Name:   MrHodja - Subject:   Speaking of Threats Date:   3/28/2016 8:48:40 PM

The electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated over the US by a nuclear detonation in the high atmosphere would be catastrophic.  Every computer, radio, cell phone, power station....anything running on a chip or using a wire would be fried.  The threat was considered significant during the Cold War, but each side probably knew the other had in place enough hardened facilities so that a response in kind would be possible, but unacceptable to the first striker.  Now enter North Korea.  Their Economy is decades behind the rest of the world in the area of automation, so they have much less to lose were there to be a counter strike.

Shorty, this is one time that I agree with your call out of the possibility that Un might try such a thing.  He could do MUCHmore damage to the US with an EMP burst than wiping out either Washington or New York.  That being said, the sophistication required to pull off a successful EMP burst may be years off for Un.  It ain't no small feat!

To those who wonder, when an atomic weapon is detonated in the upper atmosphere, it supercharges atoms in its midst, and when those atoms settle back into their natural state they emit powerful electromagnetic waves.  The energy has to go somewhere, and in this case it produces an electromagnetic wave so powerful that it literally fries anything electronic in its path.

Forgive me if I got some of the details wrong but the basic tenet is fact: EMP is a plumb chitty thing for any human to foist on another society.  I pray Un doesn't develop that capability.