WHAT IS NOT DOUBTFUL IS THAT KIM JONG UN SUFFERS SEVERELY FROM PARANOIA AND A HOST OF OTHER MENTAL ILLNESSES THAT ARE OBVIOUSLY UNTREATED OR UNTREATABLE AND THAT HE WOULD PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON WITHOUT BLINKING AN EYE..
NO ONE DOUBTS HE WOULD DO THE 'UNTHINKABLE' BECAUSE THE POOR GUY IS INCAPABLE OF RATIONAL THOUGHT AND IS DISONNECTED COMPLETELY FROM REALITY.
SOME BRAVE SOUL NEAR KIM NEEDS TO HIT HIM WITH SOME HEAVY TRANQUILIZER DARTS, GET HIM INTO A STRAITJACKET AND GET HIM SOMEWHERE WHERE HE CAN'T BLOW UP HIS OWN COUNTRY OR START WORLD WAR 3.
AS SOME SAY IN THE SOUTH, "THAT BOY IS TEN KINDS OF CRAZY".
HIS NATION NEEDS SOMEONE TO INTERVENE AND GET THE POOR GUY UNDER CONTROL.
I MUST WONDER HOW MANY OF HIS IMAGINED ENEMIES, OUT-OF-FAVOR RELATIVES STAFF AND FRIENDS WERE STRAPPED TO THAT BOMB WHEN IT WAS DETONATED.
ABOUT THE BOMB...
WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW IF IT WAS HYDROGEN OR NOT?
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
The tests North Korea conducted until now used fission weapons, which break large atoms like plutonium, into smaller atoms. Such weapons can have a devastating impact. Think the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
But hydrogen bombs use fusion, which take small atoms -- such as hydrogen -- and combine them. The result: a bomb that is hundreds of times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
Here's why: In order to combine the small atoms and start a fusion reaction, such a bomb needs a large amount of energy. And that energy comes from an atomic bomb inside the hydrogen bomb.
So, basically, a hydrogen bomb causes two separate explosions.
IF KIM DID IT, WHY BROADCAST IT?
Boosting nuclear capability has been one of the hallmarks of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's rule, said Mike Chinoy, author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis."
IF KIM DID IT, WHY BROADCAST IT?
Boosting nuclear capability has been one of the hallmarks of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's rule, said Mike Chinoy, author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis."
"I think it does send a signal, again, that the North Koreans are a power to be reckoned with, and they want the rest of the world to take them seriously," Chinoy said.
OR, KIM'S DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR PUSH HIM TO DO WILDER AND WILDER THINGS TO STAY IN THE SPOTLIGHT?
Kim wrote that he wanted to ring in the new year with, quite literally, a bang.
OR, KIM'S DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR PUSH HIM TO DO WILDER AND WILDER THINGS TO STAY IN THE SPOTLIGHT?
Kim wrote that he wanted to ring in the new year with, quite literally, a bang.
"For the victorious and glorious year of 2016 when the 7th convention of the Workers' Party will be held, make the world look up to our strong nuclear country and labor party by opening the year with exciting noise of the first hydrogen bomb!" the letter read.
LIKE A KID TOSSING A FIRECRACKER INTO A CROWDED ROOM, YES?
BLAST LOOKS SMALL
Norsar, a Norway-based group that monitors nuclear tests, noted this fact and estimated, based on the seismic readings, a blast equivalent to less than 10,000 tons of TNT, smaller than those of the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and far less than thermonuclear weapons that typically are as potent as millions of tons of TNT.
Given the secrecy surrounding North Korea, it may be difficult to ever know what was detonated; the last test, in 2013, has experts split over whether the device detonated then was plutonium or uranium.
IT WAS A BOMB TEST
Even if it wasn't an H-bomb, there's little doubt that North Korea did conduct a new significant nuclear test despite persistent calls not to do so.
If it was [an H-bomb], it would be a game changer, said Mike Chinoy, a fellow at the University of Southern California's U.S.-China Institute.
"But evidence seems to suggest it wasn't a full hydrogen bomb."
However, he said that with each test North Korean nuclear scientists get more data and as a result closer to being able to miniaturize nuclear weapons, a development that would allow the country to deploy nuclear weapons on long-range missiles.
"Whether it was a full H-bomb or not it is still a worrying development," he said.
"Whether it was a full H-bomb or not it is still a worrying development," he said.
The underground test, which happened at 10 a.m. (8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday), corresponded with a magnitude-5.1 seismic event centered 12 miles (19 kilometers) east-southeast of Sungjibaegam, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
That's comparable to readings from North Korea's most recent plutonium test in 2013.
"We won't know for another few days or weeks whether this was (a hydrogen bomb)," said Martin Navias, a military expert at King's College London. "It doesn't look like one; ... one would have expected it to be greater if it was an H-bomb."
"We won't know for another few days or weeks whether this was (a hydrogen bomb)," said Martin Navias, a military expert at King's College London. "It doesn't look like one; ... one would have expected it to be greater if it was an H-bomb."
After being briefed by his nation's military, South Korean lawmaker Shin Kyung-min questioned the credibility of the hydrogen bomb claim. Joo Ho-young, who heard from the nation's intelligence service, told reporters, "It could be different from a usual hydrogen bomb."
Count Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the nonpartisan Rand research group, among the skeptics. He said North Korea has had trouble "mastering even the basics of a fission weapon," so it's a big leap to think it could create an even more complicated hydrogen bomb.
Whether or not it's a hydrogen bomb, the test did get the world's attention.
"Any kind of nuclear test, like the one that North Korea conducted ... is provocative and a flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions," said Earnest.
USELESS SANCTIONS AND 'CONDEMNATIONS'
USELESS SANCTIONS AND 'CONDEMNATIONS'
The United Nations Security Council held a closed-door meeting Wednesday geared to preventing Pyongyang from getting more nuclear weapons and punishing it for the test earlier that day.
Past U.N. measures included arms, nonproliferation and luxury good embargoes, a freeze on overseas financial assets and a travel ban. None of them stopped North Korea from continuing its nuclear program. So what's to say whatever the world community does now -- if anything -- will change that?
After Wednesday's meeting, the 15-member U.N. Security Council (which includes China, Russia and the United States) together condemned the test as a "clear violation of (past) resolutions ... and of the nonproliferation regime."
China spoke out strongly against the latest test, saying it had no notice.
Beijing had company, as leaders from around the world, including Russia and NATO, condemned the test, rare unanimity at a time of pervasive discord on issues like Syria's civil war, the Shiite-Sunni Muslim divide, Ukraine and migration.
KIM JUST DOES NOT CARE.
HE HAS NEVER CARED.
HE PROBABLY HAS NO IDEA THAT ONE SHOULD CARE.
KIM JUST DOES NOT CARE.
HE HAS NEVER CARED.
HE PROBABLY HAS NO IDEA THAT ONE SHOULD CARE.
WHATEVER THE U.S. DOES WILL NOT DETER HIM.
This latest nuclear test, following detonations in 2006, 2009 and most recently 2013, "puts the U.S. on the spot," according to Chinoy.
"Will any of their steps do anything to restrain North Korea?" he mused. "My guess is probably not."
"There's no evidence that the sanctions that have been in place in one form or another for many, many years have had any impact on North Korean behavior, even if they have hurt the North Koreans to some degree economically. So a ratcheting up of sanctions is unlikely to have the desired effect."
WAS IT OR WASN'T IT?
"There's no evidence that the sanctions that have been in place in one form or another for many, many years have had any impact on North Korean behavior, even if they have hurt the North Koreans to some degree economically. So a ratcheting up of sanctions is unlikely to have the desired effect."
WAS IT OR WASN'T IT?
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, told CNN last year that Pyongyang could already have 10 to 15 atomic weapons, and that it could grow that amount by several weapons per year.
He believed then that Pyongyang could miniaturize a warhead for shorter missiles, but not yet for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.
Albright called the latest nuclear test "largely a mystery" and surmised that North Korea didn't test a standard two-stage hydrogen bomb, in which an atomic blast sets off a thermonuclear explosion.
He said it's possible that "another thermonuclear weapon design" was tested, noting there "are many types of such weapons" that "can achieve very high explosive yields."
"North Korea can bluff," said Albright, the founder of the Institute for Science and International Security. "It can claim that it now knows how to achieve high yields with thermonuclear concepts.
It is difficult to prove it does not."
"BOOSTED WEAPON" POSSIBLE.
It's possible North Korea has a "boosted" weapon -- one that uses a small amount of fusion to boost the fission process, but is not a hydrogen bomb.
But even a boosted weapon could cause serious destruction.
"If North Korea really has a boosted nuclear weapon of perhaps 50 kilotons, it could do significant damage in a city as densely populated as Seoul, South Korea: About 250,000 people could be killed in such a strike, or about 2.5% of the population," Bruce Bennett wrote last month.
KIM IS RUNNING 'FANTASY ISLAND', WILL RUN IT INTO THE GROUND, AND IT WILL TAKE A STRONG HAND TO TAKE THE REINS FROM HIM.
KIM IS THE TYPE WHO WOULD LITERALLY BEAT A DEAD HORSE.
KIM IS RUNNING 'FANTASY ISLAND', WILL RUN IT INTO THE GROUND, AND IT WILL TAKE A STRONG HAND TO TAKE THE REINS FROM HIM.
KIM IS THE TYPE WHO WOULD LITERALLY BEAT A DEAD HORSE.
KIM EXHIBITS DISTINCT SADISTIC TENDENCIES.
"In 2013, a 67-year-old man called Jang Song Thaek was sentenced to death as a traitor to his country
In its announcement of the sentence, the North Korean regime did not mince its words. Jang was ‘despicable human scum’, who was ‘worse than a dog’.
His supposed crimes against the regime included having ‘improper relations with several women’ and having ‘wined and dined at back parlours of deluxe restaurants’.
Worst of all perhaps, in the twisted logic of this supposed workers’ paradise, was that Jang was guilty of ‘such factional acts as dreaming different dreams’.
What the regime’s official report fails to mention was that Jang, as well as being one the most senior leaders of the government, was also the uncle of Kim Jong-un.
Less than a year after he came to power in December 2011, Kim had his deputy defence minister, Kim Chol, killed by army mortar rounds for disrespecting a period of mourning for his father’s death.
When a victim is shot dead, fellow prisoners are sometimes made to throw rocks at the corpse until its skin comes off as a final insult.
Such appalling cruelty is of course beyond the pale, but to Kim it is merely logical if one wants to stay in control of a dysfunctional hell such as North Korea."
"Up to 70 top officials - army generals, cabinet ministers, party secretaries and the like - have been executed during his as yet brief tenure.
Among last year's victims, we should not neglect to mention the minister of defence who disappeared in April and is widely believed to have been executed, and a chief negotiator with South Korea who recently died in an ominous sounding "car accident" (North Korea has one motor vehicle per 100 inhabitants).
WHAT STRUCK ME AS SAD, WHILE I WAS WATCHING A FEW VIDEOS OF THE CROWD THAT WAS FORCED TO STAND IN THAT SQUARE AND WATCH THE GIANT MONITOR AS NEWS OF KIM'S BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS AIRED, WERE THE MANY WHO WERE WEEPING, MOSTLY YOUNG PEOPLE.
MIGHT WE READ INTO THOSE FACES A SILENT WISH FOR AN END TO THE MADNESS?MANY ARE STARVING TO DEATH IN NORTH KOREA.
MANY WILL DIE FROM LACK OF HEAT.
OUTSIDE THE AREAS WHERE THE PROPAGANDA FILMS ARE SHOT, MANY ARE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE THE LUNACY OF THEIR PATHETIC EXCUSEOF A LEADER FOR EVEN ONE MORE DAY.
MANY WON'T SURVIVE, EVEN IF KIM DROPPED DEAD TONIGHT.
During the north Korean famine, 1994-1998, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.
At that time, North Korea's total population was about 22 million.
The famine of the 1990s was not North Korea's first in modern times. The agricultural potential of the northern part of the country is historically inferior to that of the southern region, so the division of Korea produced a negative effect on northern food supply.
During crisis conditions, such as war, drought, floods, or a sudden unfavorable change in North Korea's balance of trade, famine was likely to break out.
Famine occurred during the Korean War and by early 1952, the government's food reserves had run out.
Foreign Minister Pak Hon-yong admitted to Communist diplomats that about one-fourth of the rural population was starving.
[SOURCE FOR FAMINE STATS: Noland, Marcus, Sherman Robinson and Tao Wang, Famine in North Korea: Causes and Cures, Institute for International Economics.]
UNABLE TO RECOVER
The Tea Room has to wonder if pride has a lot to do with the bluster and saber-rattling that has come from North Korea for so long.
Is it that old thing of "saving face" and not wanting to appear as a poor nation that has created such paranoid and unstable leaders there for so long?
Do they constantly threaten the world with war just to look like a "super power", to feel elevated above their actual socio-economic status?
Coming close together as they have, North Korea's famines have not allowed for full recovery since the 1950s.
The state does all it can to hide this fact from the world.
All North Koreans were and still are affected by the crisis, regardless of social class, except for the most elite, those attached to the leaders themselves, but even their standing is precarious at best..
The government has usually distributed food according to political standing and "degree of loyalty to the state".
A "privileged worker" could get 900 grams of grain (mainly rice) per day while the elderly got 300 grams and toddlers got 200 grams.
The World Food Program considers 600 grams of cereal per day as a "survival ration", just barely enough to maintain life.
This bare-bones State system was able to feed only 6% of the population by 1997.
The other 94% were on their own, and that's basically where they are now...on their own.
School cafeterias ceased to exist.
The State could not feed the children any longer.
Neighbors, friends, even relatives "denounced" one another to the 'secret police' on the chance of getting more food for being 'patriotic', for caring so deeply for the State.
The government dangled such promises like carrots before the starving people.
ALMOST EVERYONE COULD BE BRIBED WITH FOOD.
[SOURCE FOR FAMINE STATS: Noland, Marcus, Sherman Robinson and Tao Wang, Famine in North Korea: Causes and Cures, Institute for International Economics.]
UNABLE TO RECOVER
The Tea Room has to wonder if pride has a lot to do with the bluster and saber-rattling that has come from North Korea for so long.
Is it that old thing of "saving face" and not wanting to appear as a poor nation that has created such paranoid and unstable leaders there for so long?
Do they constantly threaten the world with war just to look like a "super power", to feel elevated above their actual socio-economic status?
Coming close together as they have, North Korea's famines have not allowed for full recovery since the 1950s.
The state does all it can to hide this fact from the world.
All North Koreans were and still are affected by the crisis, regardless of social class, except for the most elite, those attached to the leaders themselves, but even their standing is precarious at best..
The government has usually distributed food according to political standing and "degree of loyalty to the state".
A "privileged worker" could get 900 grams of grain (mainly rice) per day while the elderly got 300 grams and toddlers got 200 grams.
The World Food Program considers 600 grams of cereal per day as a "survival ration", just barely enough to maintain life.
This bare-bones State system was able to feed only 6% of the population by 1997.
The other 94% were on their own, and that's basically where they are now...on their own.
School cafeterias ceased to exist.
The State could not feed the children any longer.
Neighbors, friends, even relatives "denounced" one another to the 'secret police' on the chance of getting more food for being 'patriotic', for caring so deeply for the State.
The government dangled such promises like carrots before the starving people.
ALMOST EVERYONE COULD BE BRIBED WITH FOOD.
As donations fell in 2003, the UN reduced food aid to North Korea , just as winter began.
At that time, the UN said 41% of North Korea's children were malnourished, up from about 19% in 2002.
Escaped North Koreans reported in September 2010 that starvation had returned to the nation.
In one province alone, over 20,000 had died of hunger.
THE REAL NORTH KOREA IS UNKNOWN TO MOST.
"From children working hard in the fields to a group of soldiers pushing a broken-down bus, these are the photographs that North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, didn't want you to see.
Taken by photographer Eric Lafforgue during what would prove to be his final visit to the rogue state, the images reveal the shocking extent of the deprivation suffered by the people who live there.
Lafforgue, who has now been banned from North Korea, took the pictures while in the company of state-approved guides and was asked to delete each of the images but managed to save them on his memory card.
'Every visitor is warned not to take photos without the consent of the guides as soon as they arrive in Pyongyang,' explains Lafforgue. 'But in reality, it's impossible for them to monitor everything, especially when travelling with groups.
'North Korean officials forbid you to photograph anyone suffering from malnutrition like this man or this little boy'
'I spotted these kids collecting maize grains in the streets near Begaebong,' explains Lafforgue.
'North Korean officials forbid you to photograph anyone suffering from malnutrition like this man or this little boy'
'I spotted these kids collecting maize grains in the streets near Begaebong,' explains Lafforgue.
'They insist that you don't take photos of anything to do with the military and anything that could suggest poverty - even when you explain to them that it exists all over the world and even in France.
'In Pyongyang, as only the elite are allowed to live there, you don't see real poverty but as soon as you get out into the countryside, it's a completely different story.'
Only the elite are allowed to shop in the city's TWO supermarkets...TWO, for the entire city.
But even in Pyongyang, signs of poverty are all too apparent.
Images that reveal the extent of the regular power shortages, which the regime blames on 'American imperialists', and the crumbling interiors of the outwardly well-maintained apartment blocks speak clearly of deprivation.
In the countryside, the sight of people picking grass [TO EAT] and children working in the fields are normal.
'The guides tell you that they [the children] work in the fields in the same way that teenagers here have summer jobs,' adds Lafforgue.
'The difference is that in Europe they are paid, while in North Korea, it is a collective duty.'
'My camera was confiscated for the duration of the bus trip to Chongjin which suffered in the famine. Once I saw the people in the street, I understood why'.
'In Kaesong near the demilitarised zone, you are locked in an hotel complex made of old houses. The guides say it's the same outside the hotel. No, it’s not.'
Forbidden: The regime considers pictures showing smiles under portraits of the leadership to be disrespectful. 'Never take a picture where you can see people doing silly things in front of the Kim portraits,' says Lafforgue.
Blackout: 'We were in Pyongyang art gallery when we experienced a power outage. When it happens, they tell you it’s because of the American embargo'.
'You see a lot of tired people on the roadside, since many have to ride their bikes for hours to get to work. Taking pictures of them is forbidden.' "
AND WHILE THE PEOPLE SUFFER...
According to Kenji Fujimoto — Kim's personal chef who later fled the regime — after Kim returned to North Korea he started to acquire a habit for Johnny Walker whisky and Yves Saint Laurent cigarettes.
The performers often wear spangly mini skirts and heels — shunned in North Korea for years as too decadent. Their first concert, in July 2012, saw them joined on stage by performers dressed in Disney character costumes such as Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, while the band played tunes from Cinderella, and Tom And Jerry."
[THIS, AFTER KIM HAD ALL THE MEMBERS OF ANOTHER GIRL'S BAND, "Unhasu Orchestra", EXECUTED, EXCEPT ONE...WHOM HE MARRIED.
OH, BTW, HIS FORMER GIRLFRIEND WAS ONE OF THOSE BAND MEMBERS WHOM HE HAD EXECUTED.]
In North Korea, it is known as the ‘youth’ or ‘ambition’ haircut.
For some observers, the latest violent events suggest that Kim’s grasp on power is weak, and that he is acting recklessly to secure his position.
But that would be to underestimate the young man whom the North Koreans are made to call the ‘Shining Sun’.
For Kim, the step from playing on his PlayStation to dictator has been a short one — and this week he has shown that he plays the game frighteningly well."
DARKNESS OVER THE LAND
If you look at satellite photographs of the Far East by night, you'll see a large splotch curiously lacking in light.
This area of darkness is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Next to this mysterious black hole, South Korea, Japan and China fairly gleam with prosperity.
Even from hundreds of miles above, the billboards, the headlights and streetlights, the neon of the fast food chains appear as tiny white dots signifying people going about their business as 21st-century energy consumers.
Then, in the middle of it all, an expanse of blackness nearly as large as England. It is baffling how a nation of 23 million people can appear as vacant as the oceans.
North Korea is simply a blank.
North Koreans complain bitterly about the darkness, which they still blame on the US sanctions. "
Even from hundreds of miles above, the billboards, the headlights and streetlights, the neon of the fast food chains appear as tiny white dots signifying people going about their business as 21st-century energy consumers.
Then, in the middle of it all, an expanse of blackness nearly as large as England. It is baffling how a nation of 23 million people can appear as vacant as the oceans.
North Korea is simply a blank.
North Koreans complain bitterly about the darkness, which they still blame on the US sanctions. "
WILL KIM JONG UN LIGHT UP NORTH KOREA WITH BALLISTIC MISSILE LAUNCHES?
WE'D DO WELL TO FIND A WAY TO SEND KIM TO A NICE TREATMENT CENTER FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE, SOMETHING THAT I AM SURE MANY IN NORTH KOREA WOULD BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR.
WE'D DO WELL TO FIND A WAY TO SEND KIM TO A NICE TREATMENT CENTER FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE, SOMETHING THAT I AM SURE MANY IN NORTH KOREA WOULD BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR.
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