Don't laugh at the Nork leader

He might be able to hurt us, which would not be any laughing matter.

This is speculation, since I have no hard evidence of it being true.  I read on a Free Republic thread that the Norks could be developing an EMP type weapon.  If this is true, we may not be able to stop it.

How so?

A ballistic missile trajectory could be defended against by the anti-missile batteries that Bush built.  However, the hypothetical EMP device would be placed into an orbital trajectory, and thus have a faster, steeper trajectory.  Such a trajectory could not be reached by the anti-ballistic shield which was not designed for such a threat.  In other words, we'd have no defense against this type of attack.  That type of attack was not anticipated.

Moreover, such an attack may be disguised as a peaceful launch.  You may not know what hit you until it is too late.

The question is this, then:  do the Norks have such a device?  It is plausible that they could develop one, you know.  It doesn't require as much tech savvy as you might expect.  In addition, they already know how to get to orbit.  That was recently demonstrated.

There are ways to defend against such an attack, so the question there is: are we prepared?  I suspect that we are not.

Update:

Looking at a globe, it appears that a missile attack can be defended, even if it is in an orbital trajectory.  North Korea is not well-positioned to launch such an attack.