North Korean Missile Raised To Firing Position, Says US Official

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from CNN: "North Korea has raised at least one missile into its upright firing position, feeding concerns that a launch is imminent, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday. This comes as the world continued to keep watch for a possible missile launch by the secretive government, and a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in the region. In the latest daily tough talk from the North, a government agency is quoted by the state-run media as saying that 'war can break out any moment.'"

Comments

And... it's gone

[earlzdotnet]

Sounds like a perfect excuse for a preemptive strike

Re:And... it's gone

[jadv]

Preemptive strikes are only allowed on targets approved by the Halliburton Company.

Re:And... it's gone

[ColdWetDog]

Raised position ....
Preemptive strike ....

MUST NOT!

Re:And... it's gone

[emho24]

Worried? No
Tired of war? Yes
Tired of hearing the rhetoric? Yes

Re:And... it's gone

[Archangel Michael]

So, when Obama preempts an attack on NK, you'll know he has been bought by Halliburton. Then what?

I know, you guys on the left think there is an actual difference between (R) and (D), but being a (L), it is really hard to distinguish between More Government and More Government.

Re:And... it's gone

[X0563511]

Yes, detonating nukes nextdoor to China - what could possibly go wrong?

Re:And... it's gone

[X0563511]

Al Qaeda: actually attacked us.
Iraq: no comment. I think this one was stupid as well.
North Korea: China's autistic little brother.

Surely you might see why blowing up NK might not be a wise choice...

Re:And... it's gone

[Anonymous Coward]

i predict that will never happen even if North Korea launches their missiles.

neither China, Japan, nor South Korea will be happy about the radioactive wasteland next to them, or the radioactive fallout from the attack.

then there would be outcry from everywhere that we needlessly killed civilians

and a long list of other reasons.

we will never launch a single nuke at North Korea.

Re:And... it's gone

[phantomfive]

Comments like this just show your ignorance. Go research the topic. North Korea can not win the war, but they can inflict massive damage, with millions dead.

Re:And... it's gone

[silviuc]

At least they don't say "yo dawg, they got chemical weapons and they're gonna' use 'em. Honest to GOD!!". They tuned it down to "they raised their missiles first. we decided a preemptive strike was the way to go". It's also cheaper than the charade with the military searching for something that never existed in the first place.

Re:And... it's gone

[ArcadeMan]

iPhone 5RAE*

* radio-active edition

Re:And... it's gone

[cusco]

Seoul is within easy howitzer-range of a massive amount of very well dug-in artillery. They could be using WWI-era weapons and still tear the guts out of the South Korean economy in an hour. (I say 'economy', because no one in Brainwashington really gives a shit about the civilians, and the South Korean industry owners all live in Los Angeles and Honolulu.)

Re:And... it's gone

[metlin]

In International Relations, we call this "audience cost". American population is pretty much war-weary at this point, and no sane politician would ever start a war or risk aggression and conflict.

North Korea is counting on this. The chances of them attacking are pretty slim, and they are just posturing in an attempt to force us to give them better terms (be nice, or else...) -- except that we are calling their bluff.

And the more we call their bluff, the more aggressive their posturing becomes. Eventually, one of our allies will either step in or ask for help, and that's when we will head to the negotiating tables.

Either way, this is nothing new. The US goes through cycles of war and war-weariness. In about a decade, we'll be back, carpet bombing some random country for imagined slights.

Re:And... it's gone

[localman57]

Hypocritical would be if we constantly threatened to nuke Mexico, then told NK to knock it off.

Re:And... it's gone

[phantomfive]

North Korea acted like this three years ago, five years ago, seven years ago, fifteen years ago....this is how they act. It's not about war weariness in the US.

Re:And... it's gone

[ackthpt]

No need for nukes with North Korea, anyway. They will easily be flattened by conventional missles. They are effectively defenceless and have a tiny infrastructure. Any war with them with missiles would be concluded before you heard about it on Slashdot.

Re:And... it's gone

[PraiseBob]

No. Intelligence reports suggest that they can't fit a nuclear warhead on any kind of missile with decent range. Plus, their missile tests are falling way short of reaching anywhere but South Korea, China, and maybe Japan, and their test success ratio has been low.

There is basically no scenario in which North Korea can start a war and "win". The regime can kill a bunch of people at the cost of their own lives, but that is something only religious fanatics do. They are bluffing to get sanctions lifted, and clearly trying to bluff the US into a pre-emptive strike, in order to paint themselves as a victim. It won't work, but they don't realize it because their analysts work for a totalitarian regime and can't provide the unvarnished truth to the leadership.

It's a sad situation all around. I mostly just pity the north korean people for their inept leaders.

Re:And... it's gone

[Dancindan84]

Any war with them with missiles would be concluded before you heard about it on Slashdot.

Maybe, but I bet someone would point out they saw it on reddit the day before.

Re:And... it's gone

[SolitaryMan]

I still hope this can be solved by oral arguments.

Re:And... it's gone

[cjjjer]

Exactly what they want so N.Korea can cry foul and point the finger at the US. What the US and allies should do is wait until a launch happens and then take action to defend their borders by destroying the missile, then see what they do. By doing this it shows that the US is not a war-hungry bully country.

My $.02

Re:And... it's gone

[AmiMoJo]

If you look at exactly what NK has said (not was what reported, what their actual statements correctly translated into English are) they have not threatened any more than the US has. They said they reserve the right to make a pre-emptive nuclear strike, just as the US does. They have not stated that they will actually attack the US, and have always maintained that their nuclear capability is for defence.

Although NK wants to reunite Korea they don't want to level the South or kill all its civilians. That would be counter-productive, effectively destroying what they consider to be part of their own country and their fellow countrymen. What they do want to drive out is the US and the South Korean government which is regarded as a puppet of the former.

The US has considerably military forces in that part of the world and every year runs war games just off the coast of the DPRK. Can you imagine for a moment if NK decided to play some war games in international waters off the US coast? Unlike NK the US has nuclear weapons in range of the mainland. I'm not saying that NK isn't aggressive or posturing, but you must try to see past the propaganda and consider what the enemies are doing too.

Re:And... it's gone

[MaWeiTao]

The regime can kill a bunch of people at the cost of their own lives, but that is something only religious fanatics do.

Keep telling yourself that.

North Korea would be far more successful in getting their way by opening up and being friendly, even if it were a facade, than the current tactic. They shut down a facility that was pumping tens of millions of dollars directly into their coffers. So it's hard to see any logic behind what North Korea is doing.

Re:And... it's gone

[AlecC]

Yes, NK could be flattened with conventional missiles. But they have enough artillery pieces lined up on the border (14,000, IIRC), with ammunition, to send up to half a million shells an hour into Seoul for a day or so. Before they were incapacitated, they could kill maybe ten million people is South Korea. Yes, it would be pointless slaughter, pure vindictiveness. But I am not prepared to say they wouldn't do it.

Re:And... it's gone

[kernelpanicked]

Any war with them with missiles would be concluded before you heard about it on Slashdot.

Just to be clear, is that the original Slashdot posting or the dupe?

Re:And... it's gone

[lgw]

All politics is local. As I see it, the son is making these ever-more-silly threats as moves on an internal-politics chessboard, trying to retain the power his dad accumulated.

If you think his rants are being ignored, I'd say that's missing his actual objective. People around him are judging him by his rants, and the outside world isn't really the audience for them.

Re:And... it's gone

[OakDragon]

"our arms are ready to fire and the exact coordinates are input to the warheads. Once we push the button, it will be fired, and the strongholds of our enemies will be turned to a sea of flames.''

The official statement from Mr Kim's regime kept up the barrage of inflammatory rhetoric, telling "all foreign institutions and enterprises and foreigners including tourists" in South Korea to "take measures for shelter and evacuation". It added: "The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war due to the evermore undisguised hostile actions of the United States and the South Korean puppet warmongers."

I have no idea if these are accurately translated.

Re:And... it's gone

[Somebody Is Using My]

At least not until North Korea is defeated and South Korea is left with the unhappy task of trying to integrate their economies and cultures.

Germany faced a similar problem when the Communist Bloc collapsed and East and West Germany were re-united, but at least that unification didn't start with open warfare and didn't require them to undo three generations of increasingly strident anti-Seoul propoganda. Plus, they still had Poland as a buffer between them and Russia (which was facing its own set of problems at the time, too). But it's economy was weakened and pushed into a deep recession before it finally recovered

A unified Korea, though, will have all sorts of problems in the beginning. It might end up - in twenty years - as an amazing economic superpower but the interim is likely to be quite painful. At least the Germany's economies were similar (both were highly industrialized). What does North Korea have to offer South Korea except for problems? Millions of untrained, starving peasants bred to hate their cousins? A decaying infrastructure that will soon be a century out of date? A border with the century's next superpower? Such a task might not just ruin the south's economy; it might push it over into an abyss causing enough chaos from which alternatives like the Kim's long regime seem sane in comparison.

I don't envy South Korea, I really don't. Their options seem equally shitty at the moment: either live with an increasingly unpredictable madman to the north, or junk their economy for half a generation. And sadly, no matter which they way they chose, it still seems as if they may face a massive loss of life. I imagine at this point their sole hope is that Kim family gets thrown out and replaced by a more sensible group who are willing to gradually integrate the two countries into a unified natio Alas, the likelihood of that happening - especially without the massive loss of life - seems increasingly slim.

Re:And... it's gone

[interkin3tic]

Although NK wants to reunite Korea they don't want to level the South or kill all its civilians. That would be counter-productive, effectively destroying what they consider to be part of their own country and their fellow countrymen.

This would be more convincing if the North wasn't currently killing its own civilians for imagined insults.

Re:And... it's gone

[interkin3tic]

You're right! China could become polluted!

Re: And... it's gone

[Anonymous Coward]

Comparing us to NK? You're a moron. We aren't acting like psycho nut jobs threatening other countries.

What, you mean by forcing other countries to adopt your absurd copyright laws? Tying your foreign aid to making sure people don't get birth control? Sending Monsanto crop as food aid and telling people they can't keep see to plant another crop? Installing a new dictator because he claims to be friendly to the US but still treats the citizens like shit? Refusal to abide by WTO rulings that goes against you and claiming it's not legitimate, but using it to suit your own purposes? The whole Iraq war which has been proven to have been started for fabricated reasons? Spying on other countries? Extraordinary rendition whereby people are kidnapped out of countries without any oversight? Bombing civilians and calling it cost of doing business? Generally acting like assholes like Americans are want to do?

Sorry pal, the US may not be quite as beligerant as NK, but you're hardly keeping your fingers out of pies.

Sorry, but American foreign policy has been on the edge of 'psycho nut job' for decades now. The tendency to treat everyone else on the planet as subservient to yourselves, and lots of other things.

Individually, America has some really nice people. Collectively, America is full of assholes. It ends up causing an awful lot of people to decide "fuck you guys".

Somehow you have an expectation that the rest of the world is here to support US interests when you refuse to acknowledge the interests of other countries.

You're the moron.

Re:And... it's gone

[Archangel Michael]

There is little difference between extreme right wing and extreme left wing, and most of the area in between. Both sides are for greater Government control in people's lives, just in different areas. The real sad thing is, if you give government control over one area, it inevitably bleeds into more areas as its desire to consume rights increases. When people fear their government, there is something wrong. THIS is what most people don't get.

Please notice, Obama has done absolutely nothing in regard to all those polices left wingers complained about GWB about (rightly so), and as often as is the case, has actually expanded those policies. Where is the outrage? Oh right, Obama passed ObamaCare so all is forgiven "He is better than GWB" line of pointlessness comes spewing forth from the mouths and keyboards of left wing drones.

And we are just now finding out how much of a clusterfuck ObamaCare actually is, doing nothing that was promise except taking freedom from people and assigning more intrusiveness by the IRS. "But it is universal health care, yay that is good" line of crap is just stupid, bad laws doing bad things is never good, even if the goal is admirable. Doctors are quitting, because they can't afford to provide care for free, which is what ObamaCare is doing, Insurance Premiums are increasing even faster to cover the losses being imposed by ObamaCare, the Insurance Exchanges are costing twice what they thought and aren't providing any new services or getting people insured better. The whole thing is broken, but rather than scrap it, left wingers want to "fix it". You can't fix rose tinted viewpoints. These things NEVER work out as advertised and yet people keep believing it. You can't make this stuff up, and you can't fix stupid.

So, yeah, i have a bit of disdain for those people who think that increasing government intrusion into the day to day lives of average people is a good thing, be they Right Wing or Left Wing.

Re:And... it's gone

[guttentag]

No need for nukes with North Korea, anyway. They will easily be flattened by conventional missles. They are effectively defenceless and have a tiny infrastructure.

Speaking of their infrastructure, most countries would be returned to the stone age by nukes. North Korea might actually be brought forward into the stone age by nukes.

Re:And... it's gone

[Hognoxious]

why not promote the most competent North Koreans to take their place and keep the factory operating?

Because they're both in a concentration camp.

Re:And... it's gone

[Ksevio]

There's always going to be the extreme libertarian view that Government should be abolished and everyone should fend for themselves, but countries with GOOD governments tend to be much better than countries with little or bad governments. Now I'm not saying the US has the best government, but it's not a bad one (despite some bad things it does) and it won't help to cut it down so it just functions less efficiently.

The mess of the health care act was because of the TeaParty/GOP/libertarians that are actually in favor of millions of people dying as a legitimate solution. It may sound crazy - because it is. Pretty much all other developed countries manage to provide health care to their citizens, but in the US we're worried about "death panels" killing off grandma and providing health care to women so we can't go there. ObamaCare was a first step - get everyone to have some sort of health care. A single payer would likely be more efficient than running through insurance companies, but that's too scary for some. We very much need more health care reform, but while some are offering solutions in reforms that will cover more people and bring down costs, others think the best solution is to drop tens of millions of people from the system and "scrap it". The system we had was fairly poor for those with money and horrible for those without - and costs were going up, yet people keep believing it's the American way that we should go back to. You can't make this stuff up, and you can't fix stupid.

Re:And... it's gone

[Midnight_Falcon]

Working in healthcare-related technology, I can tell you that ObamaCare has NOT caused doctors to quit, etc. What it's done is make doctors more accountable through the creation of ACOs and rating the patient outcomes and risks. Some of the worst-performing doctors end up moving to different practices, but generally, they remain practicing medicine. The exception is if they are retiring -- in which case, it makes more sense to go into an earlyish retirement than have to shape up your game. We didn't want those doctors anyway -- would you want a cardiologist who's track record says 2x more of their patients die than other doctors with similar cases?

Please study the Affordable Care Act before making such bold declarations. Spending on medicare and medicaid is the largest portion of the federal government and savings need to be accomplished somehow. Some doctors might kick and scream, but their profession has been profiting handsomely from the existing system, and they know how to work it to maximize their income. For an older doctor, with a new system in place, it may not be worth re-learning how to 'game the system' if that's really what they've been doing.

I really think the medicare/medicaid "shared savings model" is helpful in the long term for healthcare expenditures, which are spiraling out of control with no end in sight.

I have never been, nor ever will be associated with either the Democratic or Republican parties if you're wondering.

Re:And... it's gone

[kaatochacha]

You know, a country with a perfectly benevolent dictator is the ultimately perfect government, but the risk for corruption is so huge we try not be dictatorial. Same thing applies with your statement: yes, a really nice happy government controlling everything peacefully would be great. your objective should be to have the government have just enough power to do it's job, but no more. The argument should be over where that line is.

Re:And... it's gone

[Borg453b]

Agreed.

"We don't need a fucking Nanny State. ObamaCare was not marketed as a first step, it was marketed as the "fix it all solution". As a first step(towards what??) , it would never have passed. If you want Universal Care, move to France or wherever, you are free to leave. I don't want it here, I've seen what it really means and it is just as ugly(possibly worse), but with a bit a "feel goodism" added in."

Personally I tire of hearing the "nanny state" rhetoric and the oh-so-democratic 'my-way-or-the-high-way' rant. I doubt neither an ultra-libertarian or a completely centralized system will lead society anywhere you'd like to live - but when the outset is overly polarized, you can only ever see the extremes. Balance people.

Re:And... it's gone

[Archangel Michael]

The Spiraling costs are caused by a few different factors, of which most are not addressed by ObamaCare directly.

1) Entitlement attitude. Everyone deserves the exact same level of care, regardless of ability to pay. Rich people do not deserve care they can pay for, and poor who cannot pay, deserve the care rich people can afford, but they themselves cannot.

2) Insurance masking the cost of care.

3) Disparate pricing models based on who is paying.

4) Insurance middleman costs

5) Malpractice Lawsuits (jury awards)

None of those are fixed in ObamaCare. In Fact, ObamaCare makes it even more of a regulatory nightmare. Hell to apply for insurance at one of the Insurance Exchanges requires 60+ pages of paperwork by the IRS. Tell me, how does that make healthcare more affordable?

And in spite of your protestations that everything is going honky dory, it isn't

http://www.dpmafoundation.org/physician-attitudes-on-medicine.html
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/survey-doctors-dropping-out-medicare
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/03/28/california-health-care-costs-to-rise-under-affordable-care-act/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/business/despite-new-health-law-some-see-sharp-rise-in-premiums.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-10/obama-doubles-estimate-to-4-billion-for-health-exchanges.html

boner

[Black Parrot]

'nuff said.

Re:boner

[Endo13]

Came expecting juvenile penis references. Left satisfied.

Re:boner

[SJHillman]

You may not want to publicly advertise that juvenile penises make you come... or even that they satisfy you at all.

Re:Wasnt /. supposed to be news site about compute

[glop]

News for Nerds. Missiles and "Wargames"-like situations fit the bill for me.

Re:Wasnt /. supposed to be news site about compute

[schivvers]

I believe this would fall under the "stuff that matters" part of the slogan.

yawn

[larry bagina]

shit or get off the pot.

Re:yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

If the missile stays raised in the firing position for more than four hours, Kim should call a doctor.

Re:yawn

[Jawnn]

Touche'. I was was waiting for someone to take the "erect" tangent.
Warning: the following text includes crude racial stereotypes, which we normally wouldn't stoop to, but Kim is such a douchebag, we'll make an exception. Oh, and apologies to Team America too.
"Ooo, rook at my rarge erect missre, eveybody. Rook and be afraid. Trembre at the though of it penetrating your airspace and viorating your fertire plains, over and over. Now give us food and money."

should've quoted down more

[rjejr]

Here's the paragraphs further down the page - "After the raising of the missile Wednesday, it was not clear to U.S. officials why the North Korean government did not proceed with the firing. The U.S. official cautioned that the raising of the missile could have been just a trial run to ensure the equipment works or an effort to "mess" with the United States and the allies that are watching for a launch at any time." This happened yesterday. If it was important there would have been at least 1 big explosion by now.

Re: Misfire?

[Anonymous Coward]

Huh? A few days ago? The Korean War was never resolved; they've just been in a temporary ceasefire since the fifties.

it's been a week thus far?

[TerraFrost]

Five days ago North Korea was moving their missiles and they're only now getting them in firing position? How long does it take to ready a missile? Seems like the US had patriot missiles halfway across the world in South Korea in less time than it's taken the North thus far.

Re:it's been a week thus far?

[prefec2]

You forget that North Korea is not a real threat to the US or anyone else. they might cause some damage to South Korea or Japan if they start a war, but they will not last long, as their weapons are outdated, their troops are not in great shape. And they are so energy dependent on China that they would run out of fuel after a few days (if not hours).

The real thing this is all about: Kim wants to show to his military that the atomic are suffice to keep the South and all the capitalists from the US out of the North, because they have these nuclear weapons. If that works, they have a weaker position in requesting special treatment for the military releasing resources to supply the population and turn the economic system. So he needs some sort of international acceptance of their nuclear weapons.

This is not a preparation of war against anyone outside of North Korea, it is an attack on the power of the military in North Korea.

Re:it's been a week thus far?

[ichthus]

Don't rush him. Kim Jong Jr. has the muscle shirt on, and the Def Leppard cranked -- phych-ing himself up for the right moment.

(Or, maybe he's waiting for a phone call with the go-ahead)

Where's China?

[sgage]

China has been growing in economic and military influence, and seems to want to be taken seriously. If that is the case, this is their moment. They could put an end to this nonsense in a minute. They need to understand that it would be in their own national interest to smack this puppy on the snout, fast and sharp. If they just let it fester, and it leads to armed conflict, they will lose face.

There are just so many ways that this can go wrong...

Re:Where's China?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. Right now, the US is spending money dealing with this issue while China quietly goes about its own objectives. Like a good game of 'Go', often the proper response to activity on one side of the board is to ignore it and continue to build on the opposite side. North Korea provides a good distraction and they know enough to realize that lil Kim is just putting on a show for his people.

No sources quoted - none.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Isn't it awesome that we have entire news stories telling us we're on the precipice of war - without one single person quoted? CNN doesn't even bother to include a tag like "quoted on condition of anonymity" anymore - they just take their directions from the White House press office and fill in "official" wherever it would have made sense to have a real person substantiating a dubious claim.

Re:Wasnt /. supposed to be news site about compute

[dragon-file]

Gentlemen! Please...!

You cant fight in here! This is the War Room!

North Korea...

[ZankerH]

What a bunch of seoulless, warmongering scum.

Re: Misfire?

[dragon-file]

Actually they have, or had, an armistice since 1953. An armistice is actually a cessation of hostilities for the purpose of agreeing to a lasting peace. Cease fires, often confused with armistices, are usually the first steps in bringing around an armistice. The main difference between the two is that a cease fire does not have to include the intention of peace talks where as an armistice does. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice

A pre-emptive strike of MREs and candy bars

[gestalt_n_pepper]

should distract the entire populace of NK thoroughly and destabilize the regime. Particularly, if we included enough Dove chocolates. Man, I love those things.

Headline I'd like to see...

[SternisheFan]

In what experts are calling "the ultimate cry for attention", North Korea leader Kim Jung-Un blew himself up with his own nucleur weapons today. In an ironic twist, the missiles homed in on the largest Korean target available. Upon hearing this news Mrs. Un, who had been ordered to love Kim Jung with all of her heart, celebrated by feeding her people.

Re:LAPD

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Wow! So Kim would be in rehab with Lindsay Lohan . . . !?!?!

Now that is one reality show I would watch!