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North Korea Ballistic Missile Explodes On Launch Fourth Straight Time
Earlier this week, the state media of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) broadcasted video of leader Kim Jong Un watching what appears to have been a successful launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. That was all fabricated, according to analysts. According to them, the launch actually took place in April. It is believed that the video was broadcasted as "an attempt to demonstrate North Korea's nuclear threat as a senior DPRK official meets with China this week." Ars Technica reports: The video was broadcast just after analyst reports said North Korea had made a fourth failed attempt in two months to test-launch the Musudan -- a missile designed to strike at targets as distant as Guam and the Philippines. The missile exploded on launch. Earlier on April 15, North Korea's military attempted a launch from a mobile launching system, but it exploded shortly after liftoff. Just two weeks later, as North Korea was preparing for the congress of the Worker's Party, there was an attempt at a dual launch -- with both missiles crashing into the sea.
"Problem is, the engineer(s) on the butcher block was/were probably their best. Un will wind up whittling down his rocket scientists to nothing."
While I do feel sorry for Un's victims and their families I have to say that this is almost as bad of a "problem" as it was a problem that Hitler hated all the Jewish physicists. The only real problem is that they can not run away with their families.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Historically, nations that follow these sorts of practices become self-limiting in their ability to cause widespread geopolitical problems, at least pushing it out a few generations. Other nations have stunted their technical and scientific growth massively in the past, for reasons which make little sense today, like China destroying the largest navy in the known history of the earth in 1525 and banning construction of ships with more than two masts.
Watching North Korea fail, and do so repeatedly is really funny. What is not funny is their determination. I note that others are suggesting that their rocket scientists are probably short-lived, as are their nuclear scientists. Nonsense. Kim Jong Un does offer special favors for those persons who are successful but a nuclear scientist or a rocket scientist are unlikely to challenge him or his heirs to government positions of power. They are scientists, not political operatives and, thus, are seen as commodities to be used, not existential challenges to be met.
The determination they are showing that they will do everything in their power, including starve their people, in order to produce weapons of mass-destruction is the real takeaway here. While I am happy at their repeated failures, I am not happy at their persistence.
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
"Make little sense"? What do you mean? It made plenty of sense to get rid of this hugely expensive white elephant. China had looked out into the world and found nothing but squabbling barbarians in every direction. There was nothing in the world worth having, China already made everything it needed (autarky). Where is the idea that scientific growth was needed to succeed? China was already the most developed nation in the world. I think you have a very narrow-minded and Western-focused view of what history should be like. It's kind of frightening because you consider yourself educated and yet don't know anything about the motivations of foreign cultures.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
All that said, the idea that engineers are executed on failures is wishful thinking. The path to success goes through multiple failures, and the best possible scenario for anyone who doesn't want to see North Korea obtain long range missile capabilities would be for the regime to punish failure severely.
True, but it still doesn't mean they aren't doing it. North Korea is a very messed up place. They send plenty of their upper class kids to western schools and get fine degrees from places that are not going to just sign off on them because they are somebodies brat. Still, they may have some great agricultural majors directing the country, but they still follow irrigation and plowing methods that increase soil erosion and hurt their crops in the long term because the eldest Kim advised they do it that way. If one of the Kims happened to do an on site inspection and happened to give some "helpful advice" (there's an actual term for it, but I'd have to go look it up and I'm not sure I even have that book still), then they'll follow that advise no matter what and if anything goes wrong, its still their fault.