North Korea - EMP

[simon99]

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea's spy agency said Monday that North Korea was using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralysing military electronic equipment south of the border.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the North had purchased Russian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry to develop its own versions.

EMP weapons are used to damage to electronic equipment. At higher energy levels, an EMP event can cause more widespread damage including to aircraft structures and other objects.

The spy agency also said the North's leader Kim Jong-Un sees cyberattacks as an all-purpose weapon along with nuclear weapons and missiles, according to lawmakers briefed by the NIS.

The North is trying to hack into smartphones and lure South Koreans into becoming informants, it said.

It has collected information on where South Korea stores chemical substances and oil reserves as well as details about subways, tunnels and train networks in major cities, it said.

The spy agency also said North Korean spies were operating in China and Japan to distribute pro-Pyongyang propaganda.

North Korea is believed to run an elite cyber warfare unit of 3,000 personnel.

A South Korean lawmaker, citing government data, said last month that the North had staged thousands of cyberattacks against the South in recent years, causing financial losses of around $805 million.

In addition to military institutions, the North's recent high-profile cyberattacks have targeted commercial banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites.

North Korea has denied any involvement in cyberattacks and accused Seoul of fabricating them to fan cross-border tension

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[Mark W.]

Sorry don't care can't do a damn thing about it.

 

[Certaindeaf]

They'd sure do a lot of collateral damage, that's for sure. I think most our weapons systems are fairly well hardened and have been for a long time. I'm no scientist nor weapons savant though and most of that stuff is classified anyway.
It'd sure suck to live in NK.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Sorry don't care can't do a damn thing about it.

I wonder if the CIA has contacted Dennis Rodman to try and talk him into slam dunking that little muppet.

 

[chemist]

They don't need Russian technology if they have Google. It's low-tech and effective: wrap a coil around a permanent magnet and attach it to an antenna. Detonate a platter charge against the magnet. In the few microseconds after the magnet is gone and before the coil is destroyed an enormous voltage pulse will be launched into the antenna.

The physics is stone simple: the coil goes from having many flux lines passing through it to having none passing through when the magnet is annihilated. The resulting EMF pulse magnitude is proportional to dH/dt, so the quicker the magnet is blown away, the more voltage appears on the antenna.

The most interesting feature about "conventional" EMP weapons is their pulse duration, which is much longer (albeit at far lower magnitude) than nuclear EMP devices. Supposedly that's a different shielding problem, and shields optimized for nuclear EMP won't work well - they saturate and leak, basically - when faced with a conventional EMP weapon.

Of course the range of a conventional EMP device is much smaller than a nuclear one, but then the Korean peninsula is a rather intimate setting for a war anyway.

 

[simon99]

I think the thing that concerns me is, despite all the speculation, it appears that to me that if the hermit 3rd world nation of North Korea has an EMP, what are other, more advanced nations capable of?

 

[Brutus57]

Actually NK is fairly advanced when it comes to their armed forces vis a vis other states that might threaten us. You can afford last year's Soviet/Russian model boom makers when you treat your citizenry like slaves and serfs, spending much of your GDP to support a large army. Of course with the running dog imperialist capitalist South Koreans a few hundred yards south you can't be too careful.

I happened to watch Olympus has Fallen last night and aside from many, many Hollywood gimmicks it was a plausible sort of terrorist attack.
It's too bad NK exists but then I am sure that's what the Iranians say about Israel and the Chinese about Japan.

Do ya think Rodman would notice a C4 gerbil stuffed up his kazzoo to be remotely detonated by the CIA next time he's High fiving the NK maniacal midget???

Brutus Out

 

[erudne]

Olympus Has Fallen | Spill.com Video Movie Review - YouTube

 

[chemist]

I think the thing that concerns me is, despite all the speculation, it appears that to me that if the hermit 3rd world nation of North Korea has an EMP, what are other, more advanced nations capable of?

We're all scorpions trapped in the same bottle: any one can kill another, but none can do a thing to guarantee his own safety.

In game theory, a many-sided conflict is most risky for the heavily armed combatants - they're the ones most likely to be attacked first.

 

[Burt Gummer]

All the nonsense about N Korea is just propaganda. One of the distractions in the bag of tricks. If our mis-leaders here in the US need a distraction they always turn to the old workhorse, NK.

When we wanted to go into Iraq, all based on propaganda and lies, the American people actually objected in some numbers even as gullible as they are; NK was used then as a distraction if you remember.

Anytime there is a white house scandal you can count on NK being pulled out as the hail mary pass. No, look over there!

The little fella there wants to remain king of his little domain and he will never do anything to jeopardize that, ever.

Also, never forget the near genocide we perpetrated there. We killed ONE THIRD of the NK population. Women and children galore; many civilian slaughters on purpose. Gee, do you think they have a reason to hate us?

NK is all jazzed up because they have to be. If you were constantly threatened at your borders by a genocidal nation you'd have to do a little saber rattling and keep your poker hand covered too.

Truth is never unpatriotic, truth is truth.

 

[chemist]

North Korea rides the "short bus" among nations and they don't seriously threaten anybody outside of the ROK or maybe Japan. But their hilariously hyperbolic propaganda is still useful, and not just internally, because it also serves as a distraction and an excuse to push the latest government agendas.

I'll be back in Seoul in a few weeks; you cannot even imagine how totally uninterested they are in the DPRK. They're all too worried about paying for their kids' schooling and covering their mortgages. The South has the highest levels of household debt in Asia, and it's only getting worse.

<broken link removed>

 

[erudne]

North Korea rides the "short bus" among nations and they don't seriously threaten anybody outside of the ROK or maybe Japan. But their hilariously hyperbolic propaganda is still useful, and not just internally, because it also serves as a distraction and an excuse to push the latest government agendas.

I'll be back in Seoul in a few weeks; you cannot even imagine how totally uninterested they are in the DPRK. They're all too worried about paying for their kids' schooling and covering their mortgages. The South has the highest levels of household debt in Asia, and it's only getting worse.

<broken link removed>

Although largely true, every time I hear such proclamations I am reminded of the 1st Korean War as well as Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Bulge

 

[AMProducts]

A persistent and major issue when it comes to dealing with north korea there's what they say they want to/can do and then there's reality, in between there is a massive chasm that you could stick obamacare, DHS, and the NSA into, and still have room for the pacific ocean and most of afrika.

The NK has yet to even prove itself to be even slightly a ballistic missile threat, much less a solid technological adversary in the realm of conventional military technology.

As chemist pointed out... the more heavily armed adversaries face a greater risk of being attacked. Which is absolutely true, look at how many attacks US interests have absorbed in the last 15 years. The problem is those who have attacked the US are still paying very heavy multi-generational prices for their folly. Russia, since 1995 has been in pretty much the same shoes as us, facing incursions and attacks in it's homeland from chechens, and jihadists.

The real problem with all the propaganda put out by NK is if they ever start believing it, and try anything it's unlikely china will back them in any meaningful way, as I'm pretty sure china is just as sick of dealing with their BS as the rest of the world and chances are good that NK will be the test range for generations of autonomous robotic death machines for the following 20 years.

 

[chemist]

China's in a real bind with the DPRK, having set it up as a client state to act as a buffer, only to see it going rogue and acting stupidly. They surely are exasperated, witness them cutting off the DPRK accounts at Bank of China, but what kind of exit strategy could they manage?

The last thing China wants is a dozen divisions of ROK regulars right on their border; at very least it would tie up a dozen divisions of their own troops basically forever. But they sure don't want trouble with the South either, since China's still heavily dependent on ROK technology products, like the enormous number of nuke power plants they've ordered.

All we can hope is that for all their babbling bluster, the folks running the show in the DPRK want nothing more than to preserve their status quo. I for one can see why they'd be so keen on demonstrating a nuclear weapon; it's a virtual guarantee that the US wouldn't attack them.

That doesn't make life any easier for the millions of ordinary people suffering terribly under the boot of an utterly despotic criminal regime. No, I mean openly criminal, not like our own bankster class! No, wait, I mean a regime that locks up and executes its citizens without charge or trial, not like our own NDAA! No, wait,....

At least we've got cable.

 

[erudne]

At least we've got cable.
Maybe you have cable,,,,,