As I write, it is 4:32 AM in North and South Korea.

[MineralMan]

Dawn is only a couple of hours away there. Right now, it is the wee hours of the morning in that place.

What will happen as the sun rises? I'm not sure. What will happen in North Korea while I am asleep tonight and it's the middle of the day there? I can't say.

I'm more than a little worried about all that, though, just now, at 2:43 PM here in St. Paul, MN.

[brooklynite]

1. Why is anything more likely to happen today as opposed to yesterday or tomorrow?

[bathroommonkey76]

2. Day of the Sun celebrations are April 15 in NK

They've been talking about a 'big event' happening on that day (today).

[Lebam in LA]

4. Yeah, What he said

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, the sun is about to rise there on that day. That's

the reason for my post. Today, this evening, is the morning of the 15th in North Korea.

[Lebam in LA]

3. Some kind of holiday in N Korea

Apparently the lil dictator likes to do things on days with meaning to N.K.

[MedusaX]

7. Added bonus ... distract from Tax Protests

It's like a double whammy...

Std Op Procedure for NK = celebrate bigly

45 tries to intimidate NK into forgoing Std Op Proc.

whether NK detonates its preferred fireworks or not...
the timing is ideal for distracting from Tax Day protests here...:

[underpants]

6. I wouldn't say I'm nervous about it

but it is on my mind. One stupid wrong move and this could be a disaster.

As I posted elsewhere- there are about 29,000 US military personnel in S. Korea.

[jpak]

8. Day of a Thousand Suns

[yuiyoshida]

9. One thing that WON'T HAPPEN...

PSY won't be preforming anytime soon in Pyongyang...

Nor will 2NE1

Nor will BoA Kwon perform live there..

[roamer65]

10. I suspect it's a full out hydrogen bomb test.

If they have miniaturized a fission device, the hydrogen bomb is just a stone's throw away.

[sharedvalues]

11. But miniaturization and missiles are the real danger

Making a small bomb is hard and it's unclear if NK has done it.

And ICBMs are hard too.

Demos underground shouldn't scare us that much. A combined missile nuke test would be very very very scary.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. I doubt it.

I don't think a hydrogen bomb is actually that easy to achieve.

[roamer65]

13. If they have "mechanism" to transfer energy from the primary fission trigger...

to a secondary fusion stage, it's a done deal.

That '"mechanism" is supposedly secret but if they got a hold of it, they are well on their way.

The test could also be one of a "boosted" primary. A "boosted" primary usually involves a mixture of deuterium and tritium gas around the core to increase the efficiency of the fission reaction.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Yeah, I read "Dark Sun" a while back

that's the extent of my expertise on fusion bombs.

Still, my takeaway was that the technological hurdles- even for sticking some deuterium next to a fission bomb to provide extra oomph- were still pretty significant.