While the carnival ride of domestic politics continues to entertain us, one might be tempted to forget that geopolitics is no more stable.
Earlier this week we were treated to the revelation that North Korea may have unwittingly collapsed its own nuclear testing site via an underground detonation.
Arial images show the mountain tops at Punggye-ri in the northern part of the country with a demonstrably lower peak than before the detonation.
What’s more, scientists are positing that the two-stage earthquake in recent days was actually caused by the test and that the second event may have been the seismic result of a mountain collapse.
Before you start laughing at the sheer stupidity of communist self-immolation, remember that the radiation that could be released already is likely making its way into China and South Korea.
North Koreans in the area are already not permitted to leave due to contamination, and infant fatalities are off the charts.
This can only be the rotten fruit of megalomaniacal madman.
Here’s more from Redstate…
North Korea is not a big country, so the area it has available to it to carry out nuclear tests is fairly small. The sole North Korean nuclear testing range is at a place called Punggye-ri.
Being run by communists with all the environmental and human sensitivities communists are famous for, the are is an ecological disaster. The water table has been contaminated by radioactive material and this causes radiation sickness and a very high level of fetal deaths. The residents of the region are forbidden to travel outside the local area. The Chinese are beginning to get antsy about the rising radiation levels on their side of the North Korean border.
When North Korea popped its last nuke, on September 3, there were two seismic events. There was a 6.3 magnitude earthquake followed shortly afterwards by a 4/1 magnitude event. Initial reports focused on a “two stage” nuclear device, then reporters listened to scientists who explained that a first stage capable of generating a 6.3 Richter reading would have vaporized the second stage and that the second event was probably a geologic collapse inside the mountain covering the test area.
The second earthquake coupled with the fact that the same mountain has now had six nukes go off under it has sounded alarm bells from Seoul to Beijing that the entire mountain may be on the verge of collapse and with that collapse exposing a boatload of irradiated material. This GIF shows the terrain effects of the September 3 blast. You can see how the mountain has lost altitude. And there is more danger on the horizon if another test is conducted:
Landslides have been detected in the detonation area of North Korea’s latest nuclear test – days after Chinese experts said the mountain under which the rogue state’s five most recent bomb tests likely occurred could be at risk of collapsing.
Satellite images released Wednesday by the respected 38 North website showed the weekend test triggered landslides around the blast site – although there was no visible crater that would indicate a collapse.
38 North published satellite images taken Monday showing changes in the surface at the Punggye-ri test site where the ground had been lifted into the air by the tremors, and small landslides going into stream beds.
