Author Archives: markdowe1

Asia, Government, North Korea, United Nations, United States

America threatens ‘annihilation’ following North Korea’s detonation of H-bomb

NORTH KOREA

Intro: President Trump opens door to an attack after Korea’s most powerful nuclear test.

US officials have said that threats from North Korea will be met with a “massive military response”, after the rogue state announced it had carried out its most powerful nuclear test yet.

America had “many options” which could lead to the “annihilation” of North Korea, Defence Secretary General Jim Mattis said.

“Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, both effective and overwhelming,” Mr Mattis said.

“Kim Jon-un should take heed of the UN Security Council’s unified voice. We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so.”

Earlier, when asked if he planned to attack Pyongyang, President Trump replied, “We’ll see”, and said he was holding meetings with his military leaders.

Mr Trump also said that talk of appeasement was pointless because North Korea “only understands one thing”, as the state promised further tests.

His hard-line rhetoric was prompted by Pyongyang’s announcement that it had successfully tested a weapon seven times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.

The regime described its testing of the hydrogen bomb as a “perfect success”. Kim Jong-un was pictured inspecting the peanut-shaped device – the design and scale of which indicated it had a powerful thermonuclear warhead. State media said it was a bomb intended for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In July, North Korea tested two ICBMs that are believed to be capable of reaching the US mainland.

Analysts say the claims should be treated with caution, but the state’s nuclear capability is clearly advancing. The UN Security Council has been meeting in session to discuss North Korea’s latest test.

The announcement that North Korea had carried out an H-bomb test prompted international condemnation. Prime Minister Theresa May criticised the “reckless” act and is urging a speeding-up of sanctions. Mrs May said North Korea’s actions posed an “unacceptable further threat to the international community” and is calling for “tougher action”.

The British Prime Minister added that she had discussed the “serious and grave threat these dangerous and illegal actions present” with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during her visit to the country last week.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the announcement represented “a new order of threat” before stating that “all options are on the table”. Yet he cautioned there were no easy military solutions, saying North Korea could “basically vaporise large sections of the South Korean population” if the West attacks.

South Korean president Moon Jae-in said claims of North Korea’s sixth nuclear test should be met with the “strongest possible” response, including new sanctions. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga said measures should include restrictions on the trade of oil products.

Meanwhile, China, North Korea’s only major ally, declared its “resolute opposition and strong condemnation” of the announcement, saying the state had “ignored” widespread opposition.

Russia, which has also backed the state, said the test defied international law and urged all sides involved to hold talks.

Mr Trump originally responded to the news by firing off a series of tweets hinting at military action.

“Appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing,” he said. He also branded the country a “rogue nation” whose “words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States”. Mr Trump later announced that he would consider suspending trade with countries that “do business” with North Korea – which includes China.

Last month, he resolved to respond to North Korea’s nuclear threats with “fire and fury like the world has never seen”.

The White House said Mr Trump’s national security team was “monitoring [the situation] closely”. But any military action will be opposed by China and Russia, who share a border with the state and will not accept US-backed neighbours.

News of the state’s sixth nuclear test emerged after South Korea reported a magnitude 5.7 earthquake, which the North said was triggered by the detonation of the thermonuclear device. The earthquake was several times stronger than from previous blasts and reportedly shook buildings in China and Russia.

It came a decade after North Korea’s first nuclear test and represents a significant escalation of its programme. North Korea last carried out a nuclear test in September 2016. A week ago, Pyongyang fired a missile over Japanese territory in its most provocative test before the latest announcement.

Although the earthquake and release of photographs of Kim suggest the device was real, there has been no independent verification. North Korea said there would be no radioactive materials to prove the hydrogen bomb’s existence because it was detonated underground.

But intelligence experts have said there is no reason to doubt that the state tested “an advanced nuclear device”.

A spokesperson for the James Martin Centre for Non-proliferation Studies, said: “There is no way of telling if this is the actual device that was exploded in the tunnel – it could even be a model – but the messaging is clear.

“They want to demonstrate that they know what makes a credible nuclear warhead.”

  • Appendage:

The blast from a primary fission component triggers a secondary fusion explosion in a thermonuclear bomb.

How its explosive power is harnessed:

. An ordinary high explosive trigger compresses plutonium into a critical state, causing initial reaction known as “nuclear fission” as atoms are split.

. This “primary” explosion detonates the second device within the warhead. A secondary core is ignited by more plutonium. It also includes hydrogen isotopes – atoms which have a different number of neutrons – which begin a “fusion” reaction. At the same time, a uranium core begins a second “fission” reaction.

. With a split second the resulting explosion releases huge amounts of energy – leading to a devastating blast.

– Also known as a thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb [H-bomb] is so called because it uses the common element in a process called “nuclear fusion”, in which atoms fuse together.

– H-bombs are far more powerful and complex than ordinary atomic bombs, which rely on atom-splitting – known as “fission”.

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Arts, Drama

Whodunnit: The Logician

A MURDER MYSTERY CONUNDRUM

INSPECTOR PARNACKI was enjoying his Sunday morning newspaper when the call came. An hour later, he was standing outside the door of one Harold Rivera, a mathematician who worked for a large firm in the city. The detective on the scene opened the door to let him in.

“Good to have you here, Inspector,” said the man. “My name’s Burrell. I’ve spoken to the victim’s cleaner and made a few enquiries, but it’s not getting me anywhere.”

“What can you tell me about the victim, Detective Burrell?”

“Harold Rivera, 48, lived alone. No spouse, children, or near family. Mathematician for Longmuir & Sons, accountants. He seems to have devoted his spare time to chess. He had several regular chess partners, and very little social life otherwise. The body was found in the living room. He was killed by a blow to the head, twelve to twenty-four hours ago.”

“I should have a look,” said Parnacki.

“Of course.” Burrell led him down the hall and into a modest living room.

There was a small couch and coffee table, but the room was dominated by a table holding a large, fine china chessboard. Two smaller tables, each with their own chessboard, were off to the side. Games were in progress on all three tables, but white appeared to be in a particularly strong position on the large table, with the middle of the board dominated by three adjacent mid-level pieces, the two white bishops separated by a white knight. The floor in front of the board was heavily stained with blood, as was the plain wooden chair lying on it.

“He lived alone?” asked Parnacki.

“Yes. A cleaner comes for two hours every day, generally mornings. She’s the one who found him. Apparently, the small tables were always mid-game, and she was under extremely strict instruction never to touch them. He used them to keep track of play-by-mail games, he had told her. The big one was for face-to-face contests.”

“I see,” Parnacki said. “Do we have any idea of why anyone would want to kill a chess fanatic?”

“From what the cleaner said, he could be very rude at times. Accidentally, that is. No malice, just poor social skills. Way I see it, one of his chess pals finally snapped and killed him.”

“Well, it might explain the game.”

Burrell nodded. “We found a note on the coffee table. Three names. The cleaner confirmed it was the victim’s handwriting, and said he often made notes of who to expect that day. To prepare himself, she said. Alphabetical order, sadly.”

“Of course,” said Parnacki. “How else would a logician order names?”

“Two are regular chess partners,” Burrell said. “The third, it turns out he’s a work colleague. Thomas Creech is a loner, like Rivera. Thirty-eight. A lawyer’s assistant. I spoke to him – he said he was going to come over in the afternoon, but he had a cold, so he cried off. Matthew Norton is a bad writer, forty-two. He’s the other chess guy. He said he was going to visit in the evening, but he got distracted reading about bears, forgot the time and decided it was too late to visit. The colleague is Brendan Cotton. They work in the same section. He said he did come over, after lunch, to discuss a troublesome client account. It was something he did occasionally. He remembers noticing that the big chessboard was empty.”

“Excellent work, Detective,” Parnacki said. “You’ve solved the murder.”

“I have?” Burrell sounded highly doubtful. “I thought I’d barely begun digging.”

Parnacki nodded. “I can tell you who the murderer is right now.”

Who killed Rivera, and how does Parnacki know?

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Britain, China, Government, North Korea, United Nations

Britain hints it could hit North Korea with cyber war

NORTH KOREA

THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT has refused to rule out using cyber warfare to target North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un in the wake of his latest missile launch.

Theresa May has pledged to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Japan whose territory was targeted.

The prime minister, who had arrived in the Japanese city of Kyoto 36 hours after Pyongyang sent a missile over the north of the country, said she was keeping the door open to launching a retaliatory cyber strike. Mrs May also provoked a row with China after heaping pressure on Beijing to rein in the rogue state.

At the commencement of her three-day trip to Japan, she said: “We are very clear that the actions of North Korea are illegal. I think they are significant actions of provocations.

“I think that is outrageous, that is why we will be working with our international partners and re-doubling our efforts to put pressure on North Korea, to stop these illegal activities.” Mrs May refused three times to say if Britain could use its cyber capabilities to take on North Korea, as she repeatedly avoided questions about the prospect of future military action.

Britain has doubled its investment in defensive and offensive cyber warfare to £1.9billion and set up a National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ.

National Cyber Centre

The new National Cyber Security Centre is the authoritative voice on information security in the UK. It is part of GCHQ and an integral part of the intelligence community.

Last month, the Prime Minister said she had told China’s President Xi that she believes his country has a “key role in putting pressure on North Korea to stop the actions they are taking”.

She said: “We want to ensure that North Korea desists in this action. We see that the best way of doing that is for China to be bringing pressure to bear on North Korea.”

But this week the Chinese foreign ministry criticised those claiming China should step up the pressure on North Korea. A statement released, said: “They only pay attention to sanctions and pressure, and ignore peace talks. When we promote peace talks, they ignore this. You will reap what you sow… The parties directly concerned should take responsibility.”

Mrs May attended Japan’s national security council and announced the deployment of HMS Argyll to the region in December 2018.

Matthew Rycroft, British ambassador to the UN, said Britain wants new sanctions against North Korea which would target workers who are sent to countries such as Russia and China, and whose wages are a source of revenue for Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, a former GCHQ expert has warned that Britain’s enemies would use cyber-attacks to create panic and disrupt key services such as banks, power plants and the NHS if a Third World War erupts.

Brian Lord, who was deputy director for intelligence and cyber operations at GCHQ, said countries are engaged in a cyber arms race and “unpredictable” North Korea is one of those developing capabilities to penetrate global computer systems.

BRITAIN’S relationship with China has suffered a setback after Beijing accused Theresa May of being a “weak” leader.

After the Prime Minister called for the Chinese to do more to rein in North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, a state-linked newspaper taunted her over her disappointing general election performance.

The Global Times attacked Mrs May in an article headlined, “Beijing does not need London to teach it how to deal with North Korea”.

“May’s Conservative Party lost many seats, turning her into a vulnerable Prime Minister,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial column. It also accused her of copying Donald Trump’s stance.

“Weak people often look for opportunities to show their strength”, it said. “Perhaps Prime Minister May doesn’t know much about the Korean Peninsula. Her comments sounded just like a rehashing of Washington’s rhetoric.

“If the British Government genuinely wants to protect its businesses and investment interests in the region, it should speak and act cautiously… rather than pointing fingers and making irrelevant remarks.”

But an undeterred Mrs May doubled down on her demands, calling for “actions as well as words” as Britain, America and Japan all urged China to sign up to oil sanctions against the rogue state.

Confronted by the criticism from Beijing, Mrs May said she was not deterred, adding: “We need to ensure it’s not just words of condemnation, but that action is taken. China does have a leverage in the region and we should be encouraging China to exercise that leverage.”

The Prime Minister and her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe both agreed to an increase in sanctions to bring North Korea to heel. A Government source said these could include implementing current sanctions more quickly, as well as looking at new areas to target.

It is understood China is resisting increasing sanctions to North Korean oil, on the back of a coal export slapped on the international pariah two weeks ago.

Following the North Korean missile test over Japan earlier this week, Mr Abe said: “The threat is felt not only by our country or Asia alone, it has become a global threat including Europe.

“North Korea will launch an intercontinental ballistic missile and the range would include almost the entire region of Europe.” Mrs May added: “We are very clear that the actions of North Korea are illegal.”

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has said the UK and its NATO allies must compete on the “cyber battlefield”.

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