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A North Korean missile reportedly crashed into one of its own cities after it failed just minutes following its launch.
US officials said the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) was initially thought to have disintegrated mid-flight after it was fired on 28 April last year.
However, new data suggests it landed in the city of Tokchon, around 90 miles north of the secretive communist country’s capital, Pyongyang. Tokchon has a population of around 200,000.
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North Korea Accidentally Hit One of its Own Cities With a Missile, Says Report
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It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things.
(Score: 3, Informative) by KiloByte on Sunday January 07 2018, @02:20PM (9 children)
The missile's warhead didn't explode, only the fuel did, limiting the damage to a single building.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 07 2018, @05:07PM (7 children)
If the story is correct, several buildings in a complex would be damaged. And I doubt they had a warhead on board. That's something for potential foes to collect since they're dropping these into the ocean. A dummy payload (perhaps even one soluble in salt water) leaves less data and serves the same purpose.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday January 07 2018, @07:01PM (6 children)
The article never specifically said how much damage there really was. There was one poor quality Google Earth image included in the story which had a caption that read
Tracing a link in TFA leads to a much better article [thediplomat.com] with slightly better pictures in google earth (Decimal Lat / Long 39.765654 / 126.273931 ) allows one to use Google Earth's historical imagery slider to show that area over the years, and it appears to be a small crop field, never having a building but once holding two large hay mounds or plastic sheeting green houses.
In fact there is nothing in the images or cited in the article to suggest this are as a landing site.
US government would have needed other sources (active tracking, clandestine reports from the area, etc) to pick this postage stamp sized plot as the likely crash site, and then go looking for changes. None of the images are convincing, not Google Earth's, and not the other un-specified source images in the linked article (above).
They probably sat on this news till some imagery found its way into google earth that they could claim as the source.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday January 07 2018, @07:25PM
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 07 2018, @10:38PM (4 children)
So we have a disturbance significant enough to disappear a building (probably a cheap building as you noted above) close to the launch point at the time of launch, plus damage to neighboring buildings. You'll never get better evidence than this while the current NK government is in charge.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday January 08 2018, @05:09AM (3 children)
All the images were of the crash site, immediately after the launch date.
Nothing talked about damage at the launch site.
And google earth historical imagery shows no buildings on that indicated plot, other than tube and plastic seasonal green houses, the kind that are put up each winter and taken down each spring. The whole of which would fit in the back of a small truck.
As for a rip in the larger plastic sheeting green house, that didn't look all that significant to me either. Wind? IDK.
You could look into sets pf images taken days appart of any moderate sized city and find as much change.
Taken all together, there is just not enough in these pictures to say a rocket crashed there, unless you already KNEW it did from other sources.
Why did they have pictures of THIS same area days apart?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 08 2018, @07:00AM (2 children)
Probably because someone was looking for this very thing (the 1996 Chinese accident is not ancient history) and willing to pay Google for it. Could be a national spy agency, could be a media business looking for a scoop, or merely someone with some spare cash.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @03:18PM (1 child)
You do know that Google doesn't own the satellites right? They just take the pictures from NASA (no copyright for government works) and use them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 08 2018, @06:41PM
And? Yes, I do realize Google doesn't own satellites. There are multiple parties that could have gotten an explicit before and after scan of the region around the North Korean launch site. Or maybe Landsat 8 just scans that much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 07 2018, @10:49PM
As has been said, it's unlikely one was mounted.
...and if that had been the plan, perhaps we have evidence of what happened to that device before it was delivered to the assembly site.
Handful of North Korean Defectors Show Signs of Radiation Exposure [soylentnews.org]
The Norks seem to be making their share of rookie mistakes WRT being a member of the nuke club.
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