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North Korea Launches "Communication Satellite" Rocket
Mad Ivan writes "The BBC has just reported that North Korea has launched a long-range rocket, which they say is a communications satellite, but that the US and Japan fear may actually be a ballistic missile. Details are still arriving; the rocket passed over northern Japan on its way up."
First (and last) post!
Any latest news about what is happening would be appreciated.
The summary is just wrong...
Nobody is suggesting (except the person writing this summary) that the payload of this rocket was anything more than a communications satellite.
What the international community is concerned about is that this really isn't about the satellite and is instead just an excuse to test better ICBMs.
North Korea is banned from launching ICBMs but allowed to conduct space exploration.
As if this regime needed to be any more creative to continue their quest to piss off the world. Yeah, U.N. sanctions don't really mean a whole lot these days (did they ever?), but this is ridiculous.
Honestly, if I thought for one moment that North Korea actually had peaceful space exploration motives in mind, about 50% of my objection to this would vanish instantly. As it stands, the regime is run by a madman with serious nuclear ambitions, something people tend to forget about.
Personally, I wish we'd dealt wish North Korea a long, long time ago... perhaps in place of Iraq. I'm certainly no foreign policy expert, but I have served in the military, and I've always considered North Korea a much larger looming threat to regional and global security than Iraq ever was (with the exception of the Gulf War, that is).
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
Now we know that the only thing stopping North Korea from hitting anything in Japan or elsewhere is intention or lack therof rather than ability.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
But if they are really testing ICBM's (i.e. not expecting something to reach orbit) they would be a fool to announce it before hand.
They'd be fools to not announce it beforehand. You do not go launching major rockets of any sort, young man, unless people are warned. Otherwise, you run the risk of being very swiftly annihilated.
*slaps with rolled-up newspaper*
Holy cow It must be a weapon of mass communication. Stop it now!! Let the UN deal with it or let another nation attack them with our patented excuse.
But if they are really testing ICBM's (i.e. not expecting something to reach orbit) they would be a fool to announce it before hand.
What in the hell are you talking about. The only reason we (or the Russians, or the Chinese, or anybody else for that matter) don't already have troops on the way to take Kim Jong Il's government down right now is because they've been talking shit for the last couple weeks. A surprise launch like this would not go over well with the international community.
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The economy is no longer news because unless you live in a cave everyone knows the US is in a recession. I bet you would be posting drivel if this article was about the economy too and how the "world should stop revolving around the US"
Not every story is because the US is trying to invade another country, and to top that off, there is a different president in the white house. Just because the last one was a moron doesn't mean this one is. Stop assuming things that you obviously know nothing about. Like another poster said, North Korea would be absolutly retarded to not announce a missile launch. They would be a parking lot for the next thousand years if they hadn't.
Even if it is hypocritical, would you ever REALLY want North Korea to have nukes?
We can deal with our side of the issue some other day. For now, lets ensure that there is a some other day.
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So did the Satellite get into orbit? Has anyone seen it as it went up or got into space? I would think a comm satellite would be relatively easy to pick up with radio equipment. Just curious.
From TFA, North Korea's neighbours suspect the launch was a cover for a long-range missile test.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
I wonder why nobody even tried to demand the inspection on their rocket and everybody just waited for its launch.
I don't think it's loaded with much of anything. They just put some crowbars aboard, for the construction workers to use.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1582
Nothing high tech, like a nuclear warhead, or a communications satellite. ;-)
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
ATTACK!!!! their computers are down!!!!
because that sounds like the dialog for that show.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
It seems the only country that really needs to worry is japan. Since the USA has had its cock all over japan since the 1950's we're also in it but what I REALLY want to know is what China thinks about this. I mean... if China complied with Japan and the USA... any attempt by north Korea to do anything would be ultimately futile and devastating to their leadership. Why would they even try to leverage them selves with weapons instead of diplomacy? It seems sort of non-sensible to me, it contradicts logic. Though, I'm not Korean... so how would I know what they are thinking?
Eat sleep die
So did it, or didn't it, put a payload into stable Earth orbit? That would answer a lot of questions as to just what this launch actually was.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I wonder when we'll see TLEs and frequencies. There's nothing on Celestrak or the ITU frequency lists yet...
what is the difference between UN and US? For non americans it is same.
Kim Jung-strangelove
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Thus far there just isn't a good suggestion for how you'd deal with North Korea and not have it lead to massive loss of civilian life on one or both sides.. Oh yes there is. Just act diplomatically until the current crop of hard liner dies out. As long as NK don't make a REAL hostil action (like firing their artillery or bombard another country) there is really no reason to NOT wait it out.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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We tried to deal with them. It didn't work out so well.
You announce it first just to make sure te watchers know exactly what the are watching although sometimes things do go wrong like the until now secret J/FPS-5 making a hash of things http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/2241/dprk-blip-on-a-screen
Once the satellite is orbit, the second stage of Kim's horrible plan begins. Korean reality TV shows are beamed down on a unsuspecting world. Can we do nothing to stop this madman?
...in a faux-german accent, as a parody of Werner von Braun:
"I aim for ze stars, but zumtimes I hit London"
Dunno what a faux-Korean accent would be, but I expect a few one-liners like this about the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-Il and his communications satellite aspirations.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Simple game theory.
Deleted
It looks like the launch failed. Says the South Koreans. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7984254.stm
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
The US and their cohorts continually hype Iran's reactor being built by the Russians as a "secret nuclear weapons program", even though the IAEA has reported no nuclear fuel being diverted towards weapon production. In fact the uranium in Iran is only being enriched to the level needed for a power station, not the 95% or so needed for a weapon. It strikes of buffoonery to keep reading this hype from the usual suspects, but it seems to be the only song they know.
The Tea Party is just the GOP with a bag over its head.
should be accused and consistently vilified over their "luxury" expenses at the cost of their own people it is North Korea. There never seemed to be and end to the bellyaching over India launching satellites as people pointed to all the people living in poverty there. Yet the only concern here seems to be that they now have a long range rocket and it might hit a civilized country. I guess we are so over the fact we can't do anything about North Korea that we totally ignore the people that live there.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
No one could own that dialog like he did.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
The Satellite's Communication: SEND US MORE MONEY NOW!
Right now we're concerned that the people of North Korea are going to become a danger to the rest of us, in the same way that the people of Germany and Japan became dangerous - it doesn't matter if you pick up a gun and fight or not, if you're not working against a war, you're supporting it just by going about your business back home. Same goes for the citizens of the USA right now, of course... So it's all a bunch of flag-waving bullshit - except that N.K. is the only country that much of the world believes is likely to actually use a nuclear weapon. Whether that fear is justified or not is the big question.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This thing takes weeks to prepare. It's a sitting duck for a cruise missile and with all that warning plus knowledge of the exact time and place of the launch probably an easy target for ABMs from the Aegis ships. They have shorter range missiles that are mobile and more flexible that still have enough range to be a threat.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
And this probably won't end until NK *does* nuke someone, and the rest of the world bombs NK into oblivion.
I don't see any better end for this so long as the current regime is in power.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I don't see any better end for this so long as the current regime is in power.
Wait, are you talking about the Federal Reserve, or the World Bank, or the WHO, or the WTO... Or some supposed meta-illuminati? :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Do you REALLY think that NK considers it's missiles and nukes as anything other than a deterrent against western sponsored "regime change"?
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
Kim Jong Il: Now you see, the changing of the worrd is inevitabre!
Lisa: I'm sorry, it's what?
Kim Jong Il: Inevit, inevitabre.
Lisa: One more time.
Kim Jong Il: [shouts] Inevitabre! Things are inevitabrey going to change! Goddamnit, open your f**king ears!
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
This is what Kim Jong Il actually sounds like.
Russia: Fighter jets on standby. Vladivostok wating on futher orders from Medevev.
China: Extra guards, but they're not talking about the incident. Must look perfect for General Mao.
S. Korea: Practice drills. Military on standby. Emergency meeting. DMZ probably closed.
America: Warships on standby. Fighter jets on stand by. Recovering the rocket, with payload. Obama gives a speech.
Japan: Changing their pants, but have Patriot missles on standby. Emergency meeting.
N. Korea: Reloading, hoping not to miss twice.
Brazil: A man is coughing.
Madagascar: Shutting...down...everything.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
You know... I'm appreciative of globalism and the fact that Bush majorly f'ed up just about everything with his cowboy, idiot attitude, but...
I've got to say that as a US citizen, when I see riots in South Korea against the presence of US soldiers (and beef, I think?) in Korea, I'm inclined to say to hell with it. Yeah, North Korea is nuts, yeah, they're a major issue for the South and Japan, but how about a little bit of f'ing gratitude toward the US for backing you guys (the South) up every time North Korea acts stupid.
I mean, why are we putting our troops on the line when all I see are protests against the USA? Is there any gratitude and goodwill towards the USA anymore, or are they just going to jump ship to China now? If so, why are we still there?
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
I meant NK's glorious leader, but any of the above might qualify ;)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
You cold not be more right.
You probably already know this, but the situation in North Korea is so
horrible that the average north korean male is 5.9cm shorter than
the average south korean male, due to chronic famine.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/05/northkorea
The government, instead of fighting of famine (or simply accepting the
foreign help), tries to stimulate people's growth with gymnastics
(this isn't present in the link above; I read it on a newspaper and
don't have a link right now).
North Korea is both metaphorically and literally on the Dark.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm
Its leader, however, is a buffoon that lives with comfort, luxuries
and ostensible wealth.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/noticias/2009/03/090316_coreiadonorte_pizza_cq.shtml
(the above link is in Portuguese, sorry)
So does North Korea now have the ability to land a "communications satellite" on American soil?
J
Why are people so completely and utterly clueless about money? States are NOT private you!
North Korea does NOT have the money to buy imports, it however internally has as much money as it could want. Not that building a rocket costs money UNLESS you have to buy the materials. What it costs are resources and a dictatorship can freely control all the resources that a country has and that is a lot.
Simply put, if North Korea puts a thousand of its scientists on this project and forces a thousand farmers to supply them with food, then so be it. That 100.000 others are starving is of no concern. As long as NK can obtain the materials somehow someway, the labour is essentially free. It is something that americans especially are hard pressed to understand. An american won't do anything except for the love of money. Well, the americans on wall street anyway who after all claim they really run the world so it must be true.
The soviets proved before that you can have a space program without it having to cost billions in any real way. Just don't give your engineers a choice.
Not saying I agree with the NK way of doingthings, but claiming they don't have the money is silly. Dictatorships don't work that way.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I am not a great admirer of North Korea, I have to say, but I feel that we have to stop the constantly confrontational approach to things. Haven't we seen enough times all through history that we tend to get what we wish for in that department? If what we want is confrontation, that is what we will get in the end; is it really worth it? There are better of defusing tensions that are all too rarely tried wholeheartedly, if at all. North Korea is a hornets' nest; don't whack it if you don't want to get stung - it might hurt.
Of course the purpose of launcing a communications satelite is also to test their skills at controlling an ICBM - if you can do one, you can do the other. Life is full of that kind of ambiguities and risks - I mean, if you go to a shop and buy a big kitchen knife you are potentially breaking the law when you take it home (at least in countries where you are not allowed to carry large knives); if you go and buy a crowbar, you "go equipped to commit a burglary" etc. What we want to achieve is not a world where nobody except the elite in the West are allowed to own potentially dangerous high-technology, but a world where nobody feels compelled to use it for weapons. To get there we need to help unstable countries get into a better frame of mind, and threatening them with overwhelming power is not the best way - one would have hoped Iraq etc etc would have taught us that by now. We should concentrate less on confrontation, name-calling and restrinctions and more on positive negotiations and mutual respect.
The rocket crashed into the ocean. North Korea is calling it a great success since it sent a satellite into orbit that took the US and USSR many years after they had effective rocket propulsion. Maybe they have figured out an easier way to make satellites or just plain suck at making rockets. At least they were smart enough to point it at someone that didn't have a military that would wipe out their smear of an existence before the world knew it happened.
He want's to be modded +1 funny
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