"North Korea has threatened to launch an electromagnetic pulse attack that could shut down the United States’ power grid — causing months of blackouts that could bring society to a halt, with rampant crime and social chaos.
Experts say the threat posed by an EMP — the side effect of an atmospheric nuclear detonation — is significant...
...North Korea released a statement saying the bomb “is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP attack.”
An EMP attack would involve exploding a nuclear weapon high above the United States, creating high-amplitude currents that, like lightning, would race to any conductors within the weapon’s line of sight, such as electric transmission lines, causing power and telecom systems to malfunction or fail in a cascading fashion.
“EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences,” reads a report by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, established by Congress in 2001.
“It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of U.S. society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power...”
Read on!
No comments:
Post a Comment