North Korea Finalising Launch Preparations

[Vajra]

North Korea finalising launch preparations - officials | Reuters

(For a full coverage of the missile crisis, click [nSP469853])

* North Korean launch imminent, officials say

* Japan seeks U.N. action

* Launch a matter of pride for impoverished North

By Jon Herskovitz and Jack Kim

SEOUL, April 3 (Reuters) - North Korea is making final preparations for a rocket launch the United States said could come as early as Saturday, pushing ahead with a plan widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test.

Analysts said the launch helps North Korean leader Kim Jong-il shore up support after a suspected stroke in August raised questions of his grip on power and bolsters his hand in using military threats to wrangle concessions from global powers.

A successful launch also aids one of the few things his state's broken economy can sell overseas, weapons.

"We consider the situation as being imminent," one South Korean government official familiar with the subject, who asked not to be named, said on Friday. Another informed official said: "They are in the final stages of launch preparations."

North Korea has said it will send a satellite into space between April 4-8 and has the right to do so as a part of a peaceful space programme.

"They're doing everything consistent with the launch of a space vehicle on April 4," the U.S. defence official told Reuters on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

South Korea and Japan say the launch is a disguised test of the long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which is designed to carry a warhead to U.S. territory but blew apart about 40 seconds after launch during its only test flight in July 2006.

At the United Nations on Thursday, Japan's U.N. ambassador, Yukio Takasu, said his country would request an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss a possible response if North Korea launched the missile.

The United States, South Korea, and Japan are pushing for U.N. punishment for the launch they say violates U.N. resolutions that ban further ballistic missile tests put in place after the previous Taepodong-2 test and the North's only nuclear test in October 2006.

But China, the closest thing North Korea can claim as a major ally, is almost certain to block any new sanctions as well the tightening of existing sanctions that are supposed to halt most arms sales and the import of luxury goods.

Traders in South Korea, accustomed to the North's military taunts over the years, have shrugged off the impending launch. The last Taepodong-2 test led to a temporary fall in the Japanese yen, a drop in Seoul shares and small increase in gold prices.

PRIDE OVER FOOD

Brian Myers, a professor at the South's Dongseo University who is an expert on the North's state ideology, said leader Kim needs these to show defiance and military strength to compensate for his state's economic failures.

"When you are unable to feed your people, if you cannot give them food, you have to at least give them pride. If he is unable to do that, then he does face a legitimisation crisis," he said.

Japan has sent missile-intercepting ships along the rocket's flight path, which takes it over the Asian economic power, and said it could shoot down any debris such as falling booster stages that threatens to strike its territory.

Japan, the United States and South Korea said they have no plans to shoot down the rocket unless it threatens their territory. Expert said escalating tensions could threaten North Asia, which accounts for about one-sixth of the global economy.

But that has not stopped the North from making threats. It said any attempt to intercept the missile will be considered an act of war and any U.N. punishment could be met by a resumption of its plant that makes arms-grade plutonium.

The North will be dependent on reports from the United States and Japan to tell it how far its rocket went because the impoverished state does not have a radar system that can detect objects beyond 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), the South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo quoting a military official as saying.

The Taepodong-2, with an estimated range of around 6,700 km (4,200 miles), is supposed to fly over Japan, dropping booster stages to its west and east on a path that takes it southwest of Hawaii.

Weather forecasts for the area around North Korea's east coast Musudan-ri missile base show that Saturday will be partially cloudy with mild winds, with more clouds and higher winds on tap for Sunday. (Additional reporting by David Morgan and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Matt Spetalnick in London and Kim Junghyun in Seoul)

I'm really scared now man .

[yayaok]

japan jiggas be fucked kekeekekee

[Elvis]

Team America is otw.

[The Stig]

Team America is otw.

FUCK YEAH



But if it's to send something into space... shouldn't it go ... (nearly) straight up? If it's actually a missile then it won't travel ... up, but horizontally. Surely the moment it launches we can detect which direction it will go and then bring it down? From all rocket launches I've seen on TV space stuff goes up ...

[Kiro]

Akira~

[yayaok]

if it aint a missle and its really some space thing, shit still be causing problems cause japan thinks it will enable NK to see everything JP does and shit from orbit. basically like super spy

or thats what i read in the papers today lol

[The Stig]

if it aint a missle and its really some space thing, shit still be causing problems cause japan thinks it will enable NK to see everything JP does and shit from orbit. basically like super spy

or thats what i read in the papers today lol

Ah, I never considered that.

Well, Gundams I believe are well suited for Space wars, so they'll be fine...

[Shalyn]

The difference between North and South is amazing to me.. and the fact that they're using their 'enemy reports' to let them know how much they fail is just sad.

[Khamsin]

which is designed to carry a warhead to U.S. territory but blew apart about 40 seconds after launch

Now, do they mean it was actually designed to carry a warhead to the U.S., or that it's design would allow it to carry a warhead over 7000 miles?

The wording confuses me.

[Elvis]

It's specially designed to take out Americans.

[Kiro]

It contains healthy food?! Dear God..

[Aerin]

And here. We. Go.

[Draggy]

i know i should be taking this really seriously, but when i read about north korea, i really cannot get that team america puppet out of my mind SO RONRYYYY
i am a bad person

[Plow]

Japan better look out, they're about to get photoshopped all to hell.

[Khamsin]

Japan better look out, they're about to get photoshopped all to hell.

And on the day of the launch, North Korea will launch not one but 5 satellites into orbit.

[Starr]

tbh I'd probably just laugh if America got nuked.

[Pikarya]

Shoop do-wop Pt.2

http://www.imagebeast.net/images/p3gaazghh1035wwmp9.jpg

[Kerberoz]

tbh I'd probably just laugh if America got nuked.

Would be pretty amusing to see N.korea glassed by a single SSBN an hour afterwards

[Uzor]

FUCK YEAH



But if it's to send something into space... shouldn't it go ... (nearly) straight up? If it's actually a missile then it won't travel ... up, but horizontally. Surely the moment it launches we can detect which direction it will go and then bring it down? From all rocket launches I've seen on TV space stuff goes up ...

When you launch stuff up in to space, you first shoot it straight up to go through as little resistance from the air as possible. After a while, its angle falls and proceeds almost horizontally in order to get a proper orbit around earth. This is to both prevent the fuel tanks to overheat too much, as well as to prevent any unnecessary waste of fuel.

[Rammses]

Are people seriously thinking they are about to launch an unprovoked missile attack on US/Japan?