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North Korean state media claims that it can hit anywhere in the world with its new missile. Others say that it is capable of reaching Alaska:
North Korea said on Tuesday it successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time, which flew a trajectory that experts said could allow a weapon to hit the U.S. state of Alaska. The launch came days before leaders from the Group of 20 nations were due to discuss steps to rein in North Korea's weapons program, which it has pursued in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
The launch, which North Korea's state media said was ordered and supervised by leader Kim Jong Un, sent the rocket 933 km (580 miles) reaching an altitude of 2,802 km over a flight time of 39 minutes.
North Korea has said it wants to develop a missile mounted with a nuclear warhead capable of striking the U.S. mainland. To do that it would need an ICBM with a range of 8,000 km (4,800 miles) or more, a warhead small enough to be mounted on it and technology to ensure its stable re-entry into the atmosphere. Some analysts said the flight details on Tuesday suggested the new missile had a range of more than 8,000 km, underscoring major advances in its program. Other analysts said they believed its range was not so far.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:06AM (4 children)
I'm afraid military action could trigger full out war, killing roughly of half of S. Korea.
Instead we may have to starve average citizens to weaken NK by blocking food and supplies going in. It's ugly, but it's either us or them.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @04:02AM (1 child)
Fundamentally this is what North Korea wants. The entire ideology of North Korea is a sort of self sustaining socialism. And real socialism as in government owned industry as opposed to what Americans call socialism which is just capitalism social welfare in lieu of corporate welfare. And I would not assume we would win this hypothetical Korean War even if it did happen. It's like people forget history so fast. We lost the Vietnam War, we were stalemated in the Korean War. Even in modern times, look at Iraq. We are not facing any organized enemy there. It's just a relatively small force of disorganized people and groups using decades old rifles and literally homemade explosives. That's been enough to kill about 5,000 Americans, wound tens of thousands, and one can only imagine how many have been psychologically screwed. Our expenditures on war are in no way proportional to our capabilities.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday July 06 2017, @11:06PM
The disaster in Korea was almost entirely due to mistakes in foreign policy and most of all MacArthur. First, Korea was not included in the initial area the US agreed to protect after WWII, leading the North to believe it was safe to attack the South. Second, the China Lobby, a lobby probably stronger then than the Israel lobby is today, diverted funds and attention from possible zones of conflict to, well mostly to the bank accounts of Chiang Kai-shek and his cronies and to his dreams of re-establishing rule over mainland China. But mostly it was MacArthur. He did not believe North Korea would attack the south, therefore it could not be prepared for and all the intelligence he and his loyal staff received to the contrary was dismissed. When the attack came, the ROK army and the meagre US forces in the area were ill prepared to handle it and not until complete defeat was imminent did MacArthur start using sufficient forces to counter the attack. Generals on the ground were condemned for failures, but it was the lack of support from the top that was at fault. Only a tiny corner of South Korea was maintained until counter attacks started stalling and driving back the North Koreans. MacArthur claimed hero status for his landing at Inchon that reversed the tide of the invasion, but that succeeded only by luck (including the same sort of hubris on the part of the North Koreans) and the narrowest of margins. The North Koreans were driven far back, back into North Korea, but then MacArthur's demagoguery kicked in again and he refused to believe the Chinese were sending forces in to protect North Korea. The result was U.N. forces caught in an unprecedented ambush, with soldiers in overexposed forward lines forced into retreat under heavy attack all the way with major loss of lives. Most loss of life in the Korean War could have been prevented had a more capable general than MacArthur been in charge, but by the time Truman fired him it was too late. If veterans have a reason to be bitter, those of the Korean War do so doubly. Most have always remained bitterly silent about their experiences there. Sadly, we saw many of the same mistakes repeated in Vietnam, but I attribute them more to the advance of a military-industrial complex beginning to run wars for profit rather than mistakes in military leadership, although again, had those on the ground been listened to, especially in the early years, much loss of life could have been prevented there as well.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:28AM
Look, it's a country with an unstable and erratic leader that does bizarre things. Uh....which country are we talking about?
But seriously, do you really believe that it's down to "us or them"? So close that it's okay to starve children half a world away to teach them a lesson? Ever wonder what you're teaching them? You have really drank the koolaid and came back for seconds.
(Score: 2) by fnj on Wednesday July 05 2017, @04:28PM
I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you. You can't PREVENT a war by wishing it away, nor by clever planning. It's like trying to talk a rabid animal out of biting and killing you; "nice doggie". When your opponent is a brainwashed rabble of savage madmen, they have the initiative. Because they don't give a flying flip what happens. If you didn't learn that from Hitler, Mao Tse-Tung, Saddam Hussein, and Idi Amin, I don't know how to make it any more plain.
First of all, you can't starve them because there are agents of hell running China who are propping them up. But even if you could, it would just cause them to snap, and there would be your trigger.