North Korea Goes Nucrear

Ka-boom?

Hmm. It appears that Lil' Kim's newest toy didn't perform as proposed. So they have nukes that don't and ICBM's that aren't. I'm reading headlines like "world shudders as North Korea Goes Nuclear"; the shudders should be gasps for breath as the world points and laughs. It's not every day a tin-pot despot's brutal diplomatic leverage fizzles in view of the entire world twice in three months (remember the Taepo-Dong that blew up 35 seconds after launch in July?)

Apparently the yield from the test detonation on the northeastern coast of NK has been measured at around half a kiloton (by comparison, the atomic weapons used on Japan at the end of World War II were in the 10-12 kiloton range). There's a rumor floating around that defense officials have stated in anonymity that the conventional explosives used to trigger the plutonium into going critical went off, but without initiating fission in the plutonium itself.

Personally, I'd hate to be on the team that has to dig in and analyze that site. It wouldn't surprise me if the sick bastards use convict labor from one of the gulags to dig it up. They'll want that plutonium back pretty badly.

The only concern is whether or not they'll learn from their mistakes. They don't appear to have yet. Command economy driving the country into the dirt, widespread famine resulting from the conflict between reality and their Marxist ideals, leadership living in posh luxury while their citizens live far, far below what we would consider to be the poverty line, face it, North Korea keeps fucking itself.

Oh well. While the press and UN wail about how volatile eastern Asia has become, I'm going to kick back, crack open a beer, and chortle at NK's flaccid attempt to flex their nuclear muscle. Stick to counterfeiting, kidnapping, and drug-smuggling, dumbasses.

UPDATE: It just occurred to me that there are probably more than a few NorK nuclear scientists who have suddenly come down with traumatic lead poisoning. In the back of the head. Either that, or they're freezing their asses off in a labor camp somewhere.