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| Korea |
| North Korea fires missile into sea |
| 2003-02-25 |
| Edited for length. North Korea has fired a missile into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula just hours before South Korea's new president was sworn into office. In what correspondents called a provocative move, the missile hit international waters in the Sea of Japan on the eve of President Roh Moo-hyun's inauguration. Guests including US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi are in Seoul to attend the ceremony. The incident prompted sharp stock market falls in both South Korea and Japan. It remains unclear what kind of missile was fired, although some reports said it was a Silkworm land-to-sea device, a short-range missile of Chinese design. Didn't they have anything more impressive? Thrown the spoon from the high chair, only got spittle left... President Roh Is that surprising for a North korean? If I called that place home I'd be preoccupied with my immediate neighbours too. Mr Roh does not agree with Washington's policy of isolating the North and has publicly said he opposes the use of force to resolve the nuclear crisis. "If we give them what they desperately want - regime security, normal treatment and economic assistance - they will be willing to give up their nuclear ambitions," Mr Roh told Newsweek magazine. Oh, now we see what "novice in global affairs" was referring to... Mr Roh was swept to election victory on a wave of anti-US protests, and has called for a review of the status of the 37,000 American troops in the country, although he has stressed that he is not anti-American North Korea has had a moratorium on testing long-range missiles since 1998. That was introduced following widespread international alarm when Pyongyang's military fired a multi-stage rocket over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang's number two leader Kim Yong Nam, in Malaysia for the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, said in a speech on Tuesday that "at this stage" North Korea's nuclear activities would be confined to peaceful purposes. That mean they're gonna use them on Kimmy?! |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #13 thks on the EMP info - my minor in college in the 80's was radiaton physics, and I couldn't believe that a Carrier or Nuc Boomer Sub would be put in harm's way without thinking about that... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-02-25 21:30:32 |
| #12 Latest word via Foxnews was that, yes, we were Ok'ing food aid in dribs and drabs to make sure that it was actually getting to the starving population rather than the army and political elite (an entirely humanistic and realistic approach to the starving population...which is what the NKor's wouldn't Ok before) - if this is successful, then we said we'd look at more food aid. We are playing the delay game diplomatically, and offering to feed those that the NKors have starved for political and economic reasons. I see no other options that serve us politically or ethically at this point |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-02-25 21:26:26 |
| #11 Launched missile? hmmm, we must be close to approving the food aid. "Nothing to see here folks, move along." |
| Posted by: Dick Saucer 2003-02-25 20:00:26 |
| #10 EMP. Since the early 80s, your Sandia National Laboratories have been fabing EMP proof electronics for the Ameican military to include a lot of avionic. My last check in showed in '85 they had a 256k EMP proof chip on line. God only knows what they're up to today. |
| Posted by: Don 2003-02-25 16:07:53 |
| #9 EMP insulation seems pretty pricy, although I can't speak for the military, they could sure raise havoc with commercial satellites and affect communications. From AusSurvivalist: A continuously sealed metal barrier has proven to be very effective in preventing EM/HPM energy from reaching susceptible electronic or explosive components. Exterior packaging fabricated from plastic, wood or other fibre materials provides almost no protection form EM/HPM threats. The metal enclosure can be very thin provided there are no openings (tears, pin holes, doors, incomplete seams) that would allow microwaves to enter. Sealed barrier bags that incorporate a thin layer of aluminium foil and are primarily used to provide water vapour proof protection to an item, can add a great deal of resistance to EM/HPM penetration. |
| Posted by: Dar Steckelberg 2003-02-25 13:18:11 |
| #8 Correct me if I'm wrong - I'd always assumed that since we knew the EMP effects, and there are ways to harden electronics from those effects, that we'd have implemented those in our forces likely to encounter EMP? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-02-25 11:42:14 |
| #7 B., the engineering for one of those baby nukes is much more complex than the big ones. Recal that the key is the implosion occurring on all sides at once. The bigger the bomb, the easier it is to pack in the explosive necessary to do that. When you start with the 8 kilos of nuke stuff, and the metal shell, the amount of explosive left at the smaller weights means that it has to be a lot more precise. Not sure the NKors could do that, it took us quite a while and lots of testing. As far as we know, the NKors haven't ever tested their boom booms. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-02-25 11:16:04 |
| #6 Theoretically a Silkworm is more than capable of carrying a nuke given its warhead capacity of several hundred pounds. The smallest nuclear device known to have been produced is the USA's 51 pound W54 warhead with a yield of 0.01 kilotons. Of course yield increases on the order of exponentially as the mass of the fissile material increases from W54's barely critical mass. A Silkworm payload might look like our former W-19 warhead which weighed in the neighborhood of 500 pounds and yielded 15-20kt (somewhat larger than the Hiroshima detonation). Even if they missed by a couple of miles, the bomb's EMP pulse would likely fry the electronics in our carrier and the avionics of all the onboard aircraft. If I were the NKors I'd have at least one of these ready to go 24/7. |
| Posted by: B. 2003-02-25 10:25:30 |
| #5 I can't agree it's an accidental firing. I think they're just stirring the pot and trying to up the ante. It's their version of a 21-gun salute to welcome Roh to power. |
| Posted by: Dar Steckelberg 2003-02-25 08:53:28 |
| #4 Damn, they fixed their guidance system problems. They hit the ocean this time. I suspect an accidental firing. Why test fire a Silkworm? Unless it had a warhead variation in weight or mass that they needed to test. Can the Silkworm mount a nuke? |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-02-25 08:12:12 |
| #3 "Is that surprising for a North korean?..." I meant South Korean. Damn me and my smartass mouth. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-02-25 05:13:54 |
| #2 It's sabre rattling and making faces, connected with Roh's inauguration. They don't want to hit anything at this stage. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-02-25 04:21:56 |
| #1 hmmm, wonder if they heard we have Carrier group in the region. Is NKor desperate enough to just start lobbing these things around hoping to hit something? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-02-25 03:08:56 |