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Experts Call North Korean Missile Launch a Failure
New York Times ^ | April 5, 2009 | William J. Broad

Posted on 04/05/2009 6:08:56 PM PDT by reaganaut1

North Korea failed in its highly vaunted effort to fire a satellite into orbit, military and private experts said Sunday after reviewing detailed tracking data that showed the missile and payload fell into the sea. Some said the failure undercut the North Korean campaign to come across as a fearsome adversary able to hurl deadly warheads halfway around the globe.

Defying world opinion, North Korea in recent weeks had moved steadily and fairly openly toward launching a long-range rocket that Western experts saw as a major step toward a military weapon. The launching itself on Sunday, which the North Korean government portrayed as a success — even bragging that the supposed satellite payload was now broadcasting patriotic tunes from space — outraged Japan and South Korea, led to widespread rebuke by President Obama and other leaders, and forced the United Nations Security Council to go into an emergency session.

But looking at the launching from a purely technical vantage point, space experts said the failure represented a blow that in all likelihood would seriously delay the missile’s debut.

“It’s got to be embarrassing,” said Geoffrey E. Forden, a missile expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I can image heads flying if the ‘Dear Leader’ finds out the satellite didn’t fly into orbit, ” he said, referring to the name North Koreans are obliged to use when speaking of Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s reclusive leader.

Analysts dismissed the idea that the rocket firing could represent a furtive success, calling the failure consistent with past North Korean fumbles and suggesting it may reveal a significant quality-control problem in one of the world’s most isolated nations.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: nknukes; nkorea; northkorea
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To: reaganaut1

Bingo. I am always shocked that journalists and many “analysts” take comfort in their failures. They’ll iron out the bugs in 5, 10 or 20 years. What then?

We’ve proven time and again we will bury our heads in the sand as long as it takes until the threat is clear and present — viz, Iran’s nukes.


21 posted on 04/05/2009 6:38:35 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: JoanneSD

should have


22 posted on 04/05/2009 6:40:29 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: reaganaut1

Didn’t they do this during Bush II?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_North_Korean_missile_test

So didn’t Obama simply reinforce the US policy?


23 posted on 04/05/2009 6:43:25 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: reaganaut1

I do not trust our gooberment or the press to be honest about anything... ever.

LLS


24 posted on 04/05/2009 6:48:04 PM PDT by LibLieSlayer (hussein will NEVER be my President... NEVER!!!)
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To: reaganaut1
“It’s got to be embarrassing,” said Geoffrey E. Forden, a missile expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I can image heads flying if the ‘Dear Leader’ finds out the satellite didn’t fly into orbit, ” he said, referring to the name North Koreans are obliged to use when speaking of Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s reclusive leader.

Perhaps we should start calling Obama our 'dear leader'.

25 posted on 04/05/2009 6:50:59 PM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: JoanneSD

hussein speaks for communists, islamists... and satan.. and himself.

LLS


26 posted on 04/05/2009 6:51:53 PM PDT by LibLieSlayer (hussein will NEVER be my President... NEVER!!!)
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To: richardtavor

27 posted on 04/05/2009 6:53:13 PM PDT by Candor7 (The weapons of choice against fascism are ridicule, and derision. (member NRA)
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To: CodeMasterPhilzar

I tend to agree. The profile for a ballistic missile test would be a rocket launch that goes sub-orbital, then falls into the sea. It looks like the only difference is related to their claimed purpose not to any substantive aspect of the test.


28 posted on 04/05/2009 7:02:40 PM PDT by ArmstedFragg ("the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs" - Jefferson)
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To: reaganaut1

North Korea claims success and that the satellite is now broadcasting patriotic songs (like “How good does bark taste”) from orbit. We’re saying the thing fizzled out and landed in the Pacific.

What if.....

The truth is that they launched and that we, or Japan, shot it down?

Pyongyang wouldn’t admit their missile was shot down. That would be failure. If we shot it down, Obama would want to keep that fact under wraps. Afterall, the Democrats have long held that the missile shield is a waste of money. They wouldn’t want to admit successfully using it themselves.


29 posted on 04/05/2009 7:05:09 PM PDT by bobjam
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To: SpaceBar
They wanted to know what we’d do about it, and they found out. Absolutely nothing

Excellent point. A lot of other, even more dangerous people found out too. If we are afraid to stomp on a diminutive criminal like NoKo then why would anyone else have reason to fear us?

It's the classic democrat response--back up, back up, back up until we're cornered and then have to take the hard way out when the easy way would have been so much better if taken sooner.

30 posted on 04/05/2009 7:14:09 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Rob the Ugly Dude
Why would they be demonstrating against our embassy for a N. Korean missile launch?

Sheer force of habit.

31 posted on 04/05/2009 7:15:54 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Rob the Ugly Dude

They want us to shoot it down.


32 posted on 04/05/2009 7:17:34 PM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport and school records.)
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To: reaganaut1

So, does this mean the NORKs aren’t exactly rocket scientists?


33 posted on 04/05/2009 7:19:41 PM PDT by Nachoman (Think of life as an adventure you don't survive.)
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To: SpaceBar

Thanks, SpaceBar!


34 posted on 04/05/2009 7:22:12 PM PDT by navyguy (The National Reset Button is pushed with the trigger finger.)
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To: nufsed

You know.... If I had to guess I would guess that we jammed it’s navigation systems causing it to fall into the sea. It looks to be a complete failure to the potential buyers. And, our ships out there in the ocean go on about their merry way.


35 posted on 04/05/2009 7:25:22 PM PDT by kjam22
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To: navyguy

credit where it’s due as they say...


36 posted on 04/05/2009 7:27:39 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: kjam22

Is it a done deal that we can do that?


37 posted on 04/05/2009 7:32:42 PM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport and school records.)
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To: reaganaut1

yesterday they said their satellite was in fact in obit
broadcasting songs about their pathetic and retarded leader
and his evil father . More lies by the NK MF’s


38 posted on 04/05/2009 7:55:55 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: nufsed

I think if we’re close enough. I’d guess that’s why we made sure we had those ships in the area.


39 posted on 04/05/2009 8:12:34 PM PDT by kjam22
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To: nufsed

Google “navigation jamming technology”


40 posted on 04/05/2009 8:16:22 PM PDT by kjam22
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