Today some confirmation. (Updated at the bottom)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Results from an initial air sampling after North Korea's announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said Friday.
The test results do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the sampling results.
The U.S. government remains uncertain of the nature of the underground explosion, although the air sampling tends to reinforce earlier doubts about whether the test blast was entirely successful, officials said. Data from seismic sensors indicated the explosion was smaller than expected.
In Beijing, a government official said Friday that Chinese monitoring also has found no evidence of airborne radiation from North Korea's claimed nuclear test. The official with the State Environmental Protection Administration said China has been monitoring air samples since the test-explosion Monday.
"We have conducted air monitoring and found no radiation in the air over Chinese territory so far," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly release the information. The official declined to explain how the Chinese monitoring was conducted.
Previously I said, " So what this says to me is that in a week or so if we don't hear about radiation levels consistent with a Nuclear Test, it's a hoax. ", and "Kim Jong Il has proven himself capable of massive deception before, so it's very possible that they just packed an old railroad tunnel with 150,000 pounds of TNT and bodies of the workers who unloaded the explosives set it off and said, "Waa Laa, we just detonated a nuke". That said I think they really did detonate a nuclear bomb, I was just pointing out a possibility."
It is now looking more and more like this is a disinformation campaign on the part of the North Koreans and less like a successful test.
I have seen the idea floated that the reason Kim Jong Il made this announcement is to serve as a deterrent. The theory is that his army's equipment is old and the army can't compete militarily in the modern arena. To deter aggressors (because after all it was the US that started the Korean War and keeps digging tunnels under the border to stage troops for an invasion of the north. Oh Wait I'm sorry that's just ass-backwards). In other words playing the Saddam game.
If that is the case he really is a nutbag, cuz the evidence is right there on how successful Saddam was, and in North Korea we don't really need to worry about an occupation. We can hand that off to Seoul.
UPDATE: 10/14/06 - Edit Copy has a link to another story on CNN which is claiming the US did detect radioactivity.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A preliminary analysis of air samples from North Korea shows "radioactive debris consistent with a North Korea nuclear test," according to a statement from the office of the top U.S. intelligence official.
The statement, from the office of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, was sent to Capitol Hill but not released publicly. CNN obtained it from a congressional source...
The national intelligence office statement said the air samples were collected Wednesday, and analysis found debris that would be consistent with a nuclear test "in the vicinity of Punggye" on Monday.
"Additional analysis is ongoing and will be completed in a few days," the statement said...
At this point I am sticking with my doubts about the test. Too much conflicting information at this point. Let's see what shakes out over the next week.
Technorati tags: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, WMD, Axis of Evil, Politics, Current Affairs
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