Bomb that could w ipe out US
Expert’s warning over terrifying attack launched from space
AN attack on US electronics by North Korea could kill 90 per cent of the population by crippling the nation’s infrastructure, an expert has claimed.
A spine-chilling report said Washington is underestimating the threat of an ‘electromagnetic pulse’ (EMP), a phenomenon 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 [decimate] 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 electrical systems were destroyed, killing most on board, he said.
Meanwhile, the systems that regulate gas flow through pipelines would spark, causing huge 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 across the nation. 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 up to 90 per cent of the US population could perish from starvation, disease and societal collapse. 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.
And critics have said that to cause such havoc, North Korea would have to detonate a very large bomb in a very specific position. They also say tests have shown EMP causes significantly less havoc than Mr Pry claims.
Mr Pry is chief of staff of a congressional committee set up to assess the threat of EMP. However, the committee lost its funding last month. Scientists and security experts argue that the claims by Mr Pry and others are far-fetched.