North Korean rocket launch succeeds

[ScienceRocks]

North Korean rocket launch succeeds

South Korea and Japan confirm surprise early lift-off as nations line up to condemn breach of ballistic missile ban

North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Wednesday morning, defying international pressure to abandon what many see as a test of its ballistic missile capability and risking fresh sanctions.

Reports said the three-stage Unha rocket appeared to have followed its expected trajectory. Japan said the first stage had splashed down in the Yellow Sea west of South Korea and the second landed in the sea east of the Philippines.

North Korea's state news agency, the KCNA, said the country had successfully launched a rocket carrying a satellite. There was no immediate independent confirmation that a satellite had made it into orbit.

North Korean rocket launch succeeds | World news | guardian.co.uk

Cnn just confirmed that it put something into orbit. North Korea has just joined the space club.

 

[hazlnut]

Oh... jeepers.... what will we do?

 

[Avatar4321]

I assume youll continue placing your head in the sand and ignoring the reality of the world we live in.

 

[waltky]

Granny says purt soon dey gonna be flingin' one o' dem missiles over here...

Report: North Korea upgrading rocket launch site
February 14, 2013 WASHINGTON — North Korea is upgrading one of its two major missile launch sites, apparently to handle much bigger rockets, and some design features suggest it is getting help from Iran, a U.S. research institute said Thursday.

A successful satellite launch in December, and a nuclear test on Tuesday, both in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, have intensified concern that North Korea is moving toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on an intercontinental missile. An analysis written for 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, indicates that North Korea has made significant progress since October in constructing a new launchpad and other facilities at Tonghae, on the country's northeast coast. The assessment is based on commercial satellite photos, the latest taken in January.

It says design features, including a flame trench covering that protects large rockets from the hot exhaust gases they emit on takeoff, is similar to one at a launch complex in Semnan, Iran, and hasn't been used by the North before. The analysis also identifies activity at an older launchpad at Tonghae, last used for a long-range rocket in 2009, but says it's unclear if that indicates preparations for another launch there. The North's most recent long-range launches - a failed attempt to put a satellite into space atop an Unha-2 rocket in April, then a successful effort in December - were conducted at a newer site, Sohae, on the west coast.

38 North estimates that construction at Tonghae's new launch pad could be completed by 2016. It says tanks installed last fall into support buildings that would be used to store fuel propellant prior to a launch would be big enough for rockets three or four times larger than the Unha. Assessing the intentions of North Korea's secretive regime and the nation's technical capabilities is notoriously difficult. Analysts doubt the North has yet mastered how to miniaturize a nuclear device to mount on a long-range missile and attain its goal of being able to directly threaten the United States. "This analysis is just another piece of the puzzle indicating North Korea's intention to field increasingly capable long-range missiles able to carry nuclear warheads," said Joel Wit, a former State Department official and editor of 38 North.

He said it hinted at "the cozy relationship between the North and Iran as both move forward with developing weapons of mass destruction." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday drew a direct connection between North Korea and Iran, saying both cases demonstrated the need for international resolve against proliferation threats. He did not touch on whether they could be cooperating on missile and nuclear development.

Source

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Seoul has missile capable of hitting N Korean leaders
Fri, Feb 15, 2013 - South Korea yesterday unveiled a cruise missile that it said can hit the office of North Korea’s leaders, trying to address concerns that it is technologically behind its unpredictable rival, which this week conducted its third nuclear test.

South Korean officials declined to say the exact range of the missile, but said it could hit targets anywhere in North Korea. The Defense Ministry released video footage of the missiles being launched from destroyers and submarines striking mock targets. The weapon was previewed in April last year and officials said deployment was now complete. “The cruise missile being unveiled today is a precision-guided weapon that can identify and strike the window of the office of North Korea’s leadership,” ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said told reporters.

North Korea has forged ahead with long-range missile development, launching a rocket in December last year that put a satellite into orbit. The North’s ultimate aim, Washington believes, is to design an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could hit the US. North Korea, which accuses the US and its “puppet,” South Korea, of war-mongering on an almost daily basis, is likely to respond angrily to South Korea flexing its muscles.

North Korea carried out its third nuclear test on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from around the world. The test and the threat of more unspecified actions from Pyongyang have raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula as the South prepares to inaugurate a new president on Feb. 25. “The situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula at present is so serious that even a slight accidental case may lead to an all-out war which can disturb the whole region,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2013/02/15/2003554919