Bomb that could wipe out US
AN attack on US electronics by North Korea could kill 90% of the population by crippling the nation’s infrastructure, an expert has claimed.
A spine-chilling report said Washington ‘electromagnetic is underestimating pulse’, the a phenomenon threat of an that could be caused by detonating a nuclear bomb high above the Earth.
Such an attack would see the release of a burst of energy that would interfere with and destroy all electronics – and North Korea has claimed it has built a warhead for this very purpose.
Despite deep scepticisim from scientists and security experts, nuclear strategist Peter Pry, who previously worked for the CIA, outlined his theories in testimony to Congress. And in an interview with Forbes magazine, he expanded on his vision of how America would fare in such an attack.
He said: ‘The US can sustain a population of 320million people only because of modern technology.
‘An EMP that blacks out the electric grid for a year would [destroy] the critical infrastructure necessary to support such a large population.’
Airliners – of which there are 5,000 flying over the US at any one time, carrying 500,000 passengers – would crash as their destroyed, electrical he said. systems were
Meanwhile, the systems that regulate gas flow through pipelines would spark, causing fires in cities and forests. To make matters worse, he said, nuclear power plants will melt down within a week, causing radioactive particles to spread. Food supplies in supermarkets would be consumed within days. Without power, the national food supply would start to spoil around a month later.
A single warhead delivered by a North Korean satellite could shut down the entire electric grid and other critical infrastructure for more than a year.
In that time, Mr Pry contends that up to 90% of the US population could perish. Pyongyang has recently claimed to have developed an EMP weapon, though experts have suggested that North Korea’s limited experience with missiles means it is unlikely to be able to carry out such an attack.