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from the plans-are-for-next-launch-to-put-DC-in-oven dept.
North Korea's latest missile launch appears to put Washington, D.C., in range (archive)
North Korea appears to have launched another intercontinental ballistic missile, the Pentagon said Tuesday, with experts calculating that Washington, D.C., is now technically within Kim Jong Un's reach.
[...] The missile launched early Wednesday local time traveled some 620 miles and reached a height of about 2,800 miles before landing off the coast of Japan, flying for a total of 54 minutes. This suggested it had been fired almost straight up — on a "lofted trajectory" similar to North Korea's two previous intercontinental ballistic missile tests. [...] If it had flown on a standard trajectory designed to maximize its reach, this missile would have a range of more than 8,100 miles, said David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. [...] The U.S. capital is 6,850 miles from Pyongyang.
Although it may be cold comfort, it is still unlikely that North Korea is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland. Scientists do not know the weight of the payload the missile carried, but given the increase in range, it seems likely that it carried a very light mock warhead, Wright said. "If true, that means it would not be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to this long distance, since such a warhead would be much heavier," he said in a blog post.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 29 2017, @07:30AM (2 children)
China has made that quite clear to all sides.
The only way the US could avoid CHINESE ICBMs would be for the DPRK to attack first.
China also made quite clear that NK would be on its own if it initiates the war.
It's only two and a half minutes to midnight. Dear me, I'm about to turn into a pumpkin!
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @07:39AM
Mao is not running the country anymore. People in China are no longer isolated from the rest of the world; they travel all over. The cultural revolution is past. China no longer fears that ordinary Chinese people will become aware of capitalist wealth.
North Korea was once a buffer country with a similar system of government. Now it is just a fucked up and hazardous annoyance.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday November 29 2017, @08:01AM
The Chinks will get stomped. They stole all of our blueprints, specifications, plans; from all of those "Chinese engineers" who started from "academic solicitation" in our country who somehow managed to get security clearances and went on to work for Boeing and Lockheed-Martin...they are in places to steal everything we have -- and did -- and yet still can't manage to build it properly.
Bring it on, you insectoid scum. It's about time to call in the Orkin man.