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[Loud Whispers]

They're one my favourite cults. They built up serious power and serious artillery for a crazy cult

[Antioch]

Well the North Koreans didn't really even try to make things look like it wasn't them who murdered Kim Jong Nam, did they?

[Strife26]

North Korea having nerve agent capability has been known for quite awhile, including the likelihood that they have artillery delivery systems. 

[Antioch]

I actually have no idea how effective a VX bombardment would be.....

How much damage would a plane carrying a payload of VX do compared to one carrying high explosive bombs?

Its pretty nasty stuff, since a gas mask doesn't help and it is absorbed through the skin.

[Helgoland]

I think War is Boring had an article like that a while back. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

[Antioch]

I think War is Boring had an article like that a while back. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

seems to be this article: https://warisboring.com/a-u-s-army-formula-shows-what-sarin-gas-would-do-to-your-neighborhood-b5623e8eb09c#.p601erahc

Still it seems the article somehow comes to a conclusion that downplays the effectiveness due to the number of gas shells and artillery pieces needed.

Roughly 38 pounds of sarin (VX is more lethal) delivered in 30 seconds to kill 40 to 80% of all humans per hectare.

Seems to me a bomber filled with gas could do a SERIOUSLY larger amount of damage than one carrying high explosives.

A single f-16 fighter can already carry 8 1000 pound bombs.

[Baffler]

Wikipedia claims that Kim-Jong Nam is the only person in history known to have been killed by VX. A dubious honor if ever there was one.

"In December 1994 and January 1995, Masami Tsuchiya of Aum Shinrikyo synthesized 100 to 200 grams of VX which was used to attack three persons. Two persons were injured and one 28-year-old man died, who was the first victim of VX ever documented in the world at that time." From Wikipedia. o-o???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)#History

That phrase appears to have been edited out sometime last night. Interesting...

[IronyOwl]

Capitalist lies shall not diminish Best Vile Traitor's unprecedented glory!

[smjjames]

Looks like one reprucussion is that the State Department has halted plans for renewed US talks with NK.

[palsch]

Anyone read Russian?

According to journalists on twitter, two Russian language newspapers are reporting that suspects in the assassination travelled through Russia and Moscow refused to detain them.

I'm out the door so haven't had a chance to run the articles through translate yet.

[smjjames]

Anyone read Russian?

According to journalists on twitter, two Russian language newspapers are reporting that suspects in the assassination travelled through Russia and Moscow refused to detain them.

I'm out the door so haven't had a chance to run the articles through translate yet.

*runs them through Google Translate*

First link Second link

Apparently the source (same for both) is from a South Korean newspaper which cited 'diplomatic sources'. What appears to have happened is that the SK intel services asked Moscow to detain the four who were fleeing through Russia, but Moscow replied that they didn't have sufficient evidence and legal standing to detain the foriegn nationals. Or maybe the South Koreans didn't have the evidence. The second one seems to imply that it was due to political reasons because SK rather than Malaysia (who are handling the investigation) called for those people to be detained.

[smjjames]

NK throws projectile into ocean, world screams. Just poking some fun here at the use of the word projectile, because a missile is a missile.

BBC article.

Seems to be in response to the annual SK-US drills already happening there, and NK always responds in the same way with minimal variation.

I wonder what would happen if the media didn't report on it so fervently because NK is obviously doing it to get attention.

[IronyOwl]

I wonder what would happen if the media didn't report on it so fervently because NK is obviously doing it to get attention.

I'm guessing a lot of the intended audience is at home or the top enemy brass, so I wouldn't think much.

[misko27]

Alternatively, North Korea tries harder to get attention, and that is not good for anyone.

But the New York Times had a very interesting breakdown of a recent image published the North Koreans, showing Kim and civilian advisors inspecting a bomb while a missile looms in the background. It showed a lot of detail, and the article listened to arguments from veteran North Korea watchers that far from a casual picture, it was a very deliberate attempt to express exactly how far the North Koreans had come, and precisely who (not the military, a very distinctive choice) was in charge there. There's a lot of detail that it goes into, and it's quite interesting.

[smjjames]

Kind of like they're so isolated that they have to resort to a form of charades to communicate sometimes. Of course, they DO know that foriegn intel is going to pore over every single milimeter of the scene to glean as much information as possible out of it.