North Korea begins preparations to launch Satellite into space.

[Raziaar]

And considers any inference an act of WAR!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090401/wl_nm/us_korea_north

It's being refueled now and should be launched within a couple days.

SEOUL (Reuters) ? North Korea's planned rocket launch in the next week would violate U.N. resolutions even if the secretive state tried to put a satellite into space, officials in South Korea and Japan said on Wednesday.

The missile North Korea could launch as soon as this weekend appears to have a bulb-shaped tip that gives credence to Pyongyang's claim it plans to put a satellite in space, U.S. defense officials said on Tuesday.

The United States, Japan and South Korea see the launch as a disguised military test because the rocket being used is a long-range missile called the Taepodong-2, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.

About a half dozen missile-interceptor ships with sophisticated radar from Japan, the United States and South Korea are expected to be in waters along the rocket's flight path but there are no plans to shoot it down unless it threatens their respective territories.

DO NOT MEDDLE

North Korea, which said any attempt to shoot down the rocket it intends to launch between April 4-8 would be an act of war, issued a new threat on Wednesday.

"(Our army) will relentlessly shoot down U.S. reconnaissance aircraft if they intrude into our territory and meddle with our peaceful satellite launch preparation," it said in a state radio broadcast monitored in Seoul.

The launch poses a major risk for the cash-strapped North.

A failure would deal a blow to missile sales, one of its few successful export businesses, and embarrass North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, 67, whose suspected stroke in August raised questions about his leadership of Asia's only communist dynasty.

But a successful launch coming just before the annual meeting of the North's rubber stamp parliament would allow a resurgent Kim to solidify his leadership and perhaps position one of his three known sons as a successor, analysts said.

"Kim Jong-il is trying to rally elites and the public around him. He has certainly seen his own mortality flash before his eyes," said Peter Beck, an expert in Korean affairs at American University in Washington.

Doesn't this remind anybody else of Die Another Day?

 

[unozero]

The Japs are gonna shoot it down I can't wait.

 

[Warped]

why the hell can't we just carpet bomb the missile site??

 

[unozero]

why the hell can't we just carpet bomb the missile site??

Soul would be glassed if that happened.
We can't do anything but the wapanese will.

 

[Warped]

Soul would be glassed if that happened.
We can't do anything but the wapanese will.

seriously, grab some convicts, drop them in there, if they fail they die, if they do what they're supposed to they can half their sentence stay

 

[Jintor]

A... A SUICIDE SQUAD?

 

[Higlac]

Doesn't this remind anybody else of Die Another Day?

No.

 

[Warped]

A... A SUICIDE SQUAD?

reminds me of that crappy movie Condemned but they actually have a purpose

 

[nurizeko]

Nice try, Raz.

 

[Jintor]

Yeah, today would have been a great time to make a "North Korea Nukes Japan" April Fools Joke.

 

[The Monkey]

Don't worry, it will probably explode after five minutes.

 

[CptStern]

Soul would be glassed if that happened.
We can't do anything but the wapanese will.

with what?

North Korea announced its intention to conduct a test on October 3, six days prior, and in doing so became the first nation to give warning of its first nuclear test.[1] The blast is estimated to have had an explosive force of less than one kiloton, and some radioactive output was detected.[2][3] United States officials suggested the device may have been a nuclear explosive that misfired


An anonymous official at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing told a South Korean newspaper that the explosive output was smaller than expected.[4] Due to the secretive nature of North Korea and small yield of the test, there remains some question as to whether it was an unusually small successful test, or a partially failed "fizzle" or dud

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

north korea is like one those annoying Shih Tzu dogs (stuffed animals pretending to be dogs) ; all bark and no bite ..which is typical of most pint sized despots (except hitler and napoleon)

 

[Raziaar]

Nice try, Raz.

Yeah, today would have been a great time to make a "North Korea Nukes Japan" April Fools Joke.

lol. I'm not really all that big on April Fools jokes... can't pull them off very well.

I do find this story interesting though, and am curious to see where it goes and if the North Koreans have the capacity to launch something into orbit.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Why is it just me that sees this whole thing blown out of proportion

*Waits for Western Death Squads to come to my door to silence me*

The United States, Japan and South Korea see the launch as a disguised military test because the rocket being used is a long-range missile called the Taepodong-2, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska.

Well you wouldn't want the satellite to go suborbital; causing it to crash and burn into a farmhouse now would you?

 

[noQ]

Why do these kind of states still exist in this day ? How is it f-ing possible ? Civil oppressions , torture, brainwashing and genocide must work real well to that cause.
I wonder when these people will be free. Yet I think they shouldn't be freed with Bushy-Iraq strategies even though the WMDs would exist in this case..

 

[Escaep]

There is actually a giant rocket beneath North Korea that will launch the North into space.