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posted by martyb on Thursday September 14 2017, @11:45PM   Printer-friendly

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?


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by number11 on Friday September 15 2017, @02:19AM (5 children)

    by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 15 2017, @02:19AM (#568229)

    They know we don't want to invade them.

    I don't know that Carrottop doesn't want to invade them. So how would they know that? We never have signed a peace treaty with them, have we?

    'splain to me how 30 years of diplomacy has done us a bit of good.

    Well, we haven't had a shooting war with them in the last 30 years. That's a bit of good. You may not worry about people getting killed, but I do. After all, if their leadership is a legitimate target, ours is as well. As much as I like the idea of locking our respective heads of state in a room with Bowie knives, and not opening the door until neither comes out, that's not gonna work. Besides, why don't you tell us what nuclear power in the last 70 years has ever gotten rid of their capability. But nobody's used them, either.

    I don't know how much of their routine is actual paranoia (remember, even paranoids have real enemies), and how much of it is done to stay in power. Since time immemorial, regimes have stayed in power by claiming external threats. The running dog imperialists. Bolsheviks, Communists, illegal immigrants, Jews, Chinese, whatever. Anybody who is different will serve.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Friday September 15 2017, @03:04AM (2 children)

    by deimtee (3272) on Friday September 15 2017, @03:04AM (#568248) Journal

    I think South Africa is the only one who had nukes and gave them up. There are a bunch of countries that have the technical expertise to design and build them but decided not to.
    Doesn't detract from the rest of your points.

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @03:58AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @03:58AM (#568267)

      Ukraine too.

    • (Score: 2) by number11 on Friday September 15 2017, @06:17AM

      by number11 (1170) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 15 2017, @06:17AM (#568321)

      Good point, I forgot about SA.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 15 2017, @02:05PM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday September 15 2017, @02:05PM (#568437) Journal

    I don't know that Carrottop doesn't want to invade them. So how would they know that? We never have signed a peace treaty with them, have we?

    The only reason to invade them is because they have nuclear weapons and are threatening to use them on everybody. There is no other reason. South Korea is perfectly capable of supplying world demand for kimchi and K-Pop and Korean dramas. North Korea has nothing anybody wants.

    Ergo, if they gave up the nuclear weapons and threatening war on everybody, the rest of the world would be content to let them continue their little prison experiment.

    After all, if their leadership is a legitimate target, ours is as well.

    Great, because our leadership needs to get got, too.

    We ought to get really creative and parachute Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, and other crack members of the 1% into North Korea to help them "sort out their economy and identify key value drivers." We'll suture body cams to their chests so we can watch the footage as a reality TV series. Hilarity will ensue.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @06:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @06:01PM (#568587)

      Ergo, if they gave up the nuclear weapons and threatening war on everybody, the rest of the world would be content to let them continue their little prison experiment.

      Which would end pretty rapidly without the perceived threat of foreign meddling and imminent invasion. North Korean serfs need to remain mortally afraid of the outside world or they'd have little reason to look to the Kim family to save them. In general, you can convince a populous to make sacrifices for the war effort if they believe they are under existential threat. "If there is no existential threat, then why are we living in destitution?" It wouldn't be long before the North Korean people perceived Pyongyang as the source of their misery.