The consensus is that it was an ICBM, and it came down in Japanese Territorial waters bot could have gone farther.

~ Like they were testing a first stage or something, I guess.

POTUS told while it was still airborne, nice drill.

If I remember right, an ICBM can cross the pacific in around seven minutes.

But anyway - now Whiskey Tango...

Path of the missile was from about the closest point in China to northern Japan to the waters just off it's west coast (how far offshore I failed to note).

They could have launched it a thousand other places, but hell no! Right there where it could panic the daylights out of the whole world.

 

What I read is, flight time was 53 minutes at a higher altitude than previously seen. Giving it an guesstimate range of around 8,000 miles and putting CONUS within range.

As for the other statement you made, Sea of Japan also borders North Korea, so I see that as the least likely place to cause a stir. Would you rather them have overshot Japan and into the Pacific, maybe towards Hawaii? Or is South towards Guam or the Philippines better? Northeast towards Alaska?

They're not going to overshoot China so North and West are out of the question. Besides, Russia takes up the area North and Northwest of China, and those are two folks they can't afford to piss off.

China is the key to everything here. Kim could be dealt with, but China is standing in the way. (much like they got in the way last time we were over there)

 

So, as more info comes out, it leaves more questions unanswered. One of the current headlines on Drudge links to an article from the UK who seems to say in passing

I've seen where it was supposedly a precision guided missile, but what the heck did they shoot, and what the heck did they shoot at? Did they fire at the launch location, or at some other strategic target? Or did they shoot into the Sea of Japan as well?

 

If S. Korea launched anything into N. Korea, it'd all be over by now.

 

No - if SK fired into NK, it would all be going full blast...

But what form it would take, and who would be on what side of it all is the big question.

I DO NOT think that NK has enough of an arsenal to conduct a sustained conflict. They might use up all of the stuff that they currently have, but I doubt they would get any resupply from outside their own borders.

Their infrastructure seems kind of low tech also - from space at night almost all of NK is dark

 

My understanding is that N.K. has a lot of missiles aimed at Seoul that they would not be able to stop them should they be fired off. I know N.K. is damn near pitch black at night. Hey, I thought they wanted that uranium to build power plants??!!!

 

Needing uranium for power plants would be believable if they had some use for electricity there! It's as if they never heard of lightbulbs over there

 

But the Japanese Economic Zone does not enter Korean Waters in the Sea of Japan and they did shoot over the top of the Japanese home Islands. The Prime Minister is all sorts of P.O'd. So while they won't overshoot China or Russia, they will overshoot Japan and land it in Japanese 'Home' waters.

 

I get all that, but they've already overshot Japan during other tests this year, and keeping an open mind about things, if you were in their shoes and wanted to shoot a rocket that high and had to pick a point of impact, isn't the area around Japan about the safest option for not causing any immediate response from anyone? Other than some harsh words.

 

I'm guessing N.K. doesn't have a Navy? Mobile launch platforms would make much more sense. But I guess if you have a rocket that will travel the distance, they aren't that necessary.

That country is still in the dark ages. And I assume they're using every little bit of resources they have left to build this rocket. If that's the case, and they're really that motivated to build that rocket, you can damn well bet they'll use it.

 

Wrong. They do have a Navy
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It's actually more sophisticated than the picture, but not by too much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_People's_Navy

 

I would say they are pushing their luck with that. They are probably just as likely to get a response (Military Strike) from China or Russia as they are from Japan or the US.

 

I hope you're right. Drudge article today said the impact location was chosen as it would not prompt a military response from anyone.

That means if I'm wrong, at least someone else is thinking along the same lines.

Hopefully now that they've established themselves as nuclear, they follow Iran and quiet down on the nuke threats. If that happens, who's the next hot spot? Syria?

 

I don't think we have seen the end of the missile launches.......

I can't believe that Drudge would know anymore about it than CBS, NBC, CNN or the other news agencies. I would think they certainly know less than the MSS. If the missile would have splashed just a few miles to the east, I would be more willing to believe that. The fact that they put it a few miles inside the economic zone tells me it was either a deliberate signal or, they are still p poor on accuracy and guidance.
The Chinese were not near as confident and got their envoy out of Dodge and back to China in a hurry. Japanese Officials have declared this a direct threat to Japan. These declarations of threats to Japan would free up their military and allow them to take military action as a defense of the homeland. Although I do think that in considerations of the 1930's and 1940, the US will go to herculean efforts to keep Japan from taking action against N. Korea and to keep them off the Korean Peninsula, even though JSDF is now regularly intercepting a lot of NK "fishing" boats in territorial waters off their coast.

Time will tell, but I think this will get worse before it gets better.

 

I think it has to be a deliberate signal - from the west side of NK they could run a test shot down towards the PI and splash it in international waters - but they didn't do that.

I've been looking at google maps of western NK, and it seems feasible if they had wanted to be lower profile that it could have been done that way.

So launching a flare (to put it that way) right at Japan, and plopping it in the water just inside their territory is pretty much from how I can think to interpret it an act pretty much like "SHINING the MOON" at Japan -

But why they would do that is not real clear at this point.


They act almost like hoody Krips or Bloods:
"SO! You SEE? Whatcha gonna do now, mutha F...."

It's a form of high stakes posturing - but very blatant.

China is not noted for blatant things though but for subtlety, so it may be that their protege nation has become too unruly

~ anyone follow my thoughts on that?


The overall impression I get is one of national immaturity


As if China was "Grooming" them, but they have gotten out of hand



*This is why puppies make better pets than baby alligators