The launch took place at 7:39 AM local time.
The North Koreans apparently laughed themselves sick at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's threats of 'UN action' and went ahead anyway.
Japan is reported on full alert, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pledged to shoot the missile down if it strayed over Japanese airspace.
The North Korean excuse for this is that they were putting - wait for it - a weather satellite in orbit!
The path of the launch will take the missile southwest over the East China sea before releasing a satellite into orbit when the third stage fires over the Philippine Sea at about 15 degrees N latitude, give or take.
Essentially, this is a test of a a new ballistic missile, and probably a cover for a secret North Korean nuclear test as well. In North Korea's viewpoint, one could probably call this a commercial for present and future customers about what's available for sale,
Look for the UN Security Council to provide some humorous counterpoint with anothewr watered down and meaningless resolution.
2 comments:
The conventional wisdom is the test has failed. If this is so, then the Norks commercial did not go so well.
As I said, this is the conventional wisdom. What if this is all part of a ruse that is designed to lull the US and its "allies" into a false sense of security? This fits nicely into the conventional narrative of the US as "sole super power" baloney. It reinforces the idea that America does not need to upgrade its military equipment or its tactics to fit with the realities of 21st century warfare and it will act as further reinforcement to the ideas that the US can engage in more cutbacks to the military and military preparedness.
The Russians and the Chinese may have all been in on the ruse. This does fit in quite nicely with their ambitions and it will likely provide America and its "allies" with a sense of security that may not be warranted.
If the Norks wanted to test a missle launch, they could likely notify potential customers and have them on hand for observation, carry out the test, and close deals for the technology all without the Americans ever knowing. Why the big pomp and circumstance when its unnecessary? Lends credence to the hypothesis that this failed test is a ruse designed to throw us off.
Perhaps its not a ruse and the test really did fail. The fact that no one in the media, the US military, or US intelllegence services is asking these questions is very troubling.
The test may also have been a distraction for a secret nuclear test within North Korea.They've done that before.
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