N. Korea launches rocket: defence ministry

[Dino Velvet]

Most of us probably more accurate with a paper clip and rubberband.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-philippines-alert-ahead-n-korea-launch-030157100.html

http://t.qkme.me/35j7lz.jpg

[robertlouis]

Most of us probably more accurate with a paper clip and rubberband.

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-philippines-alert-ahead-n-korea-launch-030157100.html

http://t.qkme.me/35j7lz.jpg


I know it seems funny from a distance, but I used to visit South Korea a lot, and those guys are on red alert pretty much the whole time because of the entirely unpredictable and vaguely unhinged regime north of the 38th parallel.

[Dino Velvet]

I know it seems funny from a distance, but I used to visit South Korea a lot, and those guys are on red alert pretty much the whole time because of the entirely unpredictable and vaguely unhinged regime north of the 38th parallel.

I know. They can catapult something awful into Seoul over the DMZ. American Soldiers are there as well.

http://travel.state.gov/_res/images/countries/maps/large/korea_south.gif

[trish]

So will the food-aid deal go through in spite of North Korea going through with the launch test? Should it go through?

I think the U.N. should embargo all exports of luxury goods into N. Korea, especially Hennessy cognac (apparently the favorite of the N. Korean leadership). Send them nothing but haggis and Spam(TM).

[robertlouis]

So will the food-aid deal go through in spite of North Korea going through with the launch test? Should it go through?

I think the U.N. should embargo all exports of luxury goods into N. Korea, especially Hennessy cognac (apparently the favorite of the N. Korean leadership). Send them nothing but haggis and Spam(TM).

Now steady on ma'am. There's nothing wrong with haggis.

[Dino Velvet]

So will the food-aid deal go through in spite of North Korea going through with the launch test? Should it go through?

I think the U.N. should embargo all exports of luxury goods into N. Korea, especially Hennessy cognac (apparently the favorite of the N. Korean leadership). Send them nothing but haggis and Spam(TM).

Too bad we can't reward the people and punish the regime at the same time. I still can't answer the food question. Sorry.

[Dino Velvet]

Now steady on ma'am. There's nothing wrong with haggis.

Saw a Food Network show where a guy made haggis in all kinds of ways. None good though.

[Prospero]

And "God stand up for Spam" too

[Stavros]

What really matters is that the rocket launch failed; if the North Koreans are so incompetent they can't demonstrate their ability to launch a missile, it suggests something similar could go wrong with a nuclear test, causing casualties. This must be a disaster for the team concerned given this was a prestigious event, I guess in a week's time they will wish they did have haggis -anything- to eat. If the Chinese were not so embedded in this dismal state I don't think the regime would have survived this long. On the other hand they have been silent runners in the gradualist reform in Burma, where there is a lot of money to be made; at some point China -where economic growth is slowing- may feel it is time to open North Korea to the wonders of capitalism...after all it doesn't matter what the colour of the cat is, so long as it catches mice.

[Prospero]

I think they should be allowed only recovered meat - the sort that bulks out Macdonalds burgers.

[Dino Velvet]

What really matters is that the rocket launch failed

Bingo

I feel horrible for their people. People born into that crap cult. For all I know their news organizations might be telling them we're starving them on purpose.

[Dino Velvet]

http://news.yahoo.com/embarrassed-rocket-crash-north-korea-may-try-nuclear-175441300.html

Embarrassed by rocket crash, North Korea may try nuclear test

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FZN6924R0WZ__x92.x6.GA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/reuters/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/)By Maxim Duncan and Ju-min Park | Reuters – 2 hrs 54 mins ago


PYONGYANG/SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said its much hyped long-range rocket launch failed on Friday, in a very rare and embarrassing public admission of failure by the hermit state and a blow for its new young leader who faces international outrage over the attempt.
The isolated North, using the launch to celebrate the 100th birthday of the dead founding president Kim Il-sung and to mark the rise to power of his grandson Kim Jong-un, is now widely expected to press ahead with its third nuclear test to show its military strength.
"The possibility of an additional long-range rocket launch or a nuclear test, as well as a military provocation to strengthen internal solidarity is very high," a senior South Korean defence ministry official told a parliamentary hearing.
The two Koreas are divided by the world's most militarised border and remain technically at war after an armistice ended the Korean War in 1953.
The United States and Japan said the rocket, which they claimed was a disguised missile test and the North said was to put a satellite into orbit, crashed into the sea after travelling a much shorter distance than a previous North Korean launch.
Its failure raises questions over the impoverished North's reclusive leadership which has one of the world's largest standing armies but cannot feed its people without outside aid, largely from its only powerful backer, China.
"(There is) no question that the failed launch turns speculation toward the ramifications for the leadership in Pyongyang: a fireworks display gone bad on the biggest day of the year," said Scott Snyder of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In a highly unusual move, the North, which still claims success with a 2009 satellite that others say failed, admitted in a state television broadcast seen by its 23 million people that the latest satellite had not made it into orbit.
The failure is the first major and very public challenge for the third of the Kim dynasty to rule North Korea just months into the leadership of a man believed to be in his late 20s.
"It could be indication of subtle change in the North Korean leadership in how they handle these things, something that may be different from the past," said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute of Defense Analyses a thinktank affiliated with South Korean Defence Ministry.
"I mean it would have been unthinkable for them to admit this kind of failure in the past, something that could be seen as an international humiliation. The decision to have come out with the admission had to come from Kim Jong-un."
Embarrassingly, the rocket flew for just a few minutes covering a little over 100km to explode over a sea separating the Korean peninsula and China, far less than the last rocket in 2009 that travelled 3,800km, alarming Japan which it over-flew.
The launch is in breach of United Nations Security Council sanctions and drew condemnation from the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
But North Korea looks to have avoided the threat of fresh U.N. sanctions - which neighbour Japan is pushing for - after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that at talks with his Chinese and Indian counterparts they had agreed new sanctions would do nothing to help resolve the situation.
Regional powers are worried that the North is using launches to perfect technology to enable it to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States.
North Korea has repeatedly defended its right to launch rockets for what it says are peaceful purposes and may have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the failed launch.
China, the North's main backer, again appealed for "calm", although its failure to dissuade Pyongyang from undertaking the launch despite propping up the ailing and impoverished state, showed the limitations of its diplomacy, analysts said.
"North Korea's provocative action threatens regional security, violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, said the first stage fell into the sea west of South Korea, and the remainder was deemed to have failed.
"No debris fell on land," NORAD said. "At no time were the missile or the resultant debris a threat.
CHINA HOLDS KEY DESPITE DIPLOMATIC FAILURE
The launch came just weeks after a "Leap Year" deal that saw Washington agree to provide food aid. Among the promises Pyongyang made in return was not to launch any long range rocket or undertake nuclear tests.
There is likely to be pressure from leading countries to impose more sanctions on the North. But it poses difficulties for China which will likely resist further sanctions even though its own diplomacy failed to stop the rocket launch.
"After giving so much aid to North Korea, it still did not listen to China, and this hurt China-North Korea relations and erodes domestic support in its continued support of North Korea," said Shen Dingli, a professor and regional security expert at Shanghai's Fudan University.
"This also undermines confidence in the U.S.-China relationship, and whether China had done enough to persuade the North. So, China is also a loser, but not as big a loser as if North Korea succeeded in its launch," he said.
If the United States, Japan and South Korea do ratchet up pressure on North Korea that could lead to a show of defiance from the North such as a nuclear test, or an attack like the one in 2010 that saw it shell a South Korean island, killing civilians.
"Rather than any conventional provocation, I think North Korea will watch what U.S. and South Korea are doing and prepare for a nuclear test," said Chung Young-chul, a professor at Sogang University's Graduate School of Public Policy.
PRICE OF FAILURE FOR "SUPREME COMMANDER"
Now led by Kim Jong-un, North Korea had planned to make 2012 the year in which it became a "strong and prosperous nation" and the launch was part of a programme to burnish its credentials.
It even, unusually, invited foreign media in to cover the birthday celebrations and showed them the launch site.
Kim was named First Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea earlier this week and on Friday as head of the National Defence Commission, as he accumulates titles and posts similar to those held by his father, Kim Jong-il who died in December.
State newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Friday dubbed him "the sun whom all the party members, service personnel and people of the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) acclaimed out of their heartfelt desire".
Although North Korea is one of the most tightly controlled states on earth, with no free media and a tight grip on its population, such a high profile failure could trigger a backlash among the country's elite.
"This is the first crisis for the new leader that has just taken over," said Lee Jong-won, a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.
"It is inevitable that they will look to find who is responsible for the failure, and I wonder what the treatment will be for those in the military and the hard-line officers who have pressed for the launch."
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota and Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO,; Jack Kim in SEOUL, Jeff Mason and Paul Eckert in WASHINGTON, Michael Martina in BEIJING; Writing by David Chance, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jonathan Thatcher)

[hippifried]

They're not a threat. The Il monarchy is just trying to be relevant. If everybody'd just get out of the way, Korea would probably reunite & that putz would be gone in a heartbeat.

[Stavros]

The future of North Korea lies, to some extent, in China.
The next session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, in November, will elect a new leadership -there will be a new President and a new Premier, and some of the other seats in the Politburo will change -the two candidates slated to take the jobs are Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang; the former is thought more imaginative and 'entrepreneurial' than the latter. Although neither is expected to have any impact on the 'leading role' of the Communist Party, both are seen as men who will continue the liberal reforms that have transformed China in so many ways.

The key is in the military, and I don't think either Xi or Li will have much impact on the PLA when they take over in November. However, the military in China will be watching the transition in North Korea carefully, because this is now the most sensitive of China's neighbours, given that Russia, India and Japan are no longer considered threats to China's security.

The Chinese fought alongside the Koreans in the War and have veterans for whom Korea is still important -it may be that ditching the clique in Pyongyang would be too much for a generation that gave so much that still remembers. On the other hand, as economic growth in China slows down, finding new markets closer to home is already on their agenda -Burma and Afghanistan being two obvious examples which offer precious raw materials as well as markets for Chinese products; China has been a prime mover in the thaw in Burma, and has already entered the extractive minerals industry in Afghanistan. China would rather make than spend money on North Korea, and would also like to see an end to its nuclear capability. How far China can 'control' or interfere decisively in North Korea is not known, but there is a dependence on China for security so if things get heated next year or in a few years time, particularly if the 'Glorious General' can't hack it, North Korea could go the way of Burma.

There is an analysis of Xi and Li in the FT from last year; and in the second link an article on the states who have entered Afghanistan to make money rather than kill people.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b7106090-4471-11e0-931d-00144feab49a.html#axzz1s6ZlPsO7

http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/10920-background-china-india-iran-a-russia-winning-afghan-mineral-contracts.html

[Odelay]

Getting a rocket to launch successfully... well, it is rocket science after all.

[Dino Velvet]

Getting a rocket to launch successfully... well, it is rocket science after all.

Herman Cain for President of North Korea

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-91WrOgU0XcY/TqDdAwgHIEI/AAAAAAAAB2w/OxN9P9UxDIk/s1600/314636_2072045327418_1433451694_31719348_776200277 _n.jpg