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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: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday September 15 2017, @12:29AM (7 children)
> [Kim] wants to go down in history as the asshat that destroyed Seoul
No. He wants to stay alive, which only happens if he keeps everyone else hesitating.
> Let the chips fall where they may,
I'm guessing the Pentagon is very very carefully counting how many communication systems and artillery positions they can take out at the exact time the stealth missiles hit the big guy's bedroom.
Unless the number is "essentially all of them", nobody wants their name at the top of that action report. Seoul may grudgingly deal with a day of light shelling, and China will scream at a decapitation strike, but if over 5% of the Nork's arty starts firing, the result will be a political nightmare even Trump can't brush aside.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday September 15 2017, @01:14AM (3 children)
Wouldn't it be funny if the south told everyone in Seoul to evacuate, give them, I dunno, a month to git-r-done? The Norks will be shitting themselves, knowing a preemptive strike means they're all dead 15 minutes later. The Seoul residents would also shit themselves, but hopefully understand the reality of the situation and GTFO. Seems a month is enough time to evacuate Seoul, which takes away the Nork's main threat.
No need to say that after that month the norks cease to exist. They can bomb an empty city to hell, but they're all dead and the "war" is over in under 24 hours.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday September 15 2017, @01:19AM (2 children)
The point of the missiles is that you can't get people out of reach. All of Korea can get hit by a lot of stuff is minutes, Japan would get a few too (hard to miss Tokyo).
NK also has quite a few subs. They may be basic, but it's hard to sink them all before they realize what's going on.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday September 15 2017, @01:44AM (1 child)
Missiles can actually be intercepted. Artillery cannot.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @11:30AM
There are claims that artillery can be taken out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday September 15 2017, @02:37AM (2 children)
I'm thinking we make a fleet of stealth bombers capable of carrying MOABS. Carefully coordinated, a couple thousand MOABS dropped across the entire DMZ, even more missiles, and then MOPs anywhere we think military infrastructure exists and their suspected missile sites. Needless to say, anywhere we think little Kimmy is.
On top of that, we get nearly our entire fleet of bombers and anything capable of carrying traditional bombs ready for a simultaneous drop on all artillery installations threatening Seoul. We won't take out everything, but if we get it all done within a tight window (10 minutes), NK will be done. They have a few subs, but none capable of nuclear missile launches. So we would need to pretty sure we hit their missile sites.
I really wonder if Seoul could pull of a stealth evacuation getting half of their citizens into bunkers or out of harms way before NK learns of it. What would their reaction be to the hostages leaving?
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @05:51AM (1 child)
I think people overestimate our strike capability and underestimate North Korea's abilities. North Korea learned from the Korean war which would have been a complete victory (on their part) if not for the fact that they were obliterated from the air. North Korea is about 47k square miles large. Installations, bunkers, and military installations are dotted through the entire nation. One can only imagine the countless anti-air installations they have. On top of this they now even have entire underground cities and military bases specifically as a contingency against military action.
Perhaps most importantly, they also have the largest percent of their nation in the military - in the world. And by a landslide. More than 30% [wikipedia.org] of their country's population is part of the military. The terrain for Iraq is awful for insurgents. Long flat deserts where visibility can reach into the miles. North Korea by contrast is covered with dense forests and other terrain optimal for guerrilla warfare. And Russia/China (which border North Korea) would undoubtedly begin sending in forces to support the North Korean forces. Basically, even if we dismantled North Korea it would turn into a warzone that would make Iraq look like The Hamptons. And we haven't even gotten to the fact that they have genuine nuclear weapons. The quantity, locations, and capacity? Before you overestimate our so-called intelligence look to things ranging from 9/11 to any of our brilliant actions in the Mideast. We're not seers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2017, @06:05PM
i agree with everything until you act like 9/11 was some sort of intel screw up/deficiency. that's ridiculous.