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The BBC is reporting that North Korea has fired another missile:
North Korea has fired a missile eastwards from its capital, Pyongyang, towards Japan, media reports say.
Japan said that the missile likely passed over its territory and has warned residents to take shelter, local media report.
South Korea and the US are analysing the details of the launch, the South's military said.
Al Jazeera reports:
The projectile was launched at 6:57am (21:57GMT Thursday) and flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido before falling into the Pacific Ocean - 2,000km east of Cape Erimo, said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
"Japan protests the latest launch in the strongest terms and will take appropriate and timely action at the United Nations and elsewhere, staying in close contact with the United States and South Korea," Suga told reporters.
South Korea's defence ministry said the missile travelled about 3,700km and reached a maximum altitude of 770km - both higher and further than previous tests.
Just more saber rattling? Another step in escalation? What's next?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:58PM (17 children)
War is the next step. Kim Jong-un has pushed his luck too far, and keeps on pushing.
It sucks for South Korea. It sucks for Japan. It sucks for China. But North Korea under Kim Jong-un is not an outfit that is headed toward nuclear disarmament.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @12:02AM (10 children)
And what evidence do you have to support these claims?
After decades of nothing happening, it's far more likely that nothing will continue to happen.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Friday September 15 2017, @12:49AM (6 children)
"After decades of nothing happening"
Wow, we've got a poster who didn't even read TF*H*.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:00AM (5 children)
It was merely a missile. They shot off one, what, a couple of weeks ago? And they've done it periodically numerous times for years before then. There are some angry words back and forth, and nothing really ever comes of it. The last time there was anything really happening in this conflict was 1953. So, yes, it's quite right to say that nothing has happened for decades.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday September 15 2017, @02:16AM (3 children)
Bullshit. In the past couple of decades NK did not have a possible hydrogen bomb an order of magnitude greater than the ones dropped on Japan. Pretty sure Japan has not forgotten, and NK will hit them with MORE power.
Now they keep going on about missile tests and how they can place the nuclear weapons on them. Things are different when there is an actual chance of them possessing the weapons *and* *decades* of making threats.
Are they probably still posturing and engaging in Juche Theater? Maybe. But let's not pretend these events are normal. The past few decades was just foreplay while NK amassed weapons and constantly evolved their weapon tech despite pretty much constant sanctions, etc.
At some point we're going to suspect they are real, and when that day happens, war.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @02:46AM (1 child)
Can we try to aim for some minimal accuracy? Japan was attacked with two atomic bombs. Kim claims to have hydrogen bombs. The difference between the two is probably similar to the difference between a standard firecracker, and a stick of dynamite.
Yes, I realize that I'm not being especially accurate here, but the point is, Japan wasn't attacked with a modern nuclear device. As devastating as an atomic bomb is, it's still pretty primitive.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Friday September 15 2017, @06:38AM
Well, seismic data has them placing the recent nuke at 120 ktons, and Fat Man was 20 ktons. An order of magnitude of difference. That was from another article and I basically paraphrased it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Friday September 15 2017, @06:13PM
They still don't have a hydrogen bomb, at best a boosted fission bomb, if that. Heck, Ivy King was half a megaton and that was pure fission, you don't need anything exotic to get to 120kt.
Which they are nowhere near doing. There's a difference between firing an empty nose cone a few thousand km and miniaturising a warhead, placing it in a missile, and firing it a few thousand km. NK is decades away from the latter. They just don't have the resources or technology to do it.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday September 15 2017, @02:18AM
Indeed. Worrisome for Japan certainly, but let's be honest, NK doesn't need much more than a good strong catapult to hit Japan - these tests are to inform China, Russia, US, etc. that it's increasingly able to hit reach valuable targets.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday September 15 2017, @04:55AM (2 children)
You know that crazy guy who lives next door? It seems last week, he somehow got his hands on a bunch of military hardware and now he's throwing practice grenades at your house. Do you assume it's all fine and tell the kids not to worry or do you call the cops?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @05:30AM
What if he's holding another neighbor hostage?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @11:24AM
How crazy is he really? What happened is he noticed Mr World Cop going around shooting dead various people (based on lies or trumped up reasons) e.g Saddam, Gaddafi, etc and trying to kill others like Assad.
And Mr World Cop has declared him a target. So he gets himself a nuclear suicide vest and now has Japan and Korea in his reach.
Seems unlikely that he'll use his suicide vest as long nobody else does anything crazy like Mr World Cop trying to take him out... Why should he? Do you think he believes his own country's bullshit that he's a God? Especially when his dad died? He's well aware that China won't back him up if he _starts_ stuff: http://thediplomat.com/2017/08/china-and-north-korea-have-a-mutual-defense-treaty-but-when-would-it-apply/ [thediplomat.com]
What he's doing is proving his suicide vest is not a dud.
The danger time is probably if he falls terminally ill or similar and has nobody left alive that he cares about... He might decide to watch some fireworks before dying...
But Trump could be considered even more dangerous especially since the US nuclear arsenal is vastly greater by magnitudes. The probability might be lower but the impact to the world is greater.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Sulla on Friday September 15 2017, @01:35AM (5 children)
Why would kim comply when all compliance will get him is a quicker death? He learned the lessons taught to Gadaffi and Sadam.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday September 15 2017, @02:20AM (4 children)
It was not compliance that took Gadaffi out, but his penchant for stuffing broken off broomsticks up people's asses killing them. Sadam was caught and prosecuted by the law. Gadaffi was caught by his people, and no amount of compliance/non-compliance was stopping that broomstick from being shoved up his butthole, and then being shot and torn apart by the crowds.
In fact, I would venture that *early* compliance might have saved Gadaffi. At least there could've been a chance that civilized law would've treated him better.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @03:12AM
No, USA has no allies, only interests (well, any country, but USA is the big gorilla of our times). And compliance means dropping any resistance, being at the mercy of whoever call the shots.
So, for example, you decide to handle petrol by other means than dollars, like Sadam and Gadaffi dared to suggest... you better have something nasty to cover your ass. Russia and China can get away with deals among them, because hell would open otherwise. Small countries without nuclear weapons? Not so much. You are the path for a new pipe, like Syria... you let the pipe pass or something nasty happens to you.
General Sundarji wasn't stupid.
https://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6049569/would-it-be-so-bad-if-iran-gets-the-bomb [vox.com]
The issue is other countries don't constally show off their nuclear for the news, just make sure other governments know.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/03/29/on-the-nuclear-edge [newyorker.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @05:34AM (2 children)
Here [youtube.com] is what happened to Gaddafi in Clinton's words.
What you're saying is not really well supported. The historical record in Libya is not ambiguous. This [wikipedia.org] provides a reasonable synopsis while leaving out much of the detail. The people that killed Gaddafi were being armed, trained, and assisted by foreign nations. And in a couple of decades when it's declassified you can rest assured were also directly providing and instigating said people via the CIA. The whole thing would be like if e.g. China decided to start arming, training, and supporting either the alt-left or alt-right in the United States today - and then claiming their resultant destruction was an act "of the people." Hardly.
The worst part is that Gaddafi's biggest crime had nothing to do with human rights violations. Consider the fact that one of our biggest allies is Saudi Arabia, who is now almost as a tongue in cheek joke also heading the UN Human Rights Council. All while they execute [wikipedia.org] people for things ranging from socery, to political protest, to adultery. Oh and the methods are great too. Beheading, stoning, they're even bringing back crucifixion! They like to party like its 99BCE. I imagine they all raise a glass (of grape juice... of course) to human rights following a nice crucifixion. The United States (and most other nations) could not care less about international human rights violations whatsoever except as a convenient cassus belli. Gaddafi's grievous crime was aiming to sell his country's oil in a currency other than the USD, and planning to create a gold backed currency. The petro dollar is what stabilizes the US economy. Other countries that have also stated intentions to move off the petro dollar include Iraq, Syria, and Iran. And no - it was in retribution, it was before they became targets #1 for "regime change." Saudi Arabia though, they love that petro dollar. Go figure.
For some predictive power, Venezuela also just formally announced they also plan to move off the petro dollar. Expect to see the "rebels" in that nation suddenly seem vastly more well trained, supported, armed, and organized. I wish I could live for a thousand years just to see how history will record our little empire's actions. We aren't necessarily the "bad guys", but we're certainly not the "good guys" we feign to be. Well maybe one won't have to live to a thousand to see the end of this story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @07:33PM (1 child)
Actually the USA are the bad guys. The Russians are bad but they aren't even as bad as the USA since they aren't huge hypocrites and they don't do as much regime changing as the USA does.
And when they do it actually makes a lot more sense from their point of view. Like Ukraine - it's a buffer for them: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/russia-geography-ukraine-syria/413248/ [theatlantic.com]
Whereas the USA has often made the world a worse place even for themselves with their meddling.
On a related note, I personally find it hard to list down the good things the CIA have done for the USA much less the world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @10:44PM
In my laptop, I used to use one of their WiFi cards.