dust swirls over North Korea in this image taken by the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra Satellite in April 2002. The dust was blowing from East Asia toward the Sea of Japan.

Typhoon Rusa

Typhoon Rusa, one of the strongest to hit the Korean Peninsula in recorded history, made landfall at Goheung in South Korea. (Image credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC)

Typhoon Rusa, one of the strongest to hit the Korean Peninsula in recorded history, made landfall at Goheung in South Korea in August 2002. Its expanse, however, affected the entire peninsula, as this image made with data from the MODIS instruments aboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites show. More than 200 people in South Korea died and thousands were left homeless in North Korea, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Efforts.

Dense fog

A dense blanket of fog curls against the North Korean coast and across the Yellow Sea in a satellite image captured on March 28, 2012. (Image credit: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response)

A dense blanket of fog curls against the North Korean coast and across the Yellow Sea in a satellite image captured on March 28, 2012. Foggy days are common over the Yellow Sea, according to NASA's Visible Earth. In this case, NASA scientists found that the fog was likely the result of northeasterly winds pushing moist air over the cool sea surface, causing the moisture to condense. Pyongyang is faintly visible as a grey spot in the upper lefthand corner of the image.

A colorful region

This zoomed-out view of North Korea, South Korea and the eastern portion of China shows the interaction of sea and land in the region. (Image credit: Courtesy of the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE)

This zoomed-out view of North Korea, South Korea and the eastern portion of China shows the interaction of sea and land in the region. To the lower left, China's Yangtze river pushes a plume of sediment into the East China Sea. This image was taken by the Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) aboard GeoEye's OrbView-2 satellite, which collected data between 1997 and 2010. This shot was taken soon after the satellite's launch in 1997.

Chilly weather

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Record cold temperatures hit Asia as a 'polar vortex' dipped southward in January 2016 and were captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory maps by Jesse Allen, based on land surface temperature anomaly data from the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) website.)

Record cold temperatures hit Asia as a "polar vortex" dipped southward in January 2016 and were captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite. This map, made from land surface temperature data collected by that instrument, shows temperatures between Jan. 17 and 24, 2016, compared with averages for that period between 2001 and 2010. The darker the blue, the farther below average the temperature in the 2016 cold snap.

US Test-Launches Another Ballistic Missile (Video, Photos)

Mike Wall — Wed, 03 May 2017 20:42:38 +0000

For the second week in a row, the United States Air Force has tested an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The Minuteman III ICBM was launched from a silo at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning (May 3) at 3:02 a.m. EDT (0702 GMT; 12:02 a.m. local California time), military officials said.

The Air Force also conducted a test of an unarmed Minuteman III from Vandenberg just after midnight local time last Wednesday (April 26).

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 12:02 a.m. PDT Wednesday (May 3) from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. (Image credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Michael Peterson)

The two tests have come amid relatively high tensions with North Korea, an unpredictable, nuclear-armed nation that has repeatedly stated a desire to destroy the United States and its allies, including South Korea and Japan."The purpose of the ICBM test launch program is to validate and verify the effectiveness, readiness and accuracy of the weapon system, according to Air Force Global Strike Command," Air Force officials wrote Saturday (April 29) in a statement announcing the test launch.

Pyongyang has been conducting missile tests of its own recently, in violation of United Nations resolutions. The country performed one such test on April 16 and another on April 29. Both of these launches apparently involved medium-range missiles; North Korea is working to develop an ICBM, but most experts think the nation has not mastered the technology yet. (North Korea is a secretive nation whose leaders tightly control the flow of information into and out of the country, so it's tough to get quality information about its weapons program.)

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile rises into the skies above California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base during a test early Wednesday (May 3). (Image credit: U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. William Collette)

The Minuteman program began in the 1950s, and the first missile, the Minuteman I, was deployed in the early 1960s. The Air Force currently has about 450 Minuteman III ICBMs, which are spread among bases in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota, according to the fact sheet.Though the missiles involved in the recent Minuteman III tests were unarmed, the three-stage missile can carry nuclear warheads. The Minuteman III has a maximum range of more than 6,000 miles (9,650 kilometers), according to an Air Force fact sheet.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

North Korea's Missile Threats to US May Not Be Empty for Long

Mike Wall — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 23:25:05 +0000

North Korea has always talked the talk, and now it seems to be walking the walk as never before.

The nuclear-armed rogue nation appears to be making progress on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which could conceivably allow the Hermit Kingdom to make good on its oft-repeated threat to turn major American cities into "seas of fire," experts say.

"They've probably reached the point where they're going to need to start testing the missiles themselves — the whole system," said Joel Wit, senior fellow at the U.S.-Korea Institute (USKI) at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. "Most people think that could come sometime this year." [Images: North Korea's Rocket Program]

Last year's successful test-launch of a missile from a submarine suggests that a mobile-strike capability may be within North Korea's grasp soon as well, analysts have said.

North Korean rocket and missile tech: A brief history

The North Korean missile program got its start with the importation of Soviet Scuds, which made their way into the nation in the 1970s. North Korea reworked Scud technology into a number of variants over the years, apparently with the help of Soviet engineers (many of whom fled the USSR after its 1991 collapse).

These versions include the Hwasong-5 and Hwasong-6, which are thought to have a range of a few hundred miles, and the Nodong, which experts believe can reach targets 620 miles to 800 miles (1,000 to 1,300 kilometers) away. (It's hard to know anything for sure about North Korea's missiles and rockets, because the nation's government is extremely secretive and works to keep much information from getting to the outside world.)

North Korea has also developed longer-range missiles, including the Taepodong-1, Musudan and Taepodong-2, which have estimated maximum ranges of about 1,500 miles (2,500 km), 2,000 miles (3,200 km) and 3,000 miles to 5,400 miles (5,000 to 9,000 km), respectively.

Taepodong-1 has just one known flight under its belt. In April 1998, a modified space-launch configuration of the vehicle lifted off with a small satellite onboard; Western observers concluded that the launch failed.

The Taepodong-2 failed during a 2006 test flight, its only known liftoff. However, North Korea modified the missile into the Unha space launcher, which lofted satellites to orbit in December 2012 and February 2016.

The Musudan has seen a lot more action. North Korea apparently tested the medium-range missile seven times last year, with just one success, said physicist and missile-technology expert David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program.

Such flights flout United Nations resolutions, which prohibit North Korea from testing missiles and nuclear weapons. Pyongyang has also conducted five known nuclear tests, with the latest one coming in September 2016. [North Korea Looks Strangely Dark From Space In Asia Fly-Over (Video)]

Working on an ICBM

North Korea could conceivably combine several of these existing vehicles to build an ICBM, topping an Unha first stage with a second stage based on the Musudan and adding a third stage of some sort, Wright said. But there's no evidence that the nation is actually doing that, he added.

"North Korea is probably reluctant to turn the Unha into a ballistic missile, because I think they want something that really is a civil space-launch program that they can point to and say, 'This is what countries do. We're launching satellites; it's not a threat,'" Wright told Space.com. "So my guess is, they won't go that route."

The route that Pyongyang appears to be taking instead, experts say, centers on a missile called the KN-08, a likely Russian-derived vehicle that Western observers first spotted in North Korean military parades about five years ago.

"It is much better suited as a militarily effective ICBM than the Unha is," Brian Weeden, a technical adviser for the nonprofit Secure World Foundation, told Space.com. He noted, for example, that the KN-08 can be launched from a truck, whereas the Unha requires a stationary facility.

Work on the KN-08 has apparently been proceeding apace. For instance, in April 2016, Pyongyang ground-tested a large, liquid-fueled engine that could power the putative ICBM and/or a more muscular variant known as the KN-14.

"Using this technology, North Korea's road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the KN-08 or the KN-14 modification, could deliver a nuclear warhead to targets at a distance of 10,000 to 13,000 kilometers [6,200 to 8,000 miles]," aerospace engineer and rocket-propulsion expert John Schilling wrote on 38North.org, a North Korea analysis site, shortly after the test.

"That range, greater than had previously been expected, could allow Pyongyang to reach targets on the U.S. East Coast, including New York or Washington, D.C.," he added.

And North Korea has also been working on a re-entry vehicle, which would protect the warhead during the ICBM's return to Earth's atmosphere from suborbital space. Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held an event during which he stood next to a re-entry vehicle, said Wit, who is also the co-founder of 38 North (a USKI program).

"I think you can be almost 100 percent certain that they've done [re-entry vehicle] tests on the ground," Wit told Space.com.

During a speech on New Year's Day, Kim announced that Pyongyang was in final preparations to test-launch its ICBM. Wit said such a flight could come soon — possibly as early as next month, when the U.S. and South Korea hold their annual joint military exercises.

"That could trigger a North Korean response," Wit said.

If ICBM testing does indeed start this year, the missiles could potentially be ready for deployment by late 2019, he added.

Pyongyang also conducted a successful test launch from a submarine in August 2016, sending one of its KN-11 (also known as Pukguksong-2) missiles about 300 miles (500 km) toward Japan. Developing this technology to the fullest extent would make North Korea more dangerous and capable, Wright said.

"That's another thing that people are watching — this combination of a missile and a submarine," he said. [North Korea's Rockets and Missiles: 5 Interesting Facts]

The missile that North Korea fired on Sunday (Feb. 12), which traveled 300 miles (500 km) before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, was a land-based version of the KN-11, according to the North Korean news service.

Don't panic

North Korea is famously unpredictable, secretive and prone to outbursts of grandiose and threatening rhetoric; Kim and other officials have repeatedly vowed to wipe out South Korea, Japan and the United States, for example.

But Pyongyang's development of a functional ICBM, if and when that does indeed happen, shouldn't incite panic across the United States, experts said. After all, North Korea has been capable of hitting South Korea and Japan for a while but has yet to do so — probably because the nation knows that such an unprovoked strike would be suicidal, drawing a devastating response from the U.S.

And the Kim regime is not suicidal; rather, it appears focused primarily on strengthening and perpetuating its rule, Weeden said.

"It's very clear that they want to send a signal to the West that they can't be messed with," he said. "There's a rationality there."

There are other reasons to doubt that North Korea will launch a nuclear ICBM attack on the U.S. anytime soon.

For example, Pyongyang is thought to possess just a handful of nuclear weapons. A 2015 SAIS report co-authored by Wit pegged the nation's stockpile at 10 to 16 nukes. By 2020, this number could grow to 20 in a "best-case scenario," and to 100 in a "worst-case scenario," the report predicted.

Each warhead is therefore quite valuable to North Korea, Wright said — meaning the nation probably won't use its nukes lightly.

"It might be the kind of thing you would like to have in your back pocket, to make people think, 'Well, gee, maybe in a bad situation, they might try a Hail Mary pass and see whether it works,'" Wright said. "But it's not the sort of thing that you're going to be able to rely on other than that."

That's not to suggest that North Korea is all bluster, however.

"I think the best bet is that they would use nuclear weapons if they felt the regime was threatened in a serious way," Wit said. "Of course, the main way that might happen is if there's a war on the Korean Peninsula, and U.S. and South Korean troops are moving north."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

North Korean Leader Pays Visit to Naval Submarine

Tanya Lewis — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 17:54:00 +0000

The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a naval submarine this week and called for combat preparations and additional underwater warfare capabilities, according to a statement released by the country's state-run media yesterday (June 16).

Kim inspected the North Korean army's Naval Unit 167, where he met with several naval commanders, watched a torpedo drill and even taught the captain "a good method of navigation," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The dictator emphasized the need to organize training to improve naval and underwater operations under simulated battle conditions. [7 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea]

"The commanding officers and seamen should clearly see through the motives of the hateful enemies watching for a chance to invade our land and put spurs to combat preparations, thinking about battles only," Kim said, somewhat cryptically, according to the KCNA.

A photograph shows Kim on what appears to be a 1950s-era Project 633 diesel electric submarine, one of 20 such vessels in the North Korean fleet, built according to a Soviet design from Chinese parts, USNI News reported. The submarine appears to be part of the North Korean military's Large Combined Unit 597, property of the East Sea fleet command headquartered in North Korea's South Hamgyong Province, Global Post reported.

Kim apparently reveled in the navy's revolutionary history, "with deep emotion" expressed over "the immortal exploits" of President Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-un's father, the former leader Kim Jong-il, according to the KCNA.

The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to submarines, the younger Kim said, "setting forth the tasks to be fulfilled to round off the combat preparations of the unit and remarkably bolster up the underwater operation capability of submarines and modernize and fortify bases," according to the KCNA.

Kim toured the submarine's mess room, crew quarters and classrooms, instructing commanding officers to provide their seamen with "excellent material and cultural living conditions." Kim also gave binoculars and automatic rifles as gifts and posed for photos with the crew, the news agency said.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Is US Military Using Drones to Spy on North Korea & China?

Denise Chow — Fri, 30 May 2014 17:03:00 +0000

The U.S. military may soon begin using long-range surveillance drones to spy on North Korea and China.

Over the past week, the U.S. Air Force stationed two unarmed Global Hawk drones at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan. The first drone touched down on May 24, Air Force officials said in a statement.

The drones will be used to gather intelligence data on nuclear sites in the notoriously reclusive country of North Korea, where 24 million people live sealed off from the rest of the world, reported the Associated Press. The Global Hawks also will likely monitor Chinese naval operations. [See photos of the Global Hawks' arrival in Japan]

The two drones are expected to remain in Japan until October, after which they will return to an American military base on the island of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean, according to Air Force officials. Lt. Gen. Sam Angelella, commander of U.S. Forces Japan, refused to discuss specific details of the clandestine drone operations in the Pacific, but said the Global Hawk's "capabilities are well known," reported the AP.

Global Hawk drones can fly at altitudes of more than 60,000 feet (18,300 meters), and are considered the Air Force's most advanced surveillance vehicles. The long-distance drones also boast impressive aerial endurance, and can perform flights that last more than 28 hours.

The planes are equipped with a range of instruments, including infrared sensors and satellite communication systems. The robotic flyers, which can provide near real-time imagery, are capable of surveying 40,000 square miles (103,000 square kilometers) of ground in one day.

A Global Hawk drone was previously used in the region to assist with disaster relief efforts in the wake of the 9.0-magnitude Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan in 2011

"The Global Hawk was requested to support relief efforts within 48 hours of the disaster, prompting crews to prepare and launch aircraft only nine hours after official notification," Air Force officials said in a statement.

The drone flew over the Tohoku region and identified open roads and emergency landing zones for first responders. The plane's long-range and infrared cameras snapped more than 3,000 images of the earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged area.

NASA uses a version of the Global Hawk drones to peer inside hurricanes and tropical storms. The unmanned aircraft help scientists study the life cycles of extreme weather events, and enable researchers to develop more accurate models of these storms.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

North Korea Fires Seen from Space

Stephanie Pappas — Fri, 02 May 2014 16:54:27 +0000

Dozens of fires burning in secretive North Korea are visible on a new satellite image.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Aqua satellite caught this snapshot of fires burning in both agricultural and wilderness areas on the Korean Peninsula. Farmers in North Korea use fire to clear away last year's agricultural debris and prepare the land for a new crop, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Wildfires in mountainous regions may be sparked by downed power lines.

Satellite images are one of the few ways the outside world can peek into North Korea, which is largely cut off from the outside world because of the totalitarian regime that rules the country. [7 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea]

Isolated Nation

Another recent image of the country from space showed the country at night, almost completely dark. Only the capital city of Pyongyang shows signs of life in the image, illustrating the relative poverty of North Korea compared to its neighbors. In 2011, per-capita power consumption in the country was 729 kilowatt hours, compared to 10,162 kilowatt hours in South Korea, according to the World Bank.

The driving philosophy of North Korea's familial dictatorship is juche, or self-reliance. The first president of the regime, Kim Il Sung, cut off diplomatic and economic ties from the rest of the world after a failed United Nations attempt to reunify North and South Korea in 1948.

In the time since, the dynasty, now headed by Kim Jong Un, grandson of Kim Il Sung, has cultivated an aura of mythology about its leaders. State media, for example, claimed that Kim Il Sung could control the weather. When Kim Jong Il, the previous leader of North Korea, died in 2011, state news channels reported that the sky glowed red above Mount Paektu, a sacred mountain in North Korea.

Approximately 120,000 people labor in political prison camps in North Korea, according to a recent Reuters report. The U.N. Human Rights Council this week called on the country to dismantle the camps and end the country's caste system, which ranks families in order of their political loyalty, Reuters said. The calls seem likely to fall on deaf ears: A North Korean assemblyman insisted that the political camps do not exist.

In 2013, human rights group Amnesty International released a new assessment of the camps, including satellite images that seem to show the prison communities expanding. Many detainees are kept only because their families are found guilty of political disloyalty, according to Amnesty, and the North Korean system punishes entire families for a single person's "crimes."

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Lights Out for North Korea: Space Photo Reveals Country's Isolation

Marc Lallanilla — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 19:45:20 +0000

Nighttime imagery of the Earth's surface has been a staple for science geeks and geopolitical analysts for years, revealing details about a region's population, growth and industry in dramatic ways.

A recent image from the International Space Station (ISS) shows in stark detail the utter lack of development in North Korea — widely considered to be an isolated "rogue" state — compared with next-door neighbor South Korea, a rapidly developing industrial power.

"North Korea is almost completely dark compared to neighboring South Korea and China," according to the NASA Earth Observatory. In fact, the entire country appears so dark that it seems "as if it were a patch of water" instead of a nation of more than 24 million people. [7 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea]

Virtually the only sign that the area is populated is a tiny glow emanating from the capital city of Pyongyang. Even so, "[t]he light emission from Pyongyang is equivalent to the smaller towns in South Korea," according to NASA.

South Korea and its capital city, Seoul, by contrast, appear to blaze with light and color in the nighttime image, taken Jan. 30.

Coastlines are commonly outlined clearly in nighttime images, as is shown in the heavily industrialized eastern shore of South Korea. The coast of North Korea, however, is almost invisible.

Despite global communication and trade, North Korea stands alone as an unusually isolated nation, where residents live under a familial dictatorship that frequently threatens attacks against South Korea and its ally, the United States. Amid this brinksmanship, North Korea remains remarkably shut off from the rest of the world. The Internet is almost completely inaccessible, with access only by permission and for government authorities. The few North Koreans with access to a computer can reach only Kwangmyong, a closed domestic network.

Until this year, reporters traveling to North Korea had to turn in their mobile phones at the border. In February 2013, the government enabled 3G access — but for foreigner visitors only.

Amid this pre-industrial level of technology, it's no surprise that North Koreans have little access to electricity: Per-capita power consumption throughout the regime was 739 kilowatt hours in 2011, according to the World Bank, compared with 10,162 kilowatt hours in South Korea.

These technological facts only hint at the grim reality of life in the isolated regime: Several reports from North Korea indicate that a handful of starving residents, where famine is an all-too-regular occurrence, may have resorted to cannibalism.

In the spring of 2012, a drought wreaked havoc on North Korea's crops. Following that disaster, a severe tropical cyclone hit the country, leaving an estimated 21,000 homeless.

As a result, the secretive pariah state was forced to accept food aid from South Korea for the first time in years, according to CNN.com. An estimated 10,000 people are reported to have died of hunger-related problems in recent years.

Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

US Military Will Use Drones to Spy on North Korea

Denise Chow — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:07:16 +0000

The United States military will use long-range surveillance drones to spy on North Korea next year, U.S. government officials announced this week.

Beginning next spring, the Air Force will fly several drones near North Korean borders to gather intelligence data on the reclusive country, where an estimated 24 million people live under oppression, sealed off from the rest of the world.

The unarmed Global Hawk drones will fly out of an undetermined base in Japan, according to The Washington Post.

U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, met with Japanese representatives this week to finalize the military agreement. Both sides hope the surveillance missions will enhance understanding of the threat posed by North Korea. [7 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea]

Despite repeated warnings and tough U.N. sanctions, North Korea continues to pursue its nuclear weapons and long-range missile programs. Earlier this year, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test, and recent intelligence analyses suggest the country has restarted its main nuclear complex, a Soviet-era reactor used to produce plutonium for atomic bombs.

Global Hawk drones are capable of flying at altitudes of more than 60,000 feet (18,300 meters), and are the Air Force's most advanced surveillance vehicles. The drones also boast impressive aerial endurance, and can perform flights that last more than 28 hours.

The planes are equipped with a range of instruments, including infrared sensors and satellite communications systems. The RQ-4 Global Hawk, the biggest drone in the U.S. Air Force fleet, is capable of surveying 40,000 square miles (103,000 square kilometers) of ground in one day.

The Air Force currently has Global Hawk drones stationed in Guam, in the western Pacific Ocean, and in the Persian Gulf. This week's agreement is the first time the Pentagon has obtained rights to operate drones from bases in Northeast Asia, reported the Post.

American drones previously conducted flights over Japan in 2011 to monitor the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a partial meltdown following the region's devastating earthquake and tsunami that claimed nearly 16,000 lives.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.

Why Should We Worry About North Korea?

Eric Niiler — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:06:54 +0000

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un could be bluffing. He could be talking about attacking South Korea as a way of keeping himself in power, or proving to his people and his neighbors that he is in command rather than his generals.

But what if he isn’t? What if an attack did occur? What would it look like?

Many military experts look at tensions on the Korean Peninsula like a real-life game of Risk. Each side has armies, aircraft and missiles lined up to defend each other even though the two sides aren’t exactly equal. The North has 1.2 million soldiers in uniform, including 200,000 special forces units. It also has long-range missiles capable of reaching all of South Korea, plus Japan and Guam.

PHOTOS: North Korea's History of Saber-Rattling

The South has only half that number of troops, but possesses more modern equipment, training and technology. Much of it has been provided by the United States, which also has a permanent deployment of 30,000 Army units and about 60 F-16 jet fighters in South Korea.

So what would conflict on the Korean Peninsula look like? Bruce Bennett, a senior analyst at the Rand Corporation, says it could start with a simple failure to communicate.

“The big concern is some kind of mistake,” Bennett said. “A miscalculation by the regime or a mistake by a local commander could cause an armed provocation that would provoke a response and then you get that spiral.”

Bennett points to the April 2010 shelling of a South Korean island by North Korean artillery batteries, or the sinking of a South Korean gunboat that killed 46 South Korean sailors. Those moves were supposed to demoralize the South Korean populace, but actually did the opposite. Since then, public opinion has pushed South Korean leaders to take a firmer hand with any kind of North Korean action.

NEWS: North Korea Nuclear Strike on U.S. Unlikely

Any repeat of these past incidents could be the spark that ignites war. And what if Kim decided for a more direct attack on the South? The North currently has artillery units within range of the capital of the South.

“There are thousands of rockets that could be fired with each launch,” Bennett said. “That could involve hundreds of kilograms of high explosives. There are a couple thousand tubes that could reach the northern parts of Seoul. That could be devastating and very bloody.”

Bennett noted that North Korea possesses several wild cards in this conflict as well: chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He said that Pyongyang has all three, but the extent and potency of each is not well known by western military analysts.

A massive ground invasion by the North might look good on paper, but could falter pretty quickly, according to Gregory Koblenz, a Stanton nuclear security fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

That’s because North Korea lacks the massive logistical support (and gasoline) that modern armies need.

“Can they actually drive all these vehicles from the North to Seoul? That is an open question,” Koblenz said.

NEWS: War or Peace May Doom Korean DMZ Wildlife

And how does the United States figure into this high-stakes game? Koblenz said that U.S. military officials have decided to back off further aggressive moves for the time being -- moves such as flying B-2 bombers from Missouri to the Korean peninsula or adding more fighter jets to its arsenal. Any move by North Korea will be checked by a joint move by the U.S. and South Korea.

“If a North Korean act is large scale, that might put more pressure on the U.S. to proceed directly with an action,” Koblenz said. “The only way the U.S. Navy or Air Force could go after North Korea would be in very close coordination with the South Koreans.”

One analyst says he believes the confrontations could continue until Kim feels secure in his post as leader of the country. John Park says the cycle of provocation and rhetoric, followed by an easing, has repeated several times except for a few big differences.

“It seems like the cycle is geared to writing a new chapter,” said Park, a security fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and U.S. Institute of Peace. “Kim Jung Un is new on scene. Part of what is happening is his effort to calibrate and observe the where the new leaders flinch.”

Park notes that unlike 2010, local military commanders in South Korea have been given authorization to respond more quickly and with more independence to any provocation by the North.

“The biggest difference has been the change of guidance of South Korean president to the military,” Park said. The South Koreans are saying if you attack us we will take out the North Korean military high command. And what’s been added is that (South Korean) President Pak stated that military commanders should feel free to retaliate immediately.”

This story was provided by Discovery News.

7 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea

Stephanie Pappas — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:34:39 +0000

Inside North Korea

The flag of North Korea. (Image credit: Dusan Momcilovic, Shutterstock)

In a world where online communication and globalization have broken down international barriers, North Korea stands alone as unusually isolated. The 24 million or so residents of the country live under a familial dictatorship that frequently threatens attacks against South Korea and its ally, the United States.

Amid this brinksmanship, North Korea remains remarkably shut off from the rest of the world. Read on for what's known about the hermit country.

Isolation nation

Soldiers in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. (Image credit: Vacclav / Shutterstock.com)

The Korean peninsula has long been a battlefield for the world powers nearby. Japan controlled Korea (then one nation), until the end of World War II; after Japan's surrender, the United States and Soviet Union sliced the country along the 38th parallel, with the United States administering the south and the Soviet Union controlling the north.

This division became permanent after the United Nations failed to negotiate a reunification in 1948. The first president of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, declared a policy of "self-reliance," essentially shutting the nation off diplomatically and economically from the rest of the world.

It's a philosophy called iuche, or self-mastery. The idea is that the North Korean people must rely on themselves only. This philosophy, according to Kim Il Sung, required North Korea to maintain political and economic independence (even in the face of famine in the 1990s) and to create a strong national defense system.

Mythical leaders

A stamp printed in DPR Korea shows Comrade Kim Jong il, supreme commander of the korean people's army, circa 1987. (Image credit: Neftali / Shutterstock.com)

North Korea's ruling dynasty has always cast itself as somewhat supernatural. Founder Kim Il Sung was known as Korea's "sun," and claimed control of the weather. Along with his son Kim Jong Il's birthday, Kim Il Sung's birthday is a national holiday. After his death, Sung was embalmed and still lies in state in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Il's mythology is no less extensive. His birth was hailed as "heaven sent" by propagandists, and state media has often touted impossible feats: He scored a perfect 300 the first time he tried bowling, and shot five holes-in-one the first time he played golf. Upon his death in 2011, the skies about the sacred mountain Paektu in North Korea allegedly glowed red. [Supernatural Powers? Tales of 10 Historical Predictions]

Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor has yet to have quite so many tall tales told about him, but the news media have described the new leader as "born of heaven" upon his ascension to head of state. In December 2012, North Korean state media declared the discovery of a lair supposedly belonging to a unicorn ridden by Tongmyong, the ancient mythical founder of Korea. The story wasn't an indication that North Koreans believe in literal unicorns, experts said, but a way to shore up Kim Jong Un's rule and North Korea's cred as the "real" Korea.

National prison

Korean pioneer kids during military parade on March 23, 2010 in Pyongyang, North Korea (Image credit: Maxim Tupikov / Shutterstock.com)

All the fanciful and funny myths about North Korea's dictators cover up a disturbing truth, however: Some 154,000 North Koreans live in prison camps, according to South Korean government estimates. (Other international bodies put the number at closer to 200,000). There are six camps, surrounded by electrified barbed wire. Two camps allow for some "rehabilitation" and release of prisoners, according to "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" (Viking, 2012). The rest are prisons for life.

"Escape from Camp 14" tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person known to have escaped from one of these camps and to have made it to the outside world. Shin was born in the camp; his father was imprisoned because his brother had abandoned North Korea for South Korea decades earlier.

Torture, malnutrition, slave labor and public execution are ways of life in the camps, which are known from satellite imagery. An Amnesty International report in 2011 estimated that 40 percent of camp prisoners die of malnutrition.

Daily life in North Korea

North Korean war woman squad in preparation for military parade on March 23, 2010 in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Image credit: Maxim Tupikov / Shutterstock.com)

Given North Korea's secrecy, it's hard to imagine what daily life in the country is really like. In the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" (Spiegel & Grau, 2009), journalist Barbara Demick interviewed North Koreans who escaped to South Korea. They describe a society tied by family (during the famine of the 1990s, parents and grandparents starved first, trying to save food for their children) and inundated with propaganda.

"In the futuristic dystopia imagined in 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only color to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea," Demick writes.

It's not clear how many North Koreans buy into this propaganda. Interviews with North Koreans in China by the New York Times suggested that smuggled DVDs from South Korea have enabled average North Koreans to get a glimpse of the world outside their borders.

Very recently, foreign journalists on supervised trips in Pyongyang have been allowed 3G connections on mobile phones, enabling real-time pictures of daily city life.

Black markets

A stack of blank DVDs. (Image credit: Dmitry Mikhaylov, Shutterstock)

North Korea may have begun with communist principles in mind, but very capitalist black markets have arisen despite government crackdowns, according to The Economist. Some black market merchants even manage to move goods across the border from China, bringing in food and raw materials crucial to the country's functioning. Smuggled South Korean DVDs combat the propaganda of the Kim regime, which tells its citizens that South Koreans are worse off than they.

Even the government's own tools have been co-opted, according to "Escape from Camp 14." Vehicle ownership in North Korea is allowed only for the military and the government, and travel for citizens is severely restricted. But in the 1990s, corrupt military and party elite made a habit of registering vehicles and then hiring private drivers to pick up people who needed transportation, essentially creating private taxi companies that are crucial to smuggling operations around the country.

Internet lockdown

More Americans own cellphones than they do desktop or laptop computers, according to a recent survey. (Image credit: Ross Toro, LiveScience Contributor)

The Internet is almost completely inaccessible in North Korea, with access only by permission and for government authorities. North Koreans with access to a computer (people living in major cities, primarily) can reach only Kwangmyong, a closed domestic network.

Until this year, reporters traveling to North Korea had to turn in their mobile phones at the border. But in February, the government enabled 3G access — for foreigner visitors only.

Difficult adjustments

Ariran Festival with the 150,000 people in the Pyongyang capital of North Korea, 100th Anniversary, August 8, 2012, North Korea (Image credit: Maxim Tupikov / Shutterstock.com)

With such limited access to the outside world, North Koreans who do make it out often struggle to adjust. Many are paranoid, a skill that served them well at home where anyone could turn anyone else in to the police for saying the wrong thing. Some are cognitively impaired by early malnutrition. And few know anything about world history outside of North Korean propaganda. [Top 10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]

"Education in North Korea is useless for life in South Korea," Gwak Jong-moon, principal of a boarding school for North Korean refugees, told Blaine Harden, the author of "Escape from Camp 14." "When you are too hungry, you don't go to learn and teachers don't go to teach. Many of our students have been hiding in China for years with no access to schools. As young children in North Korea, they grew up eating bark off trees and thinking it was normal."

According to Harden, the suicide rate for North Korean refugees in South Korea is two-and-a-half times that of the rate for South Koreans.

5 Strange Cultural Facts About North Korea

Stephanie Pappas — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:12:46 +0000

Tensions are rising between North Korea and the rest of the world, as the notoriously secretive nation reportedly prepares medium-range missiles for launch.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported last week that North Korea has loaded the two missiles onto mobile launchers; in response, South Korea sent destroyers to its northern neighbor's coast. The North Korean government also says it plans to restart a major nuclear reactor it shut down as part of an international deal five years ago. And leader Kim Jong-un ordered rockets readied to strike U.S. military bases in the Pacific, not to mention the U.S. mainland. (It's not clear that North Korea's missiles have that kind of range.)

Amid this brinksmanship, North Korea remains remarkably shut off from the rest of the world. Read on for what's known about the hermit country. [Nuclear Security: Best & Worst Countries (Infographic)]

1. Isolation nation

2. Mythical leaders

3. National prison

4. Daily life in North Korea

"In the futuristic dystopia imagined in 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only color to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea," Demick writes.

Very recently, foreign journalists on supervised trips in Pyongyang have been allowed 3G connections on mobile phones, enabling real-time pictures of daily city life.

5. Difficult adjustments

According to Harden, the suicide rate for North Korean refugees in South Korea is two-and-a-half times that of the rate for South Koreans.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

Cannibalism Reported in Famine-Stricken North Korea

Marc Lallanilla — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:45:13 +0000

Numerous reports from North Korea indicate that starving residents of the isolated regime, where famine is an all-too-regular occurrence, may now be resorting to cannibalism.

One report from the British newspaper The Sunday Times stated that a man was put to death by firing squad after officials discovered he had killed and cooked two of his own children.

"While his wife was away on business, he killed his eldest daughter and, because his son saw what he had done, he killed his son as well. When the wife came home, he offered her food, saying: 'We have meat,'" the Times reports. "But his wife, suspicious, notified the Ministry of Public Security, which led to the discovery of part of their children's bodies under the [home's] eaves."

Another unconfirmed report details the arrest of a man who allegedly dug up the body of his dead grandchild and ate the flesh. Elsewhere, a man who reportedly killed 11 people and sold their remains as pork was executed by firing squad.

These and other disturbing news reports of cannibalism were originally relayed by Asia Press, a Japanese news agency with citizen reporters in North Korea, and published in the Times and other Western news outlets. [The 10 Weirdest Ways We Deal With the Dead]

In the spring of 2012, a drought wreaked havoc on North Korea's crops, according to the Times. Following that disaster, a severe tropical cyclone hit the country, leaving an estimated 21,000 homeless.

As a result, last year the secretive pariah state was forced to accept food aid from South Korea (its sworn enemy) for the first time in years, according to CNN.com. An estimated 10,000 people are reported to have died of hunger-related problems in the past year.

Starvation has visited North Korea regularly since the 1990s, according to the Global Post. In 2003, following another bad crop, reports of famine and cannibalism began to circulate widely, the British newspaper The Independent revealed.

Despite these disasters, North Korea has pursued an aggressive policy of saber-rattling and arms building. In April, the rogue nation announced it would launch an Unha-3 rocket to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the country's founder. The launch failed, however.

And last month, North Korea sent a satellite into orbit, but it quickly tumbled out of control. International observers have described these and other launches as "provocative" acts in violation of international arms treaties.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

The Real Story of North Korea's Unicorn Lair

Stephanie Pappas — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:50:00 +0000

North Korean state media has reported the discovery of the lair of a unicorn ridden by an ancient Korean king. But that doesn't mean the entire country is living in a fantasy world.

In fact, the report is a propaganda piece likely geared at shoring up the rule of Kim Jong Eun, North Korea's young and relatively new leader, said Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor of Korean studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Most likely, North Koreans don't take the report literally, Lee told LiveScience.

"It's more symbolic," Lee said, adding, "My take is North Koreans don't believe all of that, but they bring certain symbolic value to celebrating your own identify, maybe even notions of cultural exceptionalism and superiority. It boosts morale."

North Korea is currently forging ahead with a long-range rocket launch test that the United States and other international powers call a provocative act.

Legitimizing myths

According to an English language article from North Korea's state news agency, archeologists have "reconfirmed" that a lair in Pyongyang is that of a unicorn ridden by Tongmyong, who founded the real-life Koguryo Kingdom. This ancient Korean kingdom spanned the north and central Korean peninsula as well as northeast China and parts of southern Russia. It was founded sometime between the second century B.C. and the turn of the millennium.

The unicorn lair announcement comes nearly a year after the death of Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea from 1994 until his death on Dec. 17, 2011. Kim Jong Il was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Eun, who is in his late 20s and lacks leadership experience, Lee said.

Tying Kim Jong Eun's reign into that of the first king of the Koguryo Kingdom lends him the legitimacy he lacks, Lee said. The North Korean government has followed a similar strategy before, claiming, for example, that a burial site near Pyongyang is that of Dangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom and the son of a god and a bear-turned-woman, according to the Korean creation myth. [Top 10 Creation Myths Explained]

There is an Asian creature known as a unicorn, though it has two horns, not one. The saola looks a bit like an antelope but is rarely sighted.

A changing North Korea?

The unicorn lair find was confirmed by a carving in a rock dating back to the Koryo Kingdom between A.D. 918 and A.D. 1392, according to the report. The find is said to confirm not the existence of real, live unicorns, but that Pyongyang is the ancient capital of Korea. That's an important claim on the divided Korean peninsula, Lee said. Neither North Korea nor South Korea recognizes the other's government, so historical claims about where Korea began are used to shore up claims about which is the "true" Korea.

North Korea propagandists have also made supernatural claims about the Kim family, saying, for example, that a snowstorm stopped in its tracks and the sky glowed red above a sacred mountain when Kim Jong Il died.

These sort of outlandish myths are becoming less common, Lee said. The government does "say absurd things" like that Kim Jong Eun is a genius in science, technology and military strategy, and that he speaks six languages, he said, but officials have avoided ascribing magical properties to the young leader.

"It seems that North Korea is now a bit more shy, more responsible in adhering to the facts, because maybe they realize that there is much more information available within North Korea and also information about North Korea that is accessible to outsiders," Lee said.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

US Says North Korea Rocket Launch a 'Provocative Act'

Tariq Malik — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:57:22 +0000

North Korea says it is forging ahead with a planned rocket launch this month, perhaps as soon as Dec. 10, drawing strong condemnation from U.S. officials who view the act as a thinly veiled ballistic missile test.

"A North Korean 'satellite' launch would be a highly provocative act that threatens peace and security in the region," officials with the U.S. State Department in a statement.

North Korea's state-run Korea Central News Agency said Saturday (Dec. 1) that the country will launch a long-range rocket between Dec. 10 and 22 from its Sohae Satellite Launch Station near the northwest village of Tongchang-ri. A photo of the launch site from space released last week by the commercial satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe showed striking similarities to North Korea's work ahead of its failed Unha-3 rocket launch in April.

North Korea claims the rocket launch will mark its fifth try to put a satellite in orbit, but critics in the United States, South Korea and elsewhere say it is little more than a long-range ballistic missile test for the North's nuclear weapons program. [North Korea's Rocket Program in Photos]

"Devoting scarce resources to the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles will only further isolate and impoverish North Korea," State Department officials said, adding that the launch violates United Nations Security Council resolutions. "The path to security for North Korea lies in investing in its people and abiding by its commitments and international obligations."

In South Korea, a Yonhap News Agency report cited an unnamed senior government official as saying the upcoming rocket launch is aimed at celebrating the one-year anniversary of the North's new leader Kim Jung-Un, who took power last year.

North Korea has made repeated failed attempts to launch long-range rockets since 1998.

In April, the country launched a three-stage Unha-3 rocket (the name means Galaxy-3) carrying the Earth-observing satellite called Kwangmyongsong-3, which translates to Bright Shining Star-3. The mission was highly touted by the North Korean government, but failed shortly after liftoff, prompting a rare public admission of failure by the country.

North Korea's Unha-3 rocket is 105 feet (22 meters) tall and is designed to carry payloads of up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms) into orbit.

South Korea is also currently preparing to launch its own rocket mission using its Korean Space Launch Vehicle 1. The rocket will launch from South Korea's Naro Space Center, about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Seoul. Two attempts to launch the satellite-carrying rocket have been delayed by technical glitches.

The mission marks South Korea's third rocket launch attempt. The first two attempts, in 2009 and 2010, ended in failure.

This story was provided by SPACE.com, a sister site to Live Science. You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

North Korea May Launch Rocket Soon, Satellite Photo Shows

Space.com Staff — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 04:24:31 +0000

North Korea may be preparing to attempt another rocket launch in the next few weeks, new satellite imagery suggests.

The photo, which was taken Monday (Nov. 26), shows increased activity at North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launch Station. The hustle and bustle is similar to that seen before the rogue nation's failed long-range rocket launch last April, according to satellite operator DigitalGlobe.

"Given the observed level of activity noted of a new tent, trucks, people and numerous portable fuel/oxidizer tanks, should North Korea desire, it could possibly conduct its fifth satellite launch event during the next three weeks (e.g., by mid-December 2012)," DigitalGlobe officials wrote in a statement released with the new image.

Though it has tried numerous times, North Korea has not yet succeeded in placing a satellite in Earth orbit. Last April's attempted launch of an Earth-observing craft atop the nation's Unha-3 rocket was just the latest failure, following similar flops in 1998 and 2009.

In a rare public admission, North Korean officials acknowledged the Unha-3 failure shortly after the rocket crashed into the sea on April 13. (The nation had maintained that the 1998 and 2009 attempts were successful, though Western analysts are confident that neither one reached orbit.)

North Korea's past launches have drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and other nations, which viewed them as thinly disguised missile tests. The West's concern stems largely from North Korea's famous unpredictability, along with its status as a nuclear-armed nation. The country is also highly secretive, making it difficult for Western observers to follow its activities or divine its motives.

North Korean missile technology traces its origins to Soviet Scuds, which apparently entered the country via Egypt in the 1970s. Since then, the Hermit Kingdom has been developing bigger and more powerful rockets, some of which may have the potential to reach the West Coast of the United States.

This story was provided by SPACE.com, sister site to LiveScience. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

Cause of North Korea Rocket Failure May Remain a Mystery

Mike Wall — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:02:53 +0000

The general public will likely never know just what caused a North Korean rocket to crash and burn on Friday (April 13), one expert says.

North Korea went ahead with the controversial launch of its long-range Unha-3 rocket despite warnings from the United States and other nations, which viewed the event as a thinly disguised military missile test. The Unha-3 was supposed to deliver an Earth-observing satellite to orbit, according to North Korean officials, but it broke apart and pitched into the sea shortly after liftoff.

While American intelligence officials may already know what went wrong, the rest of us will probably never get the full story, according to Brian Weeden, a technical adviser with the Secure World Foundation and a former orbital analyst with the U.S. Air Force.

"I think the U.S. military and its allies in the region probably have a good idea of what happened (perhaps more so than the North Koreans), but it is unlikely the public will ever know," Weeden told SPACE.com via email. "That type of technical intelligence data is rarely ever made public." [Complete Coverage: N. Korea's Rocket Launch]

"It’s also very hard to speculate what went wrong, as I’ve heard conflicting reports about whether the event happened while the first stage was burning or at second-stage ignition," he added.

The Unha-3 failure was the fourth long-range rocket flop in a row for North Korea, whose secretive, unpredictable nature and status as a nuclear-armed nation have long concerned the West.

In 1998, the Hermit Kingdom attempted its first satellite launch with a rocket called Taepodong-1. North Korean officials claim the blastoff was a success, but Western observers say the satellite never made it to orbit.

A 2006 test flight of the Taepodong-2 also did not go well, with the rocket exploding just 40 seconds after liftoff. And a second satellite launch in 2009, using an advanced, three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2 called Unha-2, failed as well. The rocket's third stage apparently failed to ignite,experts say, and the satellite ended up at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

The Unha-3 ("Galaxy-3") is thought to be broadly similar to the Unha-2, though not much is known about the rocket for sure.

However, North Korea has been more forthcoming about this rocket launch than its past efforts. The nation invited foreign journalists to tour the Unha-3's launch site shortly before its April 13 liftoff, for example, and North Korean officials admitted the launch failure several hours after it occurred.

The Unha-3 rocket was a three-stage booster that stood about 100 feet tall (30 meters) and launched from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station located in northwestern North Korea near the village of Tongchang-ri.

This story was provided by SPACE.com, a sister site to LiveScience. SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow (@denisechow) contributed to this story. You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Nuclear Security: Best & Worst Countries (Infographic)

Ross Toro — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:37:19 +0000

Kim Jong-Il's Natural Death Typical for Dictators

Stephanie Pappas — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:17:04 +0000

The death by natural causes of Kim Jong-Il highlights a possibly unpleasant truth about repressive dictators: Many, if not most, end up living long lives and dying peacefully.

Those who live by the sword don't necessarily die by it, according to "The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011). In it, Matthew White tracked the fates of the leaders most responsible for the 100-deadliest human events. A majority, he found, lived out their natural life spans in peace.

"About 60 percent of the individual oppressors and warmongers who were most responsible for each of these multicides lived happily ever after," White wrote.

For every Moammar Gadhafi killed in the streets by angry citizens, there is a Joseph Stalin, dead at 74 of a stroke. According to White, 49 percent of those responsible for the major massacres of history ruled until their deaths by natural causes. Another 11 percent enjoyed a peaceful retirement, while 8 percent were exiled before natural causes took their last breaths.

Of those whose ends were not as pleasant or natural, 9 percent were put on trial and executed, 8 percent were assassinated, 7 percent died in battle, 4 percent were imprisoned and 4 percent committed suicide. [How 13 of the Worst Dictators Died]

Kim Jong-Il died at age 69 of a heart attack Dec. 17, according to North Korea state television.

Perhaps the lengthy lives have to do with the spoils of leadership, as studies of U.S. presidents show that despite the stresses of being in charge, these men live just as long or longer than their contemporaries.

Mass Mourning

When dictators do die of natural causes, they rarely seem to take advantage of the warning signs of age and debilitation, according to Robert Gellately, a professor of history at Florida State University.

"The communist countries, from Lenin on, have prided themselves on being modern, but the one thing they never figured out is how to manage the transition when the leader passes away," Gellately told LiveScience. "Usually what happens is the leader, when they start to get ill … they talk about who might be suitable to replace them but they invariably point to all the flaws. They don't embrace mortality easily."

The result, Gellately said, is often a behind-the-scenes power struggle. It's not easy for outside observers to tell who is in charge, he said. When Stalin came to power in the 1920s, he said, foreign heads of state were flummoxed as to who really was pulling the strings — ironic, Gellately said, because historians would later realize that Stalin made "absolutely every decision."

Stalin's death, in fact, might show some parallels to the death of Kim Jong-Il, Gellately said. Despite Stalin's repression, he was widely mourned.

"There was an enormous outpouring of sorrow, even in the Gulag," Gellately said. "There were prisoners who cried."

Likewise, video footage from North Korea shows citizens weeping openly in factories and streets.

"It's hard to know if it's genuine sorrow or if it's uncertainty about the future," Gellately said. "The motives of why people are moved are infinite, but it's an interesting phenomenon."

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

How 13 of the World's Worst Dictators Died

Stephanie Pappas — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:12:21 +0000

Some dictators suffer bloody ends, but many die of old age and natural diseases. Here are a baker's dozen famous modern dictators and their causes of death:

Joseph Stalin, Russia (1878-1953): Stroke

Benito Mussolini, Italy (1883-1945): Summarily executed by communists; body hung upside-down and pummeled with rocks.

Adolf Hitler, Germany (1889-1945): Suicide

Francisco Franco, Spain (1892-1975): Declining health and Parkinson's Disease

Mao Zedong, China (1893-1976): Declining health; possibly Lou Gehrig's Disease

Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Haiti (1907-1971): Diabetes and heart disease

Kim Il-Sung, North Korea (1912-1994): Heart attack

Augusto Pinochet, Chile (1915-2006): Congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema

Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania (1918-1989): Executed by firing squad after a show trial

Idi Amin, Uganda (1925-2003): Kidney failure

Saddam Hussein, Iraq (1937-2006): Found guilty of crimes against humanity and hanged

Moammar Gaddhafi, Libya (1942-2011): Captured, beaten and killed by rebel fighters

Kim Jong-Il, North Korea (1941 or 1942-2011): Heart attack

The Technological Ups and Downs of a Korean Reunification

Stuart Fox — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:45:24 +0000

This week’s revelation from WikiLeaks of China's willingness to accept a South Korea-controlled peninsula in the event of North Korea's collapse and a year of boastful and often violent behavior by North Korea has prompted many experts to speculate that the two countries are closer to reunifying than ever before.

When that reunification does occur, be it tomorrow or a decade from now, one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries will find itself in possession of one of the world’s most isolated and backwards societies. Yet, while that technological disparity will complicate integration between the countries, it will also present new, intriguing opportunities for growth.

"South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, with [high] broadband penetration and very active cell phone providers. In many ways, it’s more advanced than the U.S.," said David Kang, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California, and co-director of a project looking at Korean reunification.

"North Korea, on the other hand, depending on where you look, is still in the 19th century. Many of its farms still use horses and cows to plow its fields. But the reason they aren’t so advanced isn’t because they don’t have the capacity, like so many poor countries, but because the government really fears that increased access will result in a loss of government control."

One foot in the space age, one foot in the stone age

The Republic of Korea’s technology exports are currently a trillion-dollar-a-year business, and it maintains the world’s largest WiFi network and holds computers in such high regard that South Korean professional videogame players date fashion models.

In contrast, most citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have a very different relationship to technology than their southern peers. Pervasive poverty and a cliquish, authoritarian regime have effectively divided North Korea into three zones of differing, but uniformly antiquated, technological penetration, said Changyong Choi, a researcher at Syracuse University who has interviewed North Korean defectors.

In Pyongyang, the capitol of North Korea, sufficiently loyal citizens have access to facsimiles of modern technology. People walk around with cell phones, the city hosts the DPRK’s only Internet café, and defectors who have escaped to South Korea even report hearing rumors of teenagers in Pyongyang with iPod-like devices.

Of course, in keeping with North Korea’s tight restriction on all information, the iPods could only have officially sanctioned music, the cell phones can’t make international calls and the "Internet" in the café is actually a walled-off intranet consisting entirely of websites produced by North Koreans for North Korean consumption, said Stuart Thorson, a professor of political science at Syracuse University.

The area along the Chinese-DPRK border forms another region. There, smugglers bring illicit Chinese technology into North Korea, equipping locals with computers from the 1990s and televisions that, free from intervention by DPRK officials, allow North Koreans to watch South Korean movies and television shows, Choi of Syracuse University told TechNewsDaily.

Then there’s the rest of North Korea. Cut off from both internal elites and external products, rural North Korea faces periodic blackouts, no Internet access and little in the way of personal appliances.

The cost of reunification

When reunification begins, integrating North Korea into South Korea’s technology-based economy and culture will prove as daunting as it is vital, experts say. More than anything else, extending the power grid that enables the ROK’s high-tech culture and industry into the North will hinder the development of technological parity.

"The biggest barriers will probably be financial and infrastructural, which is really the same thing. The demand on the grid would be enormous if everyone started to get a real TV and an X-Box. We did a back of the envelope calculation just for public health, and the cost was in the billions,” said Kang. "For everything, you’re talking trillions of dollars."

Right now, the power grid in the DPRK remains so antiquated that the regime plans blackouts to conserve power. This lack of energy can even be seen from space, as nighttime satellite photos of the peninsula show a radiant ROK beneath a pitch-black DPRK.

"Reliable power is a problem in North Korea. In South Korea or America, you plug something into the wall and expect it to work. That’s not true in North Korea," Thorson told TechNewsDaily.

However, integrating the North into South Korea’s vast cellular and Wi-Fi network will prove considerably easier than building rail, road and electrical capacity, Thorson said. And it’s that access to information technology that could unleash the prime benefit of reunification: cheap, educated labor.

The new workforce

Unlike many similarly impoverished and technologically deprived countries, North Korea sports a very well-educated population, particularly in math and science. The backwards state of the country reflects poverty and a paranoid government obsessed with total control, and hides a significant potential for growth after reunification.

"Information technology will play an important role in unifying the two Koreas, because it is universal. Economically, South Korea has the culture of high technology, and North Korea has smart, cheap labor," Choi said. "Together, it can create a synergistic effect. There’s a positive side."

Using information technology to integrate an educated and eager North Korean workforce into a vibrant South Korea economy not only benefits both parties, but provides a cost-effective alternative to other industries that require more expensive infrastructure improvements, said Choi.

The current ROK and DPRK governments have tried to marry North Korean labor with South Korean business before in an industrial park right over the DMZ in North Korea. Although the joint venture opened to modest expectations, it generated profits far beyond any prediction, Kang said. Although political tensions ended that experiment, reunification would simply expand the cooperation to the entire country.

North Korea is "a country that has a well-educated population, so there’s the potential for leapfrogging technology in a way not possible in other, more poorly educated developing nations," Thorson said.

"But there are all kinds of protocols that need to be standardized. There’s a lot to do as far as bringing everything together."

Why Does South Korea Think That North Korea Sank Their Ship?

Stuart Fox — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:02:50 +0000

An explosion last month that ripped a hole in the hull of the South Korean warship the Cheonan immediately triggered an investigation into the cause of the blast. After using a combination of forensic tools, military analysis and political calculation in a month-long inquiry, South Korean government officials announced that a North Korean torpedo most likely blew up the Cheonan.

The results of these inquests can have dramatic political ramifications, sometimes even starting wars, so forensic investigators need to assemble a chain of evidence as clearly and objectively as detectives putting together an indictment, John Pike, Director of GlobalSecurity.org and a military analyst, told Life's Little Mysteries.

A mistaken belief that a mine, not an internal malfunction, sank the USS Maine precipitated the Spanish-American War in 1898, and similarly high tensions between North and South Korea demanded that this incident be handled carefully.

First, forensic investigators would have looked at the ship's hull to determine whether the blast came from outside or inside the ship, Pike said. If the remaining metal shards around the hole bend inward, as they did on the South Korean ship, then investigators can rule out internal malfunctions as the cause and conclude that external forces were at work. Next, the South Korean investigators would have looked at the size of the hole, Pike said. A larger, shallower, hole would indicate a blast from a sea mine, while a smaller, deeper, hole would indicate a torpedo.

That difference is important. A mine blast could be accidental, but a torpedo strike could only result from deliberate aggression.

Once investigators concluded the blast was an attack, they would have needed to figure out the identity of the attacker. In this case, geography likely did most of the work.

"I mean, who else was going to do it? The only country that has spend a half century threatening South Korea is North Korea," Pike said.

While the case of the Cheonan seems more open and shut, in less obvious instances, investigators can fall back on chemical, metallurgical and physical analysis. Each country uses a unique mixture of casings, explosives and devices, and intelligence services keep records of these. When an attack occurs, investigators can compare the explosive residues, metallic shrapnel bits and explosion characteristics to their files, and match the profile of a particular weapon to its country of origin, Pike said.