I meant having nukes is a "good idea" from N Korea's perspective, unless they are made to suffer crushing consequences. Telling them it's a "bad idea" is not going to stop them. Words like that from the West are not respected by dictatorships.
Kazakhstan Launches Its 1st Satellite (today) Kazakhstan sent its first satellite into space Sunday, a step toward fulfilling the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic's ambitions to join the elite club of space-exploring nations.
The Central Asian nation of 15 million is home to the world's largest space center, the Baikonur cosmodrome.
It has been leasing the Soviet-built facility to Russia, but now Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev wants his nation to build its own space industry.
The Kazakh government's ambition is fueled by its post-Soviet economic success, pumped up by oil-dollars.
Russian President Vladimir Putin joined Nazarbayev at Baikonur to watch the early morning launch of KazSat 1 - a geostationary satellite designed to provide TV broadcast and communications for Kazakhstan, three other Central Asia nations - Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan - and part of Russia.
The two leaders watched the launch from an observation platform about 2 miles from the launch pad. After the rocket's fiery tail disappeared into the sky, which was just turning pink ahead of dawn, they left in a car without commenting.