Countdown to North Korean Missile launch

[mickk]

Its on the pad and supposed to be ready according to the sat pics.

I reckon it will be blown out of the sky if it enters International air space. US most likely, I bet theres ships off Japan ready to do it.

Japan could also have a go.

Russia is a slight chance, she might want to test something!

Then again, it could just be another NK ploy, or more likely than all the above, blow up on the pad!

What are your thoughts? You can look under Musudan-ni in google earth and see that pad clear as day. Missile was on the news but not on the net yet as an image.

If you follow the road along the coast, there are more missile sites and some weird stuff as well!

http://images.tvnz.co.nz/tvnz_images/news2009/asia/korea_missile_map_2.jpg

[furymonkey]

I don't see why would any of them shoot down North Korea's missile, wouldn't that stir up more problems and intensify the situtation more?

[bruceedwards]

Agreed. Most likely scenario is that the major powers track it, but don't actually do anything.

Or else something fails, it falls into the sea/explodes, and North Korea blames America.

[mickk]

Japan is activating 2 AEGIS Cruisers with orders to destroy the missile should it threaten to fall on Japanese soil. Also deploying 2 PATRIOT batterys to the North.

Have a look here for a great map, some nice shots of AEGIS and PATRIOTS. Scroll down about half way.

http://andstillipersist.com/page/2/

[furymonkey]

Well, it make sense to destory it, only if the missile do somehow failed and flying towards Japan instead of over it. However I still don't see them intercepting the missile if it stays on the announced course. It make sense to mention the possibilitiy of intercept to make sure North Korea won't try anything dodgy and a show of will and force if anything goes wrong.

[localhost127]

Japan is activating 2 AEGIS Cruisers with orders to destroy the missile should it threaten to fall on Japanese soil. Also deploying 2 PATRIOT batterys to the North.

Have a look here for a great map, some nice shots of AEGIS and PATRIOTS. Scroll down about half way.

http://andstillipersist.com/page/2/

not seeing anything?

browsed through the rest of the blog. hillarious.

[Crunchy]

Shooting down the missiles, when it crosses Japanese air space might sound logical for us in the West/Japan.
Problem is that the NKorean said, it would be an act of war from their POV and no one (even the Chinese) know what the mystery named DPRK would then do.... worst case would the brown thing hitting the fan...

[mickk]

Now reported in the press

SEOUL (AFP) — Spy satellites have photographed the nose cone of a long-range North Korean rocket on its launch pad, South Korea's main news agency said Sunday, with tensions high ahead of what the US says will be an illegal missile test.

AHA do they expect us to believe the sat only spotted the nose lol. It could count the rivets!

[Ibizan Hound]

thread had 7 posts, 666 views.

[Scott]

Have seen several stories discussing the launch & possible repercussions. So far haven't seen anything about the success or failure of the "communications satellite" to achieve orbit.

[Wall83]

well the missile has been launced, apperantly it flew over Japan mainland and crashed in the Pasific. No news about any satilite.

[Neutral Zone]

Well if it was an attempt to orbit a satellite then it seems to have failed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7984254.stm

It's more likely that this was a test firing of the Taepodong 2 and it was only carrying a dummy warhead in which case it has probably been a successful test.

[Ibizan Hound]

The missile test was a success. The reason why the United States called it a failure is because if they acknowledged it was a success people would question why didn't the US TRY TO INTERCEPT IT. That's why the US Americans are quick to claim failure. Another question that arises was why didn't japan shoot the falling parts from the missile as they claim?

[Misguided Fool]

The missile test was a success. The reason why the United States called it a failure is because if they acknowledged it was a success people would question why didn't the US TRY TO INTERCEPT IT. That's why the US Americans are quick to claim failure. Another question that arises was why didn't japan shoot the falling parts from the missile as they claim?

Isn't there some sort of political quagmire in Japan related to the recession? They probably just want to ignore it instead of stoking up a fire.

[swerve]

... Another question that arises was why didn't japan shoot the falling parts from the missile as they claim?
Because they weren't heading for Japan? Japan said it would shoot down anything which was going to land on Japan. Neither stage, nor the payload, was ever on a trajectory which would cause it to land on Japan.

[Misguided Fool]

Because they weren't heading for Japan? Japan said it would shoot down anything which was going to land on Japan. Neither stage, nor the payload, was ever on a trajectory which would cause it to land on Japan.

Yeah that makes sense; however, what if the missile had failed and crashed somewhere in Japan? What i guess i'm asking is, what could have Japan / the US reasonably done without provoking "war" with NK? Cut off aid? More embargoes? Try and pressure China into making NK change its ways?

[Gremlin29]

According to NK it was a success and they now have a satelite in orbit, performing essential missions such as transmitting NK military music back to earth. :onfloorl:

That's why the US Americans are quick to claim failure.

Truth be known,....that missile is impervious to all weaponry so we needed a cover story. :unknown

Anyway my opinion is, the North Koreans are trying to create a reason for the world to "negotiate" with them and thus receive rewards for behaving, like they have in the past. They are broke, starving and out of fuel. They are doing a good job of taking care of the NK problem, without anybody helping.

[Misguided Fool]

According to NK it was a success and they now have a satelite in orbit, performing essential missions such as transmitting NK military music back to earth. :onfloorl:



Truth be known,....that missile is impervious to all weaponry so we needed a cover story. :unknown

Anyway my opinion is, the North Koreans are trying to create a reason for the world to "negotiate" with them and thus receive rewards for behaving, like they have in the past. They are broke, starving and out of fuel. They are doing a good job of taking care of the NK problem, without anybody helping.

Doesn't China provide fuel to NK through a pipeline? A very old source:

http://www.parapundit.com/archives/001083.html

An interesting read about NK:

http://lxmi.mi.infn.it/~landnet/corea/proc/033.pdf

[Feanor]

The DPRK is indeed in pretty bad shape internally. But how bad is debatable. And given how little information comes in or out it may be on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, or it may be fairly stable economically. I don't think we can make a solid claim either way.