North Korea‘s nuclear ambitions are well-documented: While the country’s dictatorial leader, Kim Jong-il, has recently expressed a willingness to talk about nuclear disarmament, the country has also hinted at further nuclear weapons test plans.
But then: Plain old nuclear weapons are so old hat. how about nuclear fusion, or “artificial solar technology,” in the words of the North Korean press, which has never before been sustained in laboratory conditions? And why not announce its discovery on the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, North Korea’s founder and the father of Kim Jong-Il?
Take it away, North Korean Workers Party newspaper:
The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported the claim that was made in Rodong Shinmun – the North Korean Workers Party newspaper. The paper called it “artificial solar technology,” adding the breakthrough represented “the development of new energy desired by humankind.”
The KCNA reported the process had been achieved on April 15 – “The Day of the Sun” – the birthday of Kim Il Sung, the late founder and “eternal president” of North Korea. “Given that this is coming from the Rodong Shinmun, it is designed to strengthen the regime,” said Dr. Kim Byung-ki, a security expert at Korea University. “The technological aspects have to be taken with a pinch of salt.”
The last laugh will be on us and much of the Western press if this somehow turns out to be true and the previously blackout-prone North Korean populace finds itself in a cold fusion utopia a year or so down the road; until then — and until there are any scientific details at all released about the supposed nuclear fusion — we’ll be skeptical, to say the least.
(via CNN)
