North Korea launches missile

[Sam5]

I dunno if this is going into politics. I am trying to show motive.

I think the motive is quite simple: Rattle some sabers to frighten the US so the US will send North Korea lots of money and free stuff so they will stop rattling the sabers. It’s like that old movie, “The Mouse that Roared,” about a small poor European country that declared war on the US so the US would send them lots of foreign aid money to bribe them into not having a war with the US.

[korjik]

I think the motive is quite simple: Rattle some sabers to frighten the US so the US will send North Korea lots of money and free stuff so they will stop rattling the sabers. It’s like that old movie, “The Mouse that Roared,” about a small poor European country that declared war on the US so the US would send them lots of foreign aid money to bribe them into not having a war with the US.

I meant motive as to why the missile would only fly 40s

[Larry Jacks]

Actually, the funny part about the movie, "The Mouse That Roared" was their plan on declaring war on the US so they could get foreign aid after they were defeated. Only, they won! I have not seen the movie for a long time but I remember it was very funny.

[Fortis]

With regards to these missile tests, I find it interesting that the Taepodong 2 missile is assumed to have failed, given that it plunged into the East Sea 40s or so after launching.

It makes me wonder, what would be the criteria for that missile test not to have been deemed a failure? If it had flown over Japan would that have been a success? If it had landed in the mid-Pacific near Hawaii perhaps would that have been deemed a non-failure?

What criteria are being used to judge the success or otherwise of the missile?

The fact that the missile is a multi-stage one, and the apparent failure/abort happened during the burn of the first stage.

Pike, formerly of FAS, and currently of globalsecurity.org (a regular of the rent-a-quote crowd), suggested that it may have been due to excessive stresses on the body during the maximum thrust part of the first stage burn. He raises the possibility that the first stage had been light-weighted, and possibly weakened, in order to extend the overall range of the missile. Then again, this is purely speculation.

[GDwarf]

Would a long range missle reach australia from korea?

I hope they don't decide to shoot us...

I have much to say politicly... I'll just stay quiet here though....

The pictures the news was showing had the long range missile being able to hit most of Asia and the west coast of the states, but Australia was beyond it's range.

[V-GER]

Here's the picture with the missile ranges:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-paci...6464.stm#there


I would have thougth Australia was (a lot)closer to N Korea than Finland. Obviously not...

[Blob]

Satellites? According to the link below, its more like just one spy satellite.


Putin Wants More Russian Satellites In Space

Like the Death Star, the failure of the recently launched Cosmos-2421 may have been exaggerated, and the satellite is in fact fully functional.

The Russian Space Forces will launch the military satellite Cosmos-2422, aboard a Molniya-M launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in July.
The satellite is part of an early-warning system consisting of two US-KS satellites, Cosmos-2388 and Cosmos-2393, and the geostationary satellite Cosmos-2379 of the US-KMO system.

(i have read elsewhere that the total Russian satellite group presently has about 100 satellites, whereas the US orbital group consists of about 425 satellites. )

Incidentally, the US, has four DSP geostationary satellites, looking at North Korea (and Australia etc) - DSP F-21 at 70°E, DSP F-22 at 130°E, DSP F-18 at 145°E, and DSP F-17 at 165°W; this was augmented by the recently launched NROL-22, (and no doubt a few others we don`t have the clearance to know about...)

[Rue]

Here is the KCNA (North Korea's news agency) article about the launches. It looks like the use of the T2 was not part of any attempted space launch.

The latest successful missile launches were part of the routine military exercises staged by the KPA to increase the nation's military capacity for self-defence.

...successful?

[PhantomWolf]

I would have thougth Australia was (a lot)closer to N Korea than Finland. Obviously not...

Finland's not on that map, the range extends about halfway across Russia, nearly to the Caspin Sea. I note that apart from Alaska,the US is safe. Main people who should be worried would be South Korea, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Japan, and Indonesia.

[Jeff Root]

Finland was on the map, but just outside the largest circle.
A chunk of northern Australia was inside the same circle.

[Jim]

Quote:
The latest successful missile launches were part of the routine military exercises staged by the KPA to increase the nation's military capacity for self-defence.

...successful?

Translation: It left the pad.

[Jeff Root]

It is not obvious to me that the missiles were intended to go any
farther than they actually did. Were North Korean tracking ships
located farther downrange? Or were all of their forces in the
area where the missiles landed?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Jim]

Uh oh, now they've gone and done. They've gotten the Japanese upset.

Japan said today it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution ... several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4035874.html

[sarongsong]

A NORAD source (via CNN) says that it has been watching NK intently over the last few weeks and was not surprised by the launches. They also said their systems were up and ready to respond incase anything approached the US. Draw your own conclusion.

I like this one:

...The Red Chinese also got to see...how well state-of-the-art U.S. intelligence and communications systems operated in a crisis... HumanEventsOnline

Also, doesn't maritime law require notification to any ships that may be in the trajectory/target area?

[PhantomWolf]

Finland was on the map, but just outside the largest circle.
A chunk of northern Australia was inside the same circle.

No it's not. What you are thinking is Finland is actually the top of Russia. If you look below it, just on the edge of the range, you'll see the Caspian Sea and beyond the Black Sea, Finland is well over the horizon. Also none of Australia is in the ring, unless you are meaning the Blue ring, which is actually the globe, not the missile ranges, they are the yellow two circles.

[Jeff Root]

PhantomWolf,

Either the map has changed since I looked at it before, or I was
looking at a different map linked from this thread. The map you
just described is color. The map I saw was black and white line
drawing. The circle on the color map is smaller than the circle
on the black and white map.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[jkmccrann]

Here's the picture with the missile ranges:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-paci...6464.stm#there


I would have thougth Australia was (a lot)closer to N Korea than Finland. Obviously not...

I assume this BBC map is the one Phantom Wolf is referring to. It is a colour map.

Looking at this map, Finland is just on this map. Although the map does not show the full extent of the missile's range over the Arctic Circle.

Right at the top of the map, and slightly left of centreof the map one can make out the Baltic Sea, and southern Finland - which is not in range, but it looks like Northern Finland, at least according to this map, would be in range.

Because of this I have to disagree with both of you.

Finland was on the map, but just outside the largest circle.
A chunk of northern Australia was inside the same circle.


No it's not. What you are thinking is Finland is actually the top of Russia. If you look below it, just on the edge of the range, you'll see the Caspian Sea and beyond the Black Sea, Finland is well over the horizon. Also none of Australia is in the ring, unless you are meaning the Blue ring, which is actually the globe, not the missile ranges, they are the yellow two circles.

Phantom Wolf, Finland is on the BBC Map, right towards the top of the map, just left of centre.

Finland was on the map, but just outside the largest circle.
A chunk of northern Australia was inside the same circle.

Jeff Root, I'm not sure which map you were looking at, but according to the BBC Map - which I believe is what Phantom Wolf is referring to, Australia was not inside the orange circle, although Northern Finland apparently is inside that same circle - Northern Australia was merely illuminated by a surrounding circle - as PhantomWolf points out.

Though, of course, its a bit academic, because North Korea is hardly going to be shooting missiles over Russia anytime soon!

[V-GER]

Though, of course, its a bit academic, because North Korea is hardly going to be shooting missiles over Russia anytime soon!

True of course, I was rather just wondering that Finland and Australia were about the same distance away from N Korea(or Korea in general). Living over here, you tend to think every country at that region to be closer to each other than they in reality are. Perhaps it's because In Europe distances are so much shorter, we think of other regions in the same way or something.

[ASEI]

Uh oh, now they've gone and done. They've gotten the Japanese upset.

Bring out the giant battle robots.
Where did they stick Godzilla, anyways?

[sarongsong]

...Where did they stick Godzilla, anyways?

Think I just saw him...in a Doritos commercial!

[Gillianren]

True of course, I was rather just wondering that Finland and Australia were about the same distance away from N Korea(or Korea in general). Living over here, you tend to think every country at that region to be closer to each other than they in reality are. Perhaps it's because In Europe distances are so much shorter, we think of other regions in the same way or something.

A friend of mine went to University of St. Andrew's. Rather than try to explain where Port Angeles is, she told everyone she's from "near Seattle." Someone finally asked her how near and was stunned by the answer. It's about a two-hour drive, longer if you don't take the ferry across the Puget Sound.

Then again, I still thought North Korea was closer to Australia than that.

[MG1962A]

Here is the KCNA (North Korea's news agency) article about the launches. It looks like the use of the T2 was not part of any attempted space launch.

That is a seriously amazing read. You can almost feel yourself being brainwashed into believing the North Korean point of view. How must the locals who put up with this stuff from birth, feel

I toggled a few days ahead and found an interesting attack on US flyovers of North Korea. I was curious about the report of U2s being involved.

Am I mistaken or didn't this aircraft go off line in the late 70s?

[BigDon]

You are mistaken.

[Tog]

The U-2 is still in service. Or at least it was as lat as 1999.

[MG1962A]

Thanks for the link. Must have gotten muddled somewhere about the orginal series of U2s being replaced in the late sixties by the re-engineered version.

[mickal555]

Satellite Photos Detect Activity At North Korea Missile Bases

North Korea could be preparing for new launches of mid-range missiles following last week's tests, with activity detected at its bases, a report said Tuesday citing Japanese government sources.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Sate...Bases_999.html

[Ara Pacis]

It looks like the THAAD ABM system had a successful test today. This might be useful against the Taepodong II.

[PhantomWolf]

Phantom Wolf, Finland is on the BBC Map, right towards the top of the map, just left of centre.

Looking again, yes, there is a slight demarkation of a border there, however....

Northern Finland apparently is inside that same circle

Debatable. Northern Finland is off the map, Southern is not in the target zone. Remember that Finland is on the western coast and Russia is on the eastern. You can just make out the border between them, and the yellow stays on the eastern side of that border. If anything, it's likely to clip the northeastern tip of Norway, but that would occur off the map.

[BigDon]

What's North Korea got against Finnland? Are those Lapplanders causing trouble again? Darn reindeer herders! Always making the world a more dangerous place for me and mine!

[PhantomWolf]

Perhaps they plan to shoot down Santa Claus for not giving GWB a lump of coal last year.