[imText1]Since North Korea conducted a nuclear test on the 9th, the nuclear threat of North Korea has been dramatically increasing. If North Korea attacked South Korea with nuclear bombs, what would be the damage?
A report made by a U.S citizens’ association is interesting. The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the U.S anti-nuke citizens’ association, said that the Nuclear Use Scenario on the Korean Peninsula is that if bombed on Yongsan, Seoul, about 125 would die.
Right after the nuclear bomb attacks, the number of people killed instantly would be 300,000, the number of seriously wounded people would 100,000, the number of death occurred by radioactive fallout would be 550,000 and the number of people injured long after would be 350,000.
The damage would reach Dongzak-gu and Seocho-gu, Kangnam-gu. Particularly, radioactive fallout would reach up to 600rem, so that the maximum number of causalities would be 90% of the population covering the Yongsan, Seocho, Yangjae and Hannam areas. In addition, the whole Korean peninsula would be polluted by radioactivity, which would lead to increased casualties.
This scenario is from the report that Dr. Thomas B. Cochran and Dr. Matthew G. McKinzie of NRDC reported in the 9th PIIC Beijing International Security Conference held in Namjing, China in 2004 and is the basis for analyzing the effects of weapons on the ground of the U.S Defense.
[imText2]This scenario showed that if North Korean nuclear bombs, which are 15kt are bombed on Yongsan, Seoul, such damage would occur.
This scenario predicted that in the case of bombs dropped from 100m high, the number of causalities would be 840,000 and in the case of bombs from 500m high, the number would be 620,000.
Especially, in the case of bombs dropped from 500m high, little damage by radioactive fallout would occurr. Yet flames would spout and fire damages would be great.
In this case, the vast range Mapo, Yeoido, Dongzak, Banpo and Gwanghwamun from Yongsan would be damaged. The Central Government Building and the Blue House would be included in the damage scope.
NRDC pointed out that given the highly dense population of Seoul, bombs in the air would cause 6 times more casualties than the ones that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Plus, in the case of the bombs exploding on land, radioactive fallout would cause 10 times more casualties than the ones in Japan
Meanwhile, on the material distributed before the emergency hearing related to North Korean nukes, Park Jin of the Grand National Party claimed that if a nuclear bomb of 12kt is dropped on Seoul, then 640,000 would lose their lives.
He also claimed that, “Recently, the U.S Defense analyzed unified military simulations regarding the North Korean nuclear threat by using super-computers and the internet. Its results were shocking. Moreover, given the floating population using subways in the center of Seoul the real number of casualties would be 2 times more than the one in the result that the simulation showed.”
