North Korea Nuclear Standoff

[Derek Ortt]

it did not

[Dionne]

it did not

That is good news!

[RL3AO]

wow... NK should be very afraid of the security council...

I would be. They might go all out and give a very strong condemnation, instead of the usual strong one.

[Brent]

wow... NK should be very afraid of the security council...

LOL! I'm sure they are.

[Dionne]

It would appear that this launch does not represent a threat. The missile was small.....some say no more than 440 lbs.....this is the payload....(not the entire rocket). The primitive nuke device that North Korea tested in '06 weighed 3307 lbs. They do not have a delivery system. Most interesting is that if N.K. can develop a missile to carry the required payload of at least 1000 lbs into suborbital flight......they do not have re-entry capability.

Basically, North Korea is years away from the technology required to deliver a nuclear armed ICBM.

It took the U.S. 6-8 years of intense design to develop a nuclear warhead the size of 1000 lbs. And we had outside help. If you read back into history.....making the warhead smaller was our most difficult task.

Meanwhile....somewhere in the midwest there is a launch crew sitting in a silo containing a single ICBM that has the potential of sending N.K. back to the dark ages.

[RL3AO]

Meanwhile....somewhere in the midwest there is a launch crew sitting in a silo containing a single ICBM that has the potential of sending N.K. back to the dark ages.

More like somewhere off the coast of NK there is at least one sub containing more than one SLBM that has the potential of sending NK back to the dark ages.

[Dionne]

Meanwhile....somewhere in the midwest there is a launch crew sitting in a silo containing a single ICBM that has the potential of sending N.K. back to the dark ages.

More like somewhere off the coast of NK there is at least one sub containing more than one SLBM that has the potential of sending NK back to the dark ages.

Which is more commonly known as a "decapitation strike" as launch time to detonation can be minutes away.

[cycloneye]

No decisions were made at the U.N Security Council meeting today.They will continue with consultations among the members in the comming days.The Chinese Ambassador made a brief statement calling for restrain to the other members of the council,in other words no agreement for now on new sanctions on North Korea.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30035197/

[Derek Ortt]

we also could send China back to the stone age in 20 minutes as well. Maybe it's time we let them know that... if they want to keep running interference

[Dionne]

we also could send China back to the stone age in 20 minutes as well. Maybe it's time we let them know that... if they want to keep running interference

Y'all know I'm not a big fan of the Chinese Communists. Although in this case we should be grateful that the Chinese have not shared the technology they have with the North Koreans. If they had, this launch would have been successful.

EDIT: ABC News is now reporting that the launch was not a total failure as the missile traveled twice as far as any previous launch.

[cycloneye]

Here is the answer to Dionnes question about how far the rocket went.

U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials have confirmed the rocket's second stage landed in waters about 1,984 miles (3,200 kilometers) from the northeastern North Korean launch site, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Monday.

That's double the distance a rocket managed in 1998 and far better than a 2006 launch of a long-range missile that fizzled just 42 seconds after liftoff, but still well short of U.S. territory. Anchorage, Alaska, is roughly 3,500 miles (6,000 kilometers) from the launch site, Seattle about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512655,00.html

[Ed Mahmoud]

Re: China and the Stone Age-


thanks to 'civilian' satellite technology transfers between 1993 and 2001, and some espionage, probably from Los Alamos, the Chinese got technology that allows missile attacks to within a few city blocks, and probably the W-88 thermonuclear ("hydrogen bomb") warhead carried by Trident missile submarines, and thus can probably destroy any city in the Western half of the United States.


No, we're not going to nuke China back to the Stone Age for anything other than retaliation for a first use of nuclear weapons.


The Chinese may not be giving all the technology to the Norks, but they seem to believe it is in their interests to keep the US distracted, plus the possibility of them reigning in their client state gives them a potential bargaining chip.

[Dionne]

I find it interesting that private enterprise in a free economy can launch a reusable vehicle into sub-orbital flight for about $100 million. It was Microsoft funding.....well not really....just a co-owner of Microsoft.

They won a long standing competition. Winner got $10 million. $90 million in the red.....but hey.....what an accomplishment!

[MGC]

No need to launch a SLBM. Our subs carry cruise missles. The NK would not know what hit them. Launch em at periscope depth and the cruise missles could be on target shortly.....MGC

[cycloneye]

First photos are made public of the launch of the rocket.







http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,6610,00.html

[Cryomaniac]

I find it interesting that private enterprise in a free economy can launch a reusable vehicle into sub-orbital flight for about $100 million. It was Microsoft funding.....well not really....just a co-owner of Microsoft.

They won a long standing competition. Winner got $10 million. $90 million in the red.....but hey.....what an accomplishment!

There needs to be more private investment (Current economic situation notwithstanding) in space exploration in my opinion. I'd be fine with a space shuttle with Xbox branding lol.

[Dionne]

I'm wondering how close the missile was into airspace over Japan. Seems to be a lot of misinformation at this time. Does anyone else notice the trajectory? How can a launch into the northeast turn right and head south? And then land less than 2000 miles away? Somewhere around the Hawaiian Islands? Seems odd. I thought this was a communications effort? Looks to me more like a distance and guidance test with a planned failure.

Look at the globe and check it out.

No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Just got to wondering.

It could be a bluff.

[Derek Ortt]

In case you're wondering, Pyongyang is NOT a bunch of shanty villages. It looks like a modern city

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/N ... 264335.htm

now why were we giving them money for aid? I have a suspicion that the stories of famine were the starvation of their political prisoners

[Ed Mahmoud]

In case you're wondering, Pyongyang is NOT a bunch of shanty villages. It looks like a modern city

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/N ... 264335.htm

now why were we giving them money for aid? I have a suspicion that the stories of famine were the starvation of their political prisoners

My understanding is only the military and senior party officials eat well, and because of centralized planning (including the Stalin era Russian architecture in Pyongyang) and some bad weather, the majority of the country is eating at near starvation levels.

[cycloneye]

Russia opposes sanctions against North Korea.

MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow is concerned by Pyongyang's recent rocket launch, but believes that imposing sanctions against North Korea would be counterproductive, the Russian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

North Korea launched a multistage rocket that it said was carrying a communications satellite on Sunday morning, defying pressure from the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, which suspect the launch was a cover for a test of a Taepodong-2 long-range missile. (VIDEO)

"We are definitely concerned by the recent rocket launch and believe it does not offer grounds for stabilizing the situation in the region," Sergei Lavrov said, adding that "we also believe that any threat of sanctions would be counterproductive."

http://en.rian.ru/world/20090408/120980228.html