Nuke-o-meter, How Many Nukes Within Range of Your Location
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Nuke-o-Meter
North Korea has sent tension soaring across Asia by launching missiles and testing warheads.
So, what does the nuclear world look like? These figures are from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and show the best estimates for the big five nuclear powers: the US, Russia, China, France and the UK. We’ve also included estimates for other nuclear powers like India, Pakistan and Israel – and for the so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran. These are just the active warheads – both Russia and the US have thousands more in storage and pending dismantling.
Hit the link on the spreadsheet for how the figures changed between 1945 and 2006. In the mid-1980s, there were over 70,000 warheads out there – each with the power of eight times that which destroyed Hiroshima at the end of the second world war. There are many less now – but do you feel any safer?
Wondering how many nukes are within range of your location? Check out the nuke-o-meter
North Korea Ship Has Turned Around
A North Korean ship tracked by the US Navy and suspected of transporting weapons or military know-how in violation of UN sanctions has turned around, a Pentagon official said.
The official declined to provide details, including where the Kang Nam 1 ship — reportedly originally bound for Myanmar — could now be headed, but news reports out of South Korea suggested the ship may be returning home two weeks after it set sail June 17.
A diplomatic source speaking on condition of anonymity told the Korea Herald that the ship was “near our waters,” which could suggest that sanctions were having an effect on reclusive North Korea.
“If the ship is on its way back, it would mean that Resolution 1874 is taking effect and causing the North to retreat,” Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told the newspaper.
The Kang Nam 1 quickly drew the attention of the US military under new UN sanctions designed to punish Pyongyang over its May 25 underground nuclear test.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, confirmed Sunday that the United States was tracking the cargo ship.
“Obviously we’re pursuing and following the progress of that ship very closely,” she told the CBS network.
North Korea Warns Of Fire Shower of Nuclear Retaliation
June 25, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
North Korea condemned a recent U.S. pledge to provide nuclear defense of South Korea, saying Thursday that the move boosts its justification to have atomic bombs and invites a potential “fire shower of nuclear retaliation.”
The commentary in Pyongyang’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper was the North’s latest reaction to last week’s summit between President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The allies issued a joint statement committing the U.S. to defend the South with nuclear weapons.
It also came as an American destroyer trailed a North Korean ship suspected of shipping weapons in violation of a U.N. resolution punishing Pyongyang’s May 25 nuclear test, and as anticipation mounted that the North might test-fire short- or mid-range missiles in the coming days.
The North’s newspaper claimed that the “nuclear umbrella” commitment made it more likely for the U.S. to mount a nuclear attack on the communist North, and only “provides us with a stronger justification to have nuclear deterrent.”
North Korea Threatens to Wipe U.S. Off The Globe
North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
Off China’s coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.
The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.
“If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.
How Safe Is Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal
June 23, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
The safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is a cause for international concern. Even as the Zardari regime is waging a war against Taliban in the Swat valley with support of the US, Taliban has made known its resolve to seize control of the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan and use it to fight the US. The US won’t allow Pakistan’s nuclear arms to pass into the hands of Taliban.
To checkmate that possibility, US has enough safeguards in place to take over Pak’s nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so. US President Barack Obama recently expressed the confidence that Pakistani government has safeguarded its nuclear arsenal. However, no one has been able to ascertain the validity of Pakistan’s assurances about their nuclear weapons security.
Pakistans Nuclear Nightmare
Al-Qaida says it will use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons against the U.S. if it ever gets the chance. We’re not surprised. Nor would we be surprised if it eventually got the opportunity.
‘God willing, the (Pakistani) nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans, and the mujahedeen would take them and use them against the Americans.” So says Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, al-Qaida’s top commander in Afghanistan, where the terror group has found a friend and ally in the Taliban.
If you think 9/11 was bad, just wait until al-Qaida gets a nuke, which is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Based both in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s untamed northwest frontier, al-Qaida in April launched a major offensive into Pakistan’s Swat Valley, engaging in fierce fighting with Pakistani army forces.
Swat is just 60 miles from Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. If al-Qaida beats the Pakistan army in Swat, what will keep it from marching on Islamabad and gaining control of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal — said to number as many as 55 warheads? If you said Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, guess again. It’s riddled with fundamentalist al-Qaida sympathizers.
Al Qaeda Says They Would Use Pakistani Nuclear Weapons
If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired on Sunday.
Pakistan has been battling al Qaeda’s Taliban allies in the Swat Valley since April after their thrust into a district 100 km 60 miles northwest of the capital raised fears the nuclear-armed country could slowly slip into militant hands.
“God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about U.S. safeguards to seize control over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so.
“We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated in Swat … and that would be its end everywhere, God willing.”
Gates Orders Missile Interceptors To Hawaii
The United States has positioned more missile defenses around Hawaii as a precaution against a possible North Korean launch across the Pacific, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today.
“We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the west in the direction of Hawaii,” Gates said.
Gates told reporters at the Pentagon he has sent the military’s ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii, and positioned a radar system nearby. Together the systems theoretically could detect and shoot down a North Korean missile if it came to that.
“Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say … we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,” Gates said.
A Japanese newspaper reported today that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile toward Hawaii around the July 4 Independence Day holiday in the U.S.
A new missile launch – though not expected to reach U.S. territory – would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.
Nuclear Terror Would Strain Bomb Sleuths
June 14, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
If the unthinkable happened, would we be left on the day after, as radioactive dust settled, with the unknowable?
If a terrorist nuclear bomb destroyed the heart of a great city, how would we know who did it, with what? Mideast fanatics with a device improvised from stolen uranium? A weapon smuggled in by a rogue regime? A hijacked U.S. bomb?
Where do you strike back? How do you head off another attack?
President Barack Obama calls nuclear terrorism “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.” It’s an unthinkable that’s being thought about daily in classified corners of world capitals.
But knowledgeable scientists and the investigators behind a new U.S. government report say the American nuclear establishment needs more specialists and more background data on possible bomb sources to do the detective job that awaits on that day after.
“I don’t believe the intelligence community is ready for the challenge,” said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, who worked for years as a U.S. intelligence leader on weapons of mass destruction.
Nukes Can Fall Into Talibans Hands
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has said there is a possibility that its nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of the Taliban if democracy “fails” in his country and the world doesn’t help.
“If democracy in this country fails, if the world doesn’t help democracy — then any eventuality is a possibility,” he said in an interview to German newspaper Der Spiegel when asked whether he, like his late wife Benazir Bhutto, feared that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists.
“But as long as democracy is there, there is no question of that situation arising. All important installations and weaponry are always under extra security,” Zardari said.
“Nuclear weapons are not Kalashnikovs – the technology is complicated, so it is not as if one little Taliban could come down and press a button,” he said.
“I want to assure the world that the nuclear capability of Pakistan is in safe hands,” he said, referring to growing concerns in the West over safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
Russia Fears Korea Conflict Could Go Nuclear
May 27, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Russia is taking precautionary security measures, including military ones, because it fears tensions over North Korea’s atomic test could descend into nuclear war, news agencies quoted an official as saying on Wednesday.
Interfax quoted an unnamed security source as saying that a stand-off triggered by Pyongyang’s nuclear test on Monday could affect the security of Russia’s far eastern regions, which border North Korea.
Provocation
Reports: N. Korea tests missiles, starts nuke plant / Associated Press
S. Korean newspaper says steam detected coming from nuclear facility at Pyongyang’s main plant, indicating North is reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to harvest weapons-grade plutonium; country also test-fires another missile. Meanwhile, N. Korea warns of military action against South
Full story
“The need has emerged for an appropriate package of precautionary measures,” the source said.
“We are not talking about stepping up military efforts but rather about measures in case a military conflict, perhaps with the use of nuclear weapons, flares up on the Korean Peninsula,” he added.
Iran Missile Test Claim – Europe Within Range
May 21, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed to have sucessfully tested another ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe.
Speaking in the northern Iranian city of Semnan, where the Sajil-2 missile was allegedly test-fired, Mr Ahmadinejad said the blast was a success and “met the predetermined target.”
If its alleged range of almost 2,000 kilometers is true, the missile could reach Athens, southern Italy and the Black Sea coast of new EU members Romania and Bulgaria.
A similar test was carried out in November, while in February Iran launched a domestically-made satellite that prompted France and Great Britain to express their concerns over the missile capabilities of the Islamic state.
Israel, also a nuclear power, said Wednesday’s test should be more of a concern to Europe, since previous missiles tested by Iran could already reach the Jewish state.
With presidential elections scheduled for 12 June, the test could also be read as part of Mr Ahmadinejad’s re-election campaign, as three other contenders have been approved by Iran’s electoral council.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini had to cancel at the very last minute a trip to Tehran when he found out that Iranian authorities had organised his meeting with reformist ex-president Mohammed Khatami in Semnan, where the missile was tested, not in the capital as initially agreed.
Why You Should Worry About Pakistans Nukes
May 19, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Few who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 will forget the fear and apprehension they felt. The world stood on the brink of a nuclear holocaust as U.S. ships imposed a blockade to force Soviet missiles out of Cuba. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles in exchange for an American pledge not to invade Cuba, but all agreed a cataclysmic nuclear war had been only narrowly averted. Of the lessons that came from this episode, the one that stands out is that never again should the United States be put in a position where its cities are so close to nuclear destruction. Many assumed that lesson had been learned as decades of arms control, détente, and the end of the Cold War seemingly removed the specter of nuclear attack from our collective consciousness.
Well, just when you thought it was safe not to worry about nuclear annihilation, a new crisis has emerged that actually poses a greater threat of an American city being obliterated by a nuclear weapon than anything that occurred during the Cold War: As Pakistan becomes engulfed in chaos, there is a real chance that its nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of extremists determined to kill as many Americans as they can. Although the public has yet to pay much attention to what is happening in Pakistan and there is nowhere near the level of hysteria that gripped the United States nearly 50 years ago, the prospect of a nuclear weapon from Pakistan exploding on American soil is much higher than a Soviet attack from Cuba ever was. If anything can make one nostalgic for the bad old days of the Cold War, what is happening in Pakistan today is surely it.
It helps to first look back at the Cold War to see why the current nuclear threat from Pakistan is so much worse. To be sure, during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union each had some 10,000 nuclear warheads ready to strike each other. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union could prevent the other from launching a devastating attack, nor could either country defend itself once a strike had been launched. The conflict between communism and capitalism, a series of regional confrontations, and the natural competition between the two strongest states in a bipolar system all threatened to turn the Cold War hot. And yet, a superpower nuclear war never happened. The reason the Soviet Union and the United States never came to nuclear blows is crystal clear: Deterrence worked. The leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States recognized that launching a nuclear attack would be suicidal, and neither leadership embraced death for their countries or themselves.
Pakistan to Attack Taliban in Bin Laden’s Lair
May 17, 2009 by national
Filed under World Report
Pakistan is to extend its war on the Taliban beyond Swat into the fiercely independent tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Usama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda leadership are believed to be hiding.
“We’re going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with army operations,” President Asif Ali Zardari told The Sunday Times in an interview. “Swat is just the start. It’s a larger war to fight.”
He said Pakistan would need billions of pounds in military assistance and aid for up to 1.7m refugees, the biggest movement of people since the country’s split from India in 1947.
To help take on the militants, the Pakistan army is for the first time to accept counterinsurgency training from British and American troops on its own soil.
“We need to develop our capability and we need much more support,” said Zardari. “We need much, much more than the $1 billion [military aid] we’ve been getting, which is nothing. We’ve got 150,000 troops in [the tribal areas] — just the movement of that number would cost $1 billion.”
Pakistan’s army is geared towards conventional warfare against its old enemy India. There have long been concerns in Whitehall and Washington at its ineffectiveness and lack of commitment against militants.
