Western journalists were taken around the launch site of the Unha-3 rocket
Posted on 04/08/2012 10:07:25 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
North Korea has moved into place a long-range rocket for a controversial launch later this month - amid reports it is also planning a nuclear test.
Pyongyang says the Unha-3 rocket, which it plans to launch between 12 and 16 April, will put a satellite into orbit.
But opponents of the move fear it is a disguised long-range missile test.
Meanwhile, South Korean officials say new satellite images suggest the North is preparing to carry out a third nuclear test.
The images show piles of earth and sand at the entrance of a tunnel at the Punggye-ri site, where tests of a nuclear bomb were previously carried out in 2006 and 2009, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.
"Recent satellite images led us to conclude the North has been secretly digging a new underground tunnel in the nuclear test site... besides two others where the previous tests were conducted," one unnamed official told the AFP news agency.
North Korea has been under close scrutiny by its neighbours and the international community since Kim Jong-un became leader of the secretive state following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December 2011.
Pyongyang had agreed in February to a partial freeze in nuclear activities and a missile test moratorium in return for US food aid. But the deal was put on hold last month after the North announced its rocket launch plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Business as usual , it seems.
Hop to it, Boys!
HaPPY Easter to ALL!
If you want to put something into orbit, you launch eastwards and from a point as close to the equator as you can. This is not an advanteous tragectory for an orbital launch.
Just sayin’.
So in your opinion there probably is no satellite?
Long a satellite first of the U.S.S.R. and then of China, North Korea just wants a little satellite of its very own.
I’m sure they do.
Could be, but they are doing it the hard way, and given there spectacular lack of success, I’m skeptical that it is an attempt to orbit.
A problem for the Norks is that even if they attempt a perfectly legitmate minimum energy orbital launch, the initial trajectory is straight for Hawaii, which will make NORAD very nervous.
Thanks for the insight.
Just ask yourself, and answer truthfully, just what would happen if North Korea exploded a nuclear weapon out over the Pacific Ocean? They would point with pride and the rest of the world would view with alarm. Nothing else would happen and they know it. Same with Iran. JMHO.
Despite the trajectory, Nork has made it clear that any interference with their missile and they will attack in some way. They just sent four Russian built submarines out, that have a 1500 nautical mile range. Likely with orders that if a ship fires an anti-missile at their missile, they are to attack it.
However, they may have an entirely different purpose, that if ordered to, they will attack other targets in their range.
They carry Russian built “wake homing” torpedoes, that are particularly difficult to defeat with countermeasures.
commercial sats go equatorial, spy sats generally go polar so they can cover the entire planet
No doubt Obama interprets this as our fault.
If the United States would only SET THE EXAMPLE and DISARM, the North Korea would no doubt dismantle their missles and turn to more peaceful activities—like oil speculation.
No doubt, I’m just talking about the cheapest way to launch a satellite.
Just once, we should take one of these things out when it’s 100 feet in the air. NK, Iran, wherever.
Then send them an invoice.
Wouldn’t that be fun?
They are launching due South because the last two times the second stage flew over Japan. If something like that were done to us we would demand the vehicle be destroyed on it launch pad.
My guess is that they are actually trying to launch a satellite though its only function may be to beep and broadcast their anthem. It is said that the 1998 launch included a third stage which came close to achieving orbital velocity.
It's still a good way to test a missile. Just take off the third stage and put on the warhead.
Agreed Framework Between The United States of America And The Democratic People's Republic of Korea
http://www.armscontrol.org/documents/af
Clinton Bankrolled North Korea's Nuke Program
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/770752/posts
North Korea gathers kit for nuclear bombs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550021/posts
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Then finally, like pulling teeth - Madeleine Albright and the democrats belated acknowledgment
FLASHBACK: Albright: North Korea 'Cheated' on Clinton Nuke Agreement
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1716930/posts
fyi #19
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