Originally posted by Eladar
Due to living expenses, I'd guess that $50 in NK will get you a lot farther than $50 in South Korea.

In any case, I find it difficult to believe that people can't understand that minimum wage applies only to that country's population, not everywhere a company might employ people.

I can understand why you can pay some poor sod half a world away subsistence wages , but this is just a walk across the border , that takes a bit more nerve.

Originally posted by JS357
My browser Firefox never understands this kind of "m.youtube.com" link, it says "The address wasn't understood" does anyone else have this happen?

I mean the link opens but I can't get beyond that to the song or whatever. What's the point?

Try it yourself, aty and report.

I tried it and what it is is mobile phone format but I didn't see any reference to bombs. Maybe buried inside the pages.

Originally posted by Metal Brain
My government does it's best to minimize the North Korean threat, probably to keep the stock market from dropping like a rock after the plunge protection team put so much into propping it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Group_on_Financial_Markets

The fact is that the DPRK is capable of sending a satellite into orbit.

http://www.telegrap ...[text shortened]... e magnetic pulse that could cause some serious disruption and cost a lot of money for the USA.

A rather small nuclear device high in the atmosphere could produce an EMP which could disrupt almost all electronics, communications, transportation, and infrastructure, which could totally wipe out our economy, and a very large part of the population, primarily via starvation and disease, as well as civil unrest.

Originally posted by normbenign
A rather small nuclear device high in the atmosphere could produce an EMP which could disrupt almost all electronics, communications, transportation, and infrastructure, which could totally wipe out our economy, and a very large part of the population, primarily via starvation and disease, as well as civil unrest.

Yes and the thing is, if the North did that, it would hit them as hard as the South.

Playing with nukes when your enemy is 50 miles away is suicide.

One of the scientists I work with is Korean, and his sister lives in the south and they talk on the phone a lot.

The gist of her conversation is the north is basically extorting the west to pay for them to keep quiet.

There will be no war. They have to match testosterone for testosterone so they are attempting to launch a pathetic missile that has a good chance of blowing up on the launch platform, they have never been tested. And like the man said, about as accurate as a scud. No guidance, might as well be a German V2.

Which doesn't mean in the future they can have advanced weapons but right now,
if they started a war if wouldn't last long.

What China doesn't want is this: 1, a war that the South would win, and the south taking over the North. That would be intolerable from the Chinese POV because they view N Korea as a buffer to the south.

And 2, they don't want the inevitable millions of N Korean refugees streaming across their border to be taken care of. They need that like another hole in the head.

The gist of that is the Chinese are in secret negotiations with the North to try to get them to cool it a bit and just stick with pure extortion rather than trying for a real war.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Yes and the thing is, if the North did that, it would hit them as hard as the South.

Playing with nukes when your enemy is 50 miles away is suicide.

One of the scientists I work with is Korean, and his sister lives in the south and they talk on the phone a lot.

The gist of her conversation is the north is basically extorting the west to pay for th ...[text shortened]... them to cool it a bit and just stick with pure extortion rather than trying for a real war.

Well Duh. I was talking about a satellite based attack on the US mainland. Obviously, an EMP that would disable South Korea, would also do the same to the north, unless they discovered effective shielding.

Originally posted by normbenign
Well Duh. I was talking about a satellite based attack on the US mainland. Obviously, an EMP that would disable South Korea, would also do the same to the north, unless they discovered effective shielding.

Satellite EMP is not going to happen any time soon. The Chinese could have done it ten years ago, the Russians could have done it 40 years ago and it hasn't happened yet and won't happen in the future either since the more time goes by the more we know about knocking out satellites. We know every satellite up there, we track them ALL. And one from N Korea, don't you think we have something SPECIAL planned for that one?

The media of course is having a ball with all this, those asssholes can't let a story go where it should. In the trash.

Originally posted by normbenign
A rather small nuclear device high in the atmosphere could produce an EMP which could disrupt almost all electronics, communications, transportation, and infrastructure, which could totally wipe out our economy, and a very large part of the population, primarily via starvation and disease, as well as civil unrest.

It appears they cannot build a reliable satellite.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-12/north-koreas-satellite-tumbling-out-control

No worries for now.