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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: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @01:32PM (5 children)
Most comments made here and in other places on this "crisis" are nothing but propaganda. They are beating the war drums. Some of the above comments seem to have taken a while to come up with and write. Clearly well-written, taking into account all possible 'scenarios' (if China helps them then "we" do this, "we" need to toughen up and take the "right" steps, "we" need to show these norks what we are made of, ...)
It is not healthy to read what the propagandists write. We all know PNAC agenda calls for invading DPRK (North Korea) and China comes after that. The show is being up on "they launched a weapon capable of hitting such and such city". A city is always named so people can relate to it.
Anyone calling for a war with anyone is either out of their mind (most likely) or is a paid government propagandist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @04:09PM
Bit SN is too small to be targeted!! Haha. Haaa. Some of the shills are probably regular people just eating up the FUD.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 29 2017, @09:52PM (3 children)
It depends on the war, doesn't it? Should we not have gone to war against the Nazis and the Japanese? Would you have been OK with letting Saddam keep Kuwait? Do you not think that a direct on the World Trade Centers by Al Qaeda warranted going after bin Laden?
Sure, invading Iraq the second time was colossally stupid. Invading Syria would not make much sense either. But then in neither of those cases were those places a real threat to the United States or our allies.
North Korea, on the other hand, is actively developing ICBMs and hydrogen bombs to mount on them. And they're threatening to use them on the United States and our allies. Does that not meet the definition, even a definition for a craven surrender monkey, of a credible threat?
War is a tough solution, but diplomacy and sanctions have failed to change North Korea's course. If we don't take immediate action millions of Americans, Japanese, South Koreans, or others might pay the price. Given what North Korea has done here, developing the ability to strike the mainland US, it could well be you and your family who pay the price.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @10:16PM
We were already there, enforcing no-fly zones. Saddam had been killing Kurds in the north and Marsh Arabs in the south.
So, is that supposed to continue forever? Are we supposed to abandon those people?
Not that I personally mind them killing each other, but it looks bad. Some people have an issue with it.
Unless you think that we should just be patrolling the skies above a supposedly sovereign country until the end of time, something had to happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @10:32PM (1 child)
I guess time will tell, but if you think they are going to nuke the US just because they can then you have lost all sense. Never figured you for a war monger, preemptive invasion will 100% start WW3 and will result in a lot worse destruction than even a few ICBMs.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:33AM
I'm not a war monger, but I'm not a pacifist either. You fight when you must. This is one of those times. North Korea is a real threat the way Iraq and Iran never were.
History condemns Neville Chamberlain for appeasing the early ambitions of the Third Reich, because they wanted to avoid a repeat of the Great War. It made the cost so much higher than it might have been. This is such a moment. The longer we delay the higher the price will be.
Washington DC delenda est.