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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: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday July 05 2017, @09:53AM (4 children)
First time hearing\reading this one. I wonder how such a racial\ethnic\national slur came to be. It's not like people spontaneously started shortening it while chit-chatting... Like, compared to the British Paki for Pakistanis or Polack for Polish in the States, you could imagine a conversation going like "This Paki at the store was..." or "That Polack at class...". But North Koreans? I doubt even foreign office officials interact with enough North Koreans to come up with "Norks".
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05 2017, @02:02PM
even funnier, in the UK "norks" is slang for a womans breasts.
(Score: 2) by Spook brat on Thursday July 06 2017, @03:54PM (2 children)
Folks in the military talk about North Korea a lot. There's a lot of speculation about whether they'll be sent over to do some gunbarrel diplomacy, so shortening the 4-syllable "North Korean" to one-syllable "Nork" makes sense given the frequency that crowd uses it. According to Google Ngram Viewer that usage hasn't spread much, [google.com] so don't feel bad about not having heard it.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 06 2017, @05:45PM (1 child)
This usage is definitely a new trend: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en&q=norks [google.com]
You can actually do a date limited google search and see it's extremely new from the past couple of weeks. Probably another 4th of July spin cycle from our friends at the state department ( https://torrentfreak.com/state-dept-mpaa-riaa-fake-twitter-feud-plan-backfires-170706/ [torrentfreak.com] ). It would seem that much like Heinlein's Starship Troopers, the military is more than happy to look past the criticism and instead treat Orwell's books and essays as how-to manuals.
(Score: 2) by Spook brat on Thursday July 06 2017, @08:54PM
I remember throwing the term "nork" around long before the past two weeks' new cycles. I have no idea what sparked its uplift into the public consciousness; maybe the past weekend was just CNN's or Fox News' opportunity to be part of the lucky 10,000? [xkcd.com]
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]