May 24, 2003                                                                 THE 21^st CENTURY POPULIST

“ North Korea ’s Kamikaze Option”

By Don Schellhardt

       Since the first Bush Administration, I have been a relative “hawk” on North Korea .    I have never expected North Korea to refrain from acquiring nuclear weapons.    Nor have I ever trusted North Korea not to invade South Korea again.

      When North Korea announced last fall that it has built atomic warheads, “the world community” was “shocked”.   Still, the news was no surprise to me.   I had never expected North Korea would spend tens of billions of dollars so that it could lob a warhead 5,000 miles   --   just to hit San Francisco with TNT.   It was obvious North Korea had more in mind.    After all, this isn’t   --   um   --   rocket science.

       Having said all this   …   I am, today, a relative dove on North Korea .    My own opinions are the same, but the second President Bush has shifted, almost overnight, from dangerous complacency to dangerous brinksmanship.   He keeps threatening, implicitly and explicitly, a pre-emptive strike if North Korea does not disarm. 

       However, North Korea has a kamikaze option:   EMP.   Electromagnetic Pulse.  

       An EMP could be initiated by detonating a nuclear weapon at a very high altitude.   In this near-vacuum environment, much of the usual blast and heat effects would be converted into electromagnetic energy.    When this Electromagnetic Pulse reached the ground, it would leave people and animals unharmed, but fry all solid state electronics.    It would be a circuit killer, damaging or destroying unshielded equipment, including computers and everything that depends on computers.    “Gone With The Wind”  --   among other things   --   would be PCs, TVs, radios, electric power, bank accounts, business records and the electronic ignitions used to start motor vehicles:   in short, the nation’s economy and infrastructure.

       Right now, North Korea appears to have several intercontinental missiles.    The Good News is:    The missiles can “only” carry atomic warheads and can “only” reach the West Coast.     The Bad News is:   The EMP from a single missile could still destroy the economy and infrastructure in “limited” but vital West Coast areas, such as Silicon Valley or metro Los Angeles .    The Other Bad News is:    Within a few years, North Korean missiles will probably be able to hit anywhere in the United States    --   and may be able to do it with much more powerful hydrogen warheads.     ONE missile, with ONE hydrogen bomb, exploded over the central Great Plains , could bathe virtually all of the Lower 48 States in an Electromagnetic Pulse.

       Thus:    If North Korea ’s leaders conclude their days are numbered, they could take California down with them.    By 2006, it might be all of Lower 48 America .

       There are defensive options, which we will discuss next time.  

       For now, though, President Bush needs to stand firm against aggressive actions by North Korea , such as exporting atomic bombs and/or invading the South, without threatening aggressive actions of our own.   He needs to recall the guidance which President Kennedy offered to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, during the Cuban missile crisis:   “Never turn your opponent into a cornered rat.    Always leave him an honorable line of retreat.”

COPYRIGHT 2003 BY DON SCHELLHARDT

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