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  • North Korea Cancels Test Launch.

    This launch was rather heavily publicized and made various news shows over the last couple of weeks. In my mind its a bit suprizing that they canceled it.

    http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/...3451238844827/


    Snarky take. While Kim's people have photoshop down nearly as well as the chinese and iranians they aren't quite up to video editing yet. Either that or kim as a wanna be director has higher standards.

  • #2
    Wind may have forced North Korea to delay rocket launch



    :P

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...rnational/home


    HYUNG-JIN KIM

    SEOUL, South Korea

    April 4, 2009 at 12:17 PM EDT

    Associated Press — High winds may have forced North Korea to delay its rocket launch, despite the country's insistence Saturday that preparations were complete for the liftoff that many suspect is intended to test the country's long-range missile capabilities.

    Regional powers deployed warships and trained their satellites on the communist country to monitor what they suspect will be a test for a missile capable of reaching Alaska.

    Preparations for sending “an experimental communications satellite” into space were complete, North Korea's state-run media said in a dispatch Saturday morning, adding, “The satellite will be launched soon.”

    However, the day's stated 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. time frame passed without any sign of a launch. North Korea had announced last month the launch would take place some time between April 4 and 8 during those hours.

    Winds reported as “relatively strong” around the northeastern North Korean launch pad in Musudan-ri may have kept the North from launching the rocket Saturday, analyst Paik Hak-soon of the private Sejong Institute think tank said.

    “North Korea cannot afford a technical failure,” he said. “North Korea wouldn't fire the rocket if there's even a minor concern about the weather.”

    Japan again urged North Korea to refrain from a launch that Washington, Seoul and Tokyo suspect is a guise for testing the regime's long-range missile technology — a worrying development because North Korea has acknowledged it has nuclear weapons and has repeatedly broken promises to shelve its nuclear program or halt rocket tests.

    “The launch will damage peace and stability in Asia. We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from it,” chief Japanese government spokesman Takeo Kawamura said Saturday, adding that it would violate a UN Security Council resolution barring the country from ballistic missile activity.

    U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that a launch would be “provocative” and prompt the U.S. to “take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity.”

    Chinese President Hu Jintao, meeting Friday with South Korea's Lee Myung-bak, agreed the launch would “negatively affect peace and stability in Northeast Asia and there should be a discussion among related countries” after it takes place, Mr. Lee's office said.

    “Respective nations made efforts to urge North Korea to refrain from the launch. But if North Korea really plans to launch, it is very regrettable,” Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone told reporters Saturday.

    UN Security Council diplomats said a draft resolution was circulating that could reaffirm and tighten enforcement of the demands and sanctions of a resolution passed in October 2006 after a North Korean nuclear test.

    Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, promised consequences if the launch goes ahead but a strong united response might be elusive since China and Russia hold veto power in the council and could argue that nonmilitary space missions are exempt.

    Taking no chances, Japan deployed warships and Patriot missile interceptors off its northern coast to shoot down any wayward rocket parts that the North has said might fall over the area, saying it is only protecting its territory and has no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket itself.

    North Korea threatened retaliation against any interception of the satellite, telling Japan such a move would mean “war,” and said American U-2 spy planes would be shot down if they broach its airspace.

    In a sign of jitters in Japan, public broadcaster NHK quoted the government as saying North Korea appeared to have launched a rocket, then quickly retracted the story.

    Mr. Kawamura said information provided by the Defence Ministry was incorrect. “We put out the wrong information, and we apologize to the public for causing worries,” he told reporters.

    Observation cameras and radars that North Korea installed near the launch pad were not activated Saturday, the Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed South Korean government official as saying. South Korea's Defence Ministry said it was trying to confirm the report.

    With tensions rising in the region, Mr. Bosworth said he was prepared to go to North Korea after the “dust from the missiles settles” in order to restart six-nation negotiations aimed at getting the North to abandon its nuclear program.

    North Korea also is holding two American journalists accused of crossing into the country illegally from China and engaging in “hostile acts.” Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former vice-president Al Gore's Current TV media venture, were detained last month.

    A South Korean who works at a joint economic zone in the northern border town of Kaesong also remained in North Korean custody Saturday for allegedly denouncing the North's political system and inciting female North Korean employees to flee the communist country.

    The South Korean government urged citizens working at joint economic zones and in Pyongyang to return home because of the “grave” tensions on the peninsula. More than 600 South Koreans left North Korea on Saturday, the Unification Ministry said in Seoul.
    When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? - George Canning sigpic

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    • #3
      I fear for the hordes of U-2s flying over North Korea as we speak.

      Comment


      • #4
        I don't think it's been cancelled, just that they were gonna do it today but the weather made it unfavourable. It even happens to NASA

        I'm still going to stick to my theory that they'll just launch a satellite into orbit and everyone will look like a fool for making a big deal about it

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        • #5
          I believe that they won't test it when they take the rocket down.

          Probably just delayed. There has to be some way to sabotage it...

          Comment


          • #6
            Launched.

            North Korean rocket launched

            Posted 26 minutes ago


            On alert... a Japanese soldier stands guard near Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile units at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo last month. (Reuters: Toru Hanai)

            The North Korean state newsagency is reporting that the country has launched a long-range rocket.

            The Japanese government says the rocket appears to have crossed over Japan and reached airspace over the Pacific Ocean.

            The United States, South Korea and Japan say they view the launch as a test of the North's Taepodong-two missile, which is designed to fly as far as Alaska.
            http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...05/2535316.htm

            Guess they'll get sanctions pretty soon. Besides this, what do you think the prospects of the DPJ are right now? Regarding the LDP, how long do you think it'll take before they make the necessary reforms to become an effective ruling party again?

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            • #7
              Sanctions aren't going to do much. The people there are stripping bark from trees and eating grass. Their main source of income is the aid money the US and others pay as an incentive to "not" continue the nuke program.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Jimmy View Post
                Sanctions aren't going to do much. The people there are stripping bark from trees and eating grass. Their main source of income is the aid money the US and others pay as an incentive to "not" continue the nuke program.
                I thought they were on rocks now...

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Jimmy View Post
                  Sanctions aren't going to do much. ... Their main source of income is the aid money the US and others pay as an incentive to "not" continue the nuke program.
                  Selling missiles and missile technology has been one of the regime's main source of income, see below, and probably by now selling nuclear technology as well.

                  The long reach of North Korea's missiles

                  Jun 21, 2006 [AsiaTimes] BANGKOK - North Korea may be a poor country, but it has some of the most developed missile systems in the world. Not even years of near-economic collapse, famine and hunger have hampered the country's missile-development programs, which are meant both as a preemptive defense - to scare off potential attackers - and for export.

                  Over the years, North Korea has earned substantial revenue from the sale of missiles, and missile components and technology. It is widely believed that the sale of missiles is the financial source for the country's nuclear program, which is the reason United States and other Western countries are eager to stop North Korean missile exports.

                  According to US-based North Korea expert Joseph Bermudez, countries that have bought missile parts and technology from North Korea include Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. In recent years, however, North Korea has lost two important customers: Pakistan, which has become a US ally, and Libya, whose Muammar Gaddafi has pledged to give up his country's weapons-of-mass-destruction program.

                  Assisted by Soviet experts and technicians, North Korea began producing surface-to-air missiles more than 40 years ago. But the first ones were quite rudimentary, and it was not until North Korea signed a military agreement with China in 1971 that the industry took off. Gradually, however, the North Koreans themselves became capable of developing and fine-tuning their growing arsenal of missiles - together with some rather unexpected, non-communist partners. ...
                  Last edited by Merlin; 05 Apr 09,, 08:06.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Merlin View Post
                    Selling missiles and missile technology is one of the regime's main source of income.

                    They sell to Iran syria and who else again?

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Maxor View Post
                      They sell to Iran syria and who else again?
                      I am not a missile technology information expert. Anyway, the information is right in front of you, in the article I quoted.

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                      • #12
                        North Korea says 'satellite' launch successful
                        5 Apr 2009, 1248 hrs IST, REUTERS

                        SEOUL: North Korea said it had successfully put a satellite into orbit on Sunday on a three-stage rocket that was now circling the Earth transmitting revolutionary songs.

                        Regional powers said the launch was a disguised test of a long-range missile that threatened security and violated UN resolutions.

                        "Our scientists and engineers have succeeded in sending satellite 'Kwangmyongsong-2' into orbit by way of carrier rocket 'Unha-2'," KCNA said in a Korean-language report.

                        The state media report said the rocket technology "was developed by our wisdom and technology, and is a proud achievement made out of our battle to upgrade our country's space scientific technology".

                        The satellite is transmitting the "Song of General Kim Il-sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong-il" it said referring to the communist state's founder and the son who followed him into leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty.

                        Analysts said a successful launch would help leader Kim Jong-il, 67, shore up support after a suspected stroke in August raised questions about his grip on power. US President Barack Obama said North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, had violated UN resolutions and increased its own isolation, and he urged Pyongyang to refrain from further "provocative actions".
                        Seems it was not the "Type-of-Dong" after all.
                        Everyone has opinions, only some count.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Merlin View Post
                          Selling missiles and missile technology has been one of the regime's main source of income, see below, and probably by now selling nuclear technology as well.

                          The long reach of North Korea's missiles

                          Assisted by Soviet experts and technicians, North Korea began producing surface-to-air missiles more than 40 years ago. But the first ones were quite rudimentary, and it was not until North Korea signed a military agreement with China in 1971 that the industry took off. Gradually, however, the North Koreans themselves became capable of developing and fine-tuning their growing arsenal of missiles - together with some rather unexpected, non-communist partners.
                          I have great doubt about this piece, in 1971 China was in deep recess of Cultural Revolution. North Korea belonged to eastern bloc at that time and had closer relations with Russia, that made China extremely unhappy. China awarded the name of Korean revisionist to North Korea after the no.1 Soviet revisionist. Both countries set up loudspeakers at border to call each others name. North Korea lured many Korean nationality Chinese to defect to the north. Relations returned to normal after Mao’s death in 1976. I don’t believe China would give missile tech to North Korea at a time China felt betrayed by a former “brother”.

                          This launch is a further effort by Kim to attract international attention and acknowledgement and to milk every one with a stake there for aid strategic implication aside.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by middle earth View Post
                            I have great doubt about this piece, in 1971 China was in deep recess of Cultural Revolution. North Korea belonged to eastern bloc at that time and had closer relations with Russia,
                            I have no idea whether you or that 1971 date for an agreement in the article is correct.

                            Anway, I made a check. China first launched its own satellite in 1970.

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                            • #15
                              Russia has confirmed the success of this satellite launch.

                              Russia confirms DPRK satellite launch

                              Apr 5, 2009 [People'sDaily] Russia's Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a satellite earlier in the day.

                              "The DPRK sent an artificial satellite into an earth orbit on the morning of April 5," ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. ...

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