ISSUES....
Inside,
confidential, off the record
NKorea
a fake ?
Our
friend Dennis Garthman in is excellent daily newsletter "
The Garthman Letter". ponders on the issue of the day, North
Korea ...
There
is growing support for the notion that the recent "nuclear
explosion" by N. Korea was either a failure of massive proportions
or might well have been faked entirely, for as the data is being
assimilated by the various governments around the world, it is
now quite clear that the "explosion" was uncommonly
small for a nuclear device. Indeed, if it was a nuclear device,
it was the smallest on record judging from the seismic data thus
far assimilated. That is leading some to argue that the explosion
was a manifest failure, or that it was faked entirely. Simply
put, the physics of a nuclear explosion require that a sum of
enriched uranium or plutonium be forced together in such a manner
that they reach "critical mass," creating the chain
reaction that is the nuclear explosion itself. That usually means
that a small portion of the mass itself is held at a distance
from the larger portion, and that it is driven into the larger
portion via a conventional explosion, creating the critical mass.
It is now thought more and more widely that what the seismic sensors
had picked up was the conventional explosion itself, or that the
nuclear explosion was a virtual "dud" and that it exploded
but with much less force than had been hoped for by the N. Korean
scientists and government. However, we must also be cognisant
of the fact that this is N. Korea we are talking about, and that
any and all information emanating from or pointing toward N. Korea
is conjecture and/or that it is all open to political exegesis.
It is quite possible that the various governments around the world
have it in their best interests to disseminate disinformation
regarding this nuclear test. It is possible that the N. Korean
government itself may, for some still unclear reason, be spreading
disinformation. We can make arguments on all sides for nearly
all positions. All we know, as nearly for certain as one can come
when discussing anything regarding the "Hermit Kingdom,"
is that the explosion was quite small. One can let one's imagination
run wild from that point on.
You can subscribe to The Gartman Letter by contacting
Dennis Garthman: Phone 757 238 9346, Fax 757 238 9346 or dennis@thegartmanletter.com
ISSUES....
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