> North Korea previously conducted missile test firings in May 1993, when it fired four missiles into the Sea of Japan. Those launchings sent Japan into a panic and prompted the Government to consider cooperation on a regional missile defense system. Such a system is still years away.
It's interesting how long a missile defense system has taken to arrive in South Korea...
Edit: The US also predicted today's missile event when the UN passed sanctions a few days ago:
> Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN said the sanctions were "better than nothing, but not enough to really pressure North Korea," adding that Pyongyang is likely to respond with a missile launch in the next few days. (Sept 11, 2017)
Having worked in aerospace I find it very interesting that a nation like North Korea can manage to launch such rockets with regularity. There is no way they are able to do this on their own. That much might be obvious. The real question is: Who's helping them and what's their objective?
I wonder if anyone in Beijing has thought through the idea that someday maybe a nuclear armed NK deciding it doesn't want to play nice with them anymore.
Like, if Saddam had nukes he'd probably still be alive.
Higher = Shorter Range while allowing for the significant burn of a longer range capability [1]
So you can test or show off something really powerful, that you don't want to actually hit anything important by shooting it straight up. That's why many of these are considered "Space Launches." Otherwise if you shoot low altitude you only get a single or possibly second stage tested.
Wild guess from the highly relevant experience of having played Kerbal Space Program: if you don't actually intend to achieve orbit (which is mostly about going sideways really fast, not up) it may be more fuel-efficient to reach your target by going relatively high, to lengthen the amount of time you spend in little/no atmosphere before coming back down. Or maybe you want to be going really fast on the way down for some reason. Or (relatedly) it's harder to shoot down a missile on that kind of trajectory than a flatter one.
1) You conserve fuel by following a specfiic flight path and it has the added benefit of also getting out of the atmosphere. The ballistic trajectory that they follow is the minimum-energy trajectory. Putting this another way, you maximise payload for a given amount of fuel, and so can deliver a bigger warhead for a given rocket.
Additionally, why plough through half a sphere of air when you can get up and out? The advantage of their extreme range is that they escape the atmosphere and so don't deal with atmospheric drag the whole way.
2) Intercepting something coming down from above is far harder than intercepting something coming at you from down low, so it has that added benefit.
I'm sure there's other advantages, but they're the ones that spring to mind immediately.
I'm currently on a ship sailing through the Bering Sea and down through the north Pacific towards Hokkaido over the next week or so. I am not sure if we should be more worried about typhoon Talim or North Korea :)
I mean, I know why, except this is the just the bazillionth time that NK has "cried wolf". I just can't muster the level of panic all the headlines demand.
Quick! Somebody suggest Moar Sanctions that the Chinese will go on ignoring.
I heard an interesting psychological profile of Hitler once, and the person said he didn't actually want to win. He had horrible means, so why assume he didn't have a horrible goal(losing, consciously or subconsciously)? I think North Korea's leader has horrible means, and may have a horrible goal, some sort of suicide where he destroys his whole country via the USA.
Him thinking he can capture Guam is perhaps only possible to believe if he has really bad thinking. He has really bad ways of dealing with his people, so it's possible he is subconsciously trying to destroy himself.
He might have flaming words but he knows all too well that nuclear weapons and missiles are his only defense against the US, and esp. someone like Trump
Look at any other country that has given up its nuclear program. Khadafi, Saddam Hussein are here no more. Kim Jong-Un knows well too well that if he gave in to american demands, his regime will end.
There is a Batman cartoon wherein the Joker is taken under the wing of a popular psychologist who goes to great lengths to explain that the Joker is not evil, rather he is merely trying to express himself under the pressure exerted upon him by society personified by an aging purist known as the Batman. On live TV he executes the good doctor with a shattered coffee cup before murdering the audience with poison gas.
It is always dangerous to use entertainment fiction as an analog to reality. Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel revulsion when a pampered, armchair sociologist tries to handwave the destructive tendencies of a poorly informed autocrat as some kind of grandiose, suicidal tendency.
The latest round of intercontinental saber rattling is not a product of rampant psychopathy; it is iteration of a proven methodology.
It's pure survival for himself and his dynasty, just like it was for King Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung.
If the regime collapses and Kim brought to justice, he'll be executed along with any family members and anyone involved in the horrors the North Korean people have had to face.
He's using an entire country as a bargaining chip to ensure he remains in power, safe and protected from outside interference.
[+] [-] dmix|8 years ago|reply
> North Korea Fires Missile Over Japanese Territory (SEPT. 1, 1998)
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/01/world/north-korea-fires-mi...
Which also contained this blurb:
> North Korea previously conducted missile test firings in May 1993, when it fired four missiles into the Sea of Japan. Those launchings sent Japan into a panic and prompted the Government to consider cooperation on a regional missile defense system. Such a system is still years away.
It's interesting how long a missile defense system has taken to arrive in South Korea...
Edit: The US also predicted today's missile event when the UN passed sanctions a few days ago:
> Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN said the sanctions were "better than nothing, but not enough to really pressure North Korea," adding that Pyongyang is likely to respond with a missile launch in the next few days. (Sept 11, 2017)
[+] [-] rebootthesystem|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] missileoverthem|8 years ago|reply
Good thing Donald Trump has started on that
"Donald Trump 'willing to cut off trade' with China to reign in despotic North Korea"
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/853919/World-War-3-North...
[+] [-] ourmandave|8 years ago|reply
Like, if Saddam had nukes he'd probably still be alive.
[+] [-] quuquuquu|8 years ago|reply
I don't know how this going to end, but it feels weird to be in the crosshairs as collateral damage in a proxy war.
[+] [-] mysterydip|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matt_wulfeck|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] breitling|8 years ago|reply
For reference, the International space station is about 220 miles above earth. This missile went twice as high.
Why does a missile need to go so damn high? Do all of them do that or only this because it was a test?
[+] [-] AndrewKemendo|8 years ago|reply
So you can test or show off something really powerful, that you don't want to actually hit anything important by shooting it straight up. That's why many of these are considered "Space Launches." Otherwise if you shoot low altitude you only get a single or possibly second stage tested.
[1]http://www.mpoweruk.com/figs/ballistics.htm
[+] [-] ashark|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NamTaf|8 years ago|reply
1) You conserve fuel by following a specfiic flight path and it has the added benefit of also getting out of the atmosphere. The ballistic trajectory that they follow is the minimum-energy trajectory. Putting this another way, you maximise payload for a given amount of fuel, and so can deliver a bigger warhead for a given rocket. Additionally, why plough through half a sphere of air when you can get up and out? The advantage of their extreme range is that they escape the atmosphere and so don't deal with atmospheric drag the whole way.
2) Intercepting something coming down from above is far harder than intercepting something coming at you from down low, so it has that added benefit.
I'm sure there's other advantages, but they're the ones that spring to mind immediately.
[+] [-] hkmurakami|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danielvf|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reustle|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taheca|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ourmandave|8 years ago|reply
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/14/asia-markets-focus-on-north-...
I mean, I know why, except this is the just the bazillionth time that NK has "cried wolf". I just can't muster the level of panic all the headlines demand.
Quick! Somebody suggest Moar Sanctions that the Chinese will go on ignoring.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ryanqian|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ringaroundthetx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danschumann|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtw|8 years ago|reply
Look at any other country that has given up its nuclear program. Khadafi, Saddam Hussein are here no more. Kim Jong-Un knows well too well that if he gave in to american demands, his regime will end.
This is an excellent article with more details on this : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/08/in-the-court-o...
[+] [-] classicsnoot|8 years ago|reply
It is always dangerous to use entertainment fiction as an analog to reality. Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel revulsion when a pampered, armchair sociologist tries to handwave the destructive tendencies of a poorly informed autocrat as some kind of grandiose, suicidal tendency.
The latest round of intercontinental saber rattling is not a product of rampant psychopathy; it is iteration of a proven methodology.
[+] [-] ionised|8 years ago|reply
It's pure survival for himself and his dynasty, just like it was for King Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung.
If the regime collapses and Kim brought to justice, he'll be executed along with any family members and anyone involved in the horrors the North Korean people have had to face.
He's using an entire country as a bargaining chip to ensure he remains in power, safe and protected from outside interference.
[+] [-] boznz|8 years ago|reply