NKorea launches rocket, defying world pressure SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea defiantly carried out a provocative rocket launch Sunday that the U.S., Japan and other nations suspect was a cover for a test of its long-range missile technology. Liftoff took place at 11:30 a.m. (0230GMT) Sunday from the coastal Musudan-ri launch pad in northeastern North Korea, the South Korean and U.S. governments said. The multistage rocket hurtled toward the Pacific, reaching Japanese airspace within seven minutes, but no debris appeared to hit its territory, officials in Tokyo said. The U.N. Security Council approved an emergency session for Sunday afternoon in New York, following a request from Japan that came minutes after the launch... ...U.N. diplomats already have begun discussing ways to affirm existing sanctions on North Korea against its nuclear program and long-range missile tests. In Japan, chief Cabinet spokesman Takeo Kawamura said it was not immediately clear if the rocket was mounted with a satellite as North Korea has claimed. North Korea calls its "space launch vehicle" Unha-2, but the rocket is better known to the outside world as the Taepodong-2, a long-range missile that can be mounted with a satellite or nuclear armament. "Even if a satellite was launched, we see this as a ballistic missile test and we think this matter should be taken to the United Nations Security Council," Kawamura said. "We are highly concerned by this matter." "We strongly protest this launch," he said.
Nobody seems to be declaring war... I suspect a lot of hot air will be farted out in the "hallowed halls" of Utter Nonsense, but little - if anything - else will occur. If I'm wrong... ... I just hope everybody launches their nuclear strikes today, so I don't have to go to work on Monday. :mufc:
What war, Draq? North Korea versus the first, second and 13th largest economies on earth. A nation of 24 million, with--perhaps--five nukes, versus three nations with a combined populations of 480 million. I can't help but point out: (a) how utterly idiotic you are in declaring war before it actually happened, (b) how totally stupid your assumptions are that it would even be a war considering how lopsided the statistics are and (c), oh-- yeah--China has totally abandoned any support for North Korea in favor of economic ties with the west. As always, get a clue. ~String
first, second, and thirteenth largest economies on earth is... America, Japan, and South Korea?? hmm... im guessing if there WERE to be a war (which there wouldnt) then Taiwan and maybe some other east asian countries, or even Australia, would join in. the whole region would be affected...
I don't doubt that. I was just painting the bleak picture if it were war. But, yeah, add Taiwan, Australia and a few others into it. Tilt it further! ~String
they better bloody not. personally i would like to see the US grow up. even japan itself has a space program and when the US gives up its OWN nukes it can comment. at the moment they are just hypocrits
Damn, that must be embarrassing An interesting twist: Japan mistakenly announced it had detected a North Korean rocket launch Saturday, government officials said. The Japanese government retracted the announcement about 5 minutes after it was issued but by then the erroneous information had already been disseminated by news organizations, Kyodo news service reported. Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters the blame for the error rested with air defense forces staff who failed to verify the report, which was based on a trace radar image. "We caused a great deal of trouble to the Japanese people," Hamada said. "This was a mistake in the transmission of information by the Defense Ministry and the self-defense forces. "I want to apologize to the people from my heart." (United Press International) Whoops. That's embarrassing. Good thing it only happens once in a while. North Korea may have spent Saturday toying with a jumpy Japan over its plan to send a rocket over the Tohoku region, but it managed to cause a meteoric embarrassment to Tokyo — twice — without ever pushing the launch button. In two false alarms hours apart that Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada called "inexcusable," the Self Defense Forces wrongfully alerted the public that North Korea had launched a rocket from the Musudan-ri launchpad. The ministry retracted both announcements, blaming them on computer glitches and communications blunders. The latter one went nationwide. "We apologize for the confusion caused by the false alarms," Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters Saturday. He also revealed that Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told the ministry to be more careful in handling information. (Hongo) Sigh. Okay, that's really embarrassing. ____________________ Notes: United Press International. "Japan makes missile launch error". April 4, 2009. UPI.com. Accessed April 4, 2009. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/04/Japan-makes-missile-launch-error/UPI-70461238889852/ Hongo, Jun. "Two false alarms leave Japan egg-faced". Japan Times. April 5, 2009. JapanTimes.com. Accessed April 4, 2009. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090405a2.html
Japan: 600 troops (deployed 1/04-withdrawn 12/08) yeah they really stepped up to the bat Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Blah, Blah, Blah... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Guess you'd better ring up Utter Nonsense and tell "Bonkey" Moon to grow up as well. Eh... They'll get over it.
Bullshit. You can sit and bitch about hypocrisy all you want, but when survival is at stake, notions of hypocrisy go out the door. I know how you are so myopic that you can't see past your own hatred of the USA, but seriously, you need to take a little more of a holistic look at nuclear proliferation, rather than puke up nonsense, time and time again, about how much you hate the USA. Moreover, this isn't a "USA" thing, Asguard. Much as you'd like to paint it as such. Practically the entire world, including N. Korea's best bud China, aren't happy about their nuclear program. ~String
And, besides .... Yeah. And, besides, I found out a little while after that post that NK went ahead and launched the thing later in the day, anyway.
super you honestly think that its about the US? its not, i just find them the most hypocritical in all of this because they also surport israil and THERE nukes. My best option would be to throw the door open and give EVERY country nukes. Why limit it to Russia, China, France, US, Irail, Packistan and India? Its either all or nothing, the US (and the rest) have had there chance to lead the way and get rid of there own and what did we get insted? Bush asking the petagon to develop tactical nukes. Yep they abided by the treaty didnt theyPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Again Israel gets bad name on a completely unrelated event. There is the question...does North Korea release any free press information? Is America over-blowing this on behalf of their Pacific friends? Is there any evidence that North Korea is a real threat to Japan...is Japan paranoid?
israil is compleatly related to this. It has NUKES, there for its just as relevent as India and packistan, and china, and france and the UK and the US.
Maybe next year, maybe no go Incidentally, the launch apparently failed. The United States Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, issued a statement on Sunday that portrayed the launching as a major failure. It based its information on a maze of federal radars, spy ships and satellites that monitor global missile firings. The command said that North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 missile at 11:30 a.m. local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, and that its first stage fell into the Sea of Japan, which analysts had expected as the point of splashdown in a successful launching. However, "the remaining stages, along with the payload itself, landed in the Pacific Ocean," the statement added. Analysts had expected the rocket’s second stage to land in the Pacific but its third stage and its ostensible satellite payload to fly into space. The command emphasized that "no object entered orbit," apparently a reference to both the rocket’s third stage as well as the supposed satellite. North Korea's public portrayal of the event as a complete success was similar in its celebratory tone to the happy note it struck in 1998 after having failed to loft a satellite into orbit. News reports out of Japan also said the rocket’s second stage splashed down in the Pacific, hundreds of miles short of the danger zone that North Korea announced last month. Western analysts said that shortfall, if correct, probably indicated a failure of the missile's second stage. (Broad) While this is an embarrassment for Kim Jong-Il and his regime, the situation has also left others licking their wounds. The Japanese, for instance, erroneously announced the launch of the rocket hours early. And though he probably doesn't care, Donald Rumsfeld wrote in 1998 that the North Korean rocketry program might have been good enough to hit the United States without flight testing. Dr. Jeffrey G. Lewis, an arms control specialist with the New America Foundation, told the New York Times that, "It's not unusual to have a series of failures at the beginning of a missile program. But they don't test enough to develop confidence that they're getting over the problems .... [G]iven that both versions of the Taepodong-2 have failed now, we have very little confidence in the reliability of the system." ______________________ Notes: Broad, William J. "North Korean Missile Launch Was a Failure, Experts Say". new York Times. April 5, 2009. Accessed April 5, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/world/asia/06korea.html
` What ?!? You mean the "Type O Dong" is still a "No Dong" ??? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Poor ol' Don... See what decades spent on The Hill does to your brain ? Cheney could tell he was already shot way back in '75. I mean - look at that expression. Nobody's home. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
