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North Korea fires at least one missile into sea, possibly from submarine

28 Comments
By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM

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28 Comments
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Vreth,

Don't forget the neon-lit Mig-29! Because nothing says "POWER!" like a jet that literally glows in the dark.

Colin Powell in one of his last interviews said basically "So what? They are not going to attack. It would be assisted suicide and they know it."

I would tend to agree.

12 ( +16 / -4 )

Mr. Marshmallow Head, we get it. You think you're badass. We ain't impressed. So you got a new toy.

Just go away. And don't count on Joe to kiss your fanny either. He ain't gonna play lovey-dovey with the licks of a tinhorn dirtbag like you.

Just

Go

Away.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

His government has so far rejected the Biden administration’s offers to restart dialogue without preconditions, saying that Washington must first abandon its “hostile policy,” a term the North mainly uses to refer to sanctions and U.S.-South Korea military exercises.

Not necessarily wrong here, honestly. The US continues to sanction NK for...developing weapons that the US themselves already has. Why the double-standard, and why are they allowed to have them when NK isn't?

It would make more sense to me if every country in the world were in the process of dismantling ALL nuclear capability, but we know that isn't happening and likely won't ever happen.

-9 ( +5 / -14 )

Why the double-standard, and why are they allowed to have them when NK isn't?

Um, United Nations Resolutions perhaps?

The US, PRC, Russia, UK and France are specifically ok'd to possess nukes and the means to deliver them in the NPT. N. Korea is not. Thus the resolutions and the sanctions, etc.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

That would hold more weight if nations didn't just pick and choose when to listen to the UN for when it suited them. Which I would be all for, for the record, but that isn't really how things have worked so far. Otherwise we would have lifted sanctions on countries like Cuba over 20 years ago.

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

It was a single SLBM launch. Unclear if it was from the submarine or from the barge.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

Samit,

Thanks for the additional info. Now if only N. Korea had a sub that didn't sound like my washing machine with an unbalanced load....

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Poor the sea that NK keeps attacking it.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

@GdTokyo

 if only N. Korea had a sub that didn't sound like my washing machine with an unbalanced load....

The North Korean sub would be on battery power while crossing Japan's SOSUS line. The noise thing is only when the sub is running its diesel engine to recharge battery using snorkel.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

is he trying to help the LDP win the election? Why else would he do this NOW?

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

@Aly Rustom

Why else would he do this NOW?

North Korea is under pressure to "prove" that its SLBMs are operational and combat ready after ROK test launched 2 SLBMs from an actual in-service submarine.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Yawn. The biggest all bark and no byte country ever.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Well of course Japanese military defense didnt immediately know where the missiles landed .

That's not a surprise.

They probably still don't know where they actually landed now.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Outrageous behaviour from NK.

Is the free world going to sit by as NK nuclear weapons capability improves by the month? NK do have WMDs - it is high time a Coalition of the willing, led by the US, is sent in to dismantle them.

And yet still people are questioning why Japan must double her defense budget, in light of these constant threats.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

How come every time North Korea launches a missile, the picture is always someone walking by a TV screen in Tokyo?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Fighto!

Outrageous behaviour from NK.

Is the free world going to sit by as NK nuclear weapons capability improves by the month? NK do have WMDs - it is high time a Coalition of the willing, led by the US, is sent in to dismantle them.

And yet still people are questioning why Japan must double her defense budget, in light of these constant threats.

You are taking this kabuki show seriously? NK with a (largely starving) population of 20 million and the industrial capacity of Luxembourg is not a threat to anyone. This submarine missile firing (if the sub actually exists) ist just another call for attention.

However, the CCP, which is the sponsor of NK, is a threat, and not only to Japan. So I do not disagree that Japan should strengthen its military. But not because of fat Kim and his sister....

3 ( +4 / -1 )

There have also been signs that the North is trying to build a larger submarine that would be capable of carrying and firing multiple missiles.

They might also want to think about developing subs that don't spontaneously sink upon buoyancy changes and that don't sound like the heavy metal bands I listened to as a kid when they are recharging.

I know that diesel electrics are supposed to be quiet, but it's N. Korea. I have real doubts that they could deploy unnoticed.

Meanwhile the South has a demonstrated conventional capability with an 800km range meaning it can hold any target in the North at risk with virtually zero warning.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

North Korea is under pressure to "prove" that its SLBMs are operational and combat ready after ROK test launched 2 SLBMs from an actual in-service submarine.

but to do this JUST A WEEK OR 2 BEFORE the general election? No Samit. There's more to this than meets the eye. And this is not the first time NK has done this just before a general election. Not the first time at all.

Sometimes it almost seems that way doesn,t it.....sure was the case last couple of times.

exactly.

We,ll let you keep operating your pachinko parlors here if you shoot off a missile or two when our electoral chances don,t seem bright enough Kim. Thanks, sincerely LDP, lol.

exactly!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

This is just a reaction to tests and exercises carried out in South Korea. Those don't get reported on in Japan.

Just a stick wagging response to a wagged stick.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

South Korean officials held a national security council meeting and expressed "deep regret" over the launch that came despite efforts to revive diplomacy.

It's difficult to dismiss charges of Hanguk hypocrisy when they did the identical thing just a few weeks ago. Nobody rattles sabres like the U.S. and its craven vassal Hanguk and nobody is the target of more sabre rattling than Bukhan. Even Iran doesn't see as many threats from Empire attempting to intimidate the much smaller but disobedient who defy Empire's strong arm tactics.

And Biden has NO credibility in his policies regarding either Bukhan or Iran who have both previously acceded to denuclearization demands and then been rebuffed as their value as bogeymen would be lost. Neither either want or can afford nuclear weapons but the threat of them is their only voice in opposing their ongoing oppression by the psychopaths of Empire.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I wonder how many bits the sub is in, if it was fired from one. Very kind of NK to gift an election boost to the LDP.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Fire Crackers, NOT missile!!? Kim knows how to pull Japan and S. Korea strings.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The North Korean sub would be on battery power while crossing Japan's SOSUS line. The noise thing is only when the sub is running its diesel engine to recharge battery using snorkel.

Electric motors have a detectable acoustic signature. If you measure the rpm of an electric motor it is not constant. It accelerates and decelerates as the segments of the armature interact electrically with the magnet field created by the field assembly surrounding the armature. The magnetic field is not uniform and as each segment of armature passes trough the magnetic field it accelerates and as it leaves it decelerates slightly. More armature segments increases the frequency of vibration and reduces the strength but never completely eliminates the problem. Thus the segments of an armature in a big DC motor can vibrate strongly from electrical loads and make enough noise to be detectable. The big electric motor driving a pump at this one ARCO facility I used to work at sounded like an old F-4 Phantom on take off it was so loud. Motors that make enough power to drive something like a submarine have to be pretty powerful, 6000 horsepower and up, and such motors are not necessarily quiet. This is why the US Navy has invested so heavily in working out a homopolar DC motor. The armature is a solid piece of metal. No vibration and rpm remains constant. The problem is achieving the necessary superconductivity at a low enough temperature to allow the motor to make the amount of horsepower necessary for a combat sub. Propeller noise, auxiliary machinery noise (pumps, small cooling motors and the like) and flow noises are other sources of an acoustic signature.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Kim and the DPRK leadership were truly embarrassed and caught off guard when ROK fired an operational ballistic missile from from an operational sub class that is in series production. The launchers on these subs can launch both this ballistic missile or an ROK domestic designed long range cruise missile, much like the Virginia Payload Module. The DPRK is freaking out over this new capability ROK is fielding why they are still learning the ropes with their underwater test barge.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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