US report lays out apocalyptic consequences of North Korean electromagnetic pulse attack on America

Nicola Smith
Updated
The former CIA worker said an EMP could blacks-out the electric grid for a year - AP
The former CIA worker said an EMP could blacks-out the electric grid for a year - AP

A North Korean electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the US could wipe out up to 90% of the population through starvation, disease and societal collapse, a new congressional report has warned.

An EMP attack, which does not require the precision of a nuclear missile, could wreak havoc across the US, Peter Vincent Pry, a nuclear strategist formerly with the CIA, testified before a congressional Homeland Security subcommittee.

Mr Pry served as chief of staff to the congressional EMP commission and was one of the authors of the October report.

In an interview with Forbes, he explained that an EMP warhead need not re-enter the atmosphere before exploding and generating a high-frequency electromagnetic pulse that would damage a broad range of electronics.  

“The US can sustain a population of 320 million people only because of modern technology,” Mr Pry said. “An EMP that blacks-out the electric grid for a year would [decimate] the critical infrastructure necessary to support such a large population,” he said.

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In the worst-case scenario, the food supply in grocery stores would be consumed within three days, and the 30-day national food supply in warehouses would begin to spoil. In one year, up to 90% of the population could perish, he argues.

However, other experts have expressed scepticism that North Korea has the capability to target the US with such a Super-EMP weapon.

Predictions of mass casualties “seem unjustified at this time,” James Clay Moltz, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in California, also told Forbes.

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On September 30, the EMP commission was discontinued after 16 years, even though North Korea recently claimed it had developed thermo-nuclear weapons specifically capable of detonating at high altitudes to create an electromagnetic pulse.

Former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and one of the most vocal proponents of taking the EMP threat seriously told Foreign Policy that the slow pace of political appointments under the Trump administration had made progress on EMP nearly impossible.

He said he did not fight the commission’s closure as “people I trust who are very concerned [about the threat] thought that we needed a fresh start.”