Nuclear truck bomb feasibility? (N. Korea related)

Factual Questions
1

How feasible would it be for North Korea to transport a nuke south of the border in a truck or a boat and then pull the cork? Do the troops on the DMV have any reason to fear suicide missions from the north?

2

I would worry about tunnels. The North Koreans have spent a lot of time digging tunnels from the North to the South. They could load the weapon in a truck and drive it through a tunnel to the South.

3

It would cause a lot more damage to South Korea (and less to the North) if they just put it on a fishing boat and sailed that up the river into Seoul. 50% of the population of the whole country, and nearly all the political & military leaders, and most of the industry would be within range of a nuclear weapon there.

4

I’m not sure I would worry about trucks, tunnels OR boats, when NK has quite advance missile technology. They could drop a nuke anywhere in Asia tomorrow.

5

Is South Korea’s population really that highly concentrated? In another thread, I speculated that North Korea could drop a nuke on Seoul as a decapitation strike. If what you’ve said is true, nuking Seoul could be a pretty effective depopulation strike too.

6

I wouldn’t consider their missle technology “quite advanced” by any means. Placing a nuke in a missle isn’t a very easy task, even if they reall have a functional nuke. Much easier and swifter to put it on a boat and sail it into SK waters. But it would take a pretty good sized nuke to take out the whole city. Evidence so far does not indicate that the North Korean’s possess such a weapon. Yet.

7

taken from the BBC

So doesn’t look like they’d be able to launch a nuke via missle yet.

8

argh… that quote should be followed by this:

Gotta learn to preview :smack:

9

Opinion is divided as to whether the North Koreans achieved much in their first test.

Many reseachers believe that they did not achieve an earthshattering kaboom™, but possibly only a 1Kt squib. The bomb blew itself up before a sufficient proportion of the Plutonium fissioned.

Not that it would do Seoul much good - it would still be a really “dirty” bomb.

It makes you realise what geniuses the Manhatten Project guys were - they got theirs to work first time (they did have a big steel container made to put round “the gadget” during the Trinity test to catch the Plutonium if it went fizz - they didn’t use it on the day).

Si