
North Korea Launched Missile Over Japan Toward Pacific Ocean - schintan
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-14/north-korea-launched-missile-over-japan-toward-pacific-ocean
======
dmix
An interesting old news article I came across from 1998 (almost 20 yrs ago)
when Kim's father did the same thing:

> North Korea Fires Missile Over Japanese Territory (SEPT. 1, 1998)

[http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/01/world/north-korea-fires-
mi...](http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/01/world/north-korea-fires-missile-over-
japanese-territory.html)

Which also contained this blurb:

> North Korea previously conducted missile test firings in May 1993, when it
> fired four missiles into the Sea of Japan. Those launchings sent Japan into
> a panic and prompted the Government to consider cooperation on a regional
> missile defense system. Such a system is still years away.

It's interesting how long a missile defense system has taken to arrive in
South Korea...

Edit: The US also predicted today's missile event when the UN passed sanctions
a few days ago:

> Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN said the sanctions were
> "better than nothing, but not enough to really pressure North Korea," adding
> that Pyongyang is likely to respond with a missile launch in the next few
> days. (Sept 11, 2017)

~~~
rebootthesystem
Having worked in aerospace I find it very interesting that a nation like North
Korea can manage to launch such rockets with regularity. There is no way they
are able to do this on their own. That much might be obvious. The real
question is: Who's helping them and what's their objective?

~~~
krapp
>Who's helping them and what's their objective?

Who's helping them is obvious - China.

What's their objective? Destabilizing and undermining American military
hegemony in their sphere of influence and establishing themselves as Asia's
sole superpower. I don't know how North Korea works into that, though. Maybe
China just wants a proxy to harass the US with while having politically
plausible deniability. Maybe they're hoping to step in when NK takes it too
far and look like heroes, while making the US look feckless and weak.

~~~
nodesocket
Seems if you say anything negative about China even if completely accurate on
HN you get downvoted. Yes China has assisted NK:

[http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-sold-trucks-
us...](http://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-sold-trucks-used-north-
korean-missiles/)

~~~
JohnTHaller
It's relatively common on most social media sites including HN, reddit, etc.
It was particularly noticeable during the coverage of China's DDoS attack on
github a few years back.

------
missileoverthem
We really need to start punishing China for keeping North Korea alive. That
country would collapse in a week without any food/fuel from China.

Good thing Donald Trump has started on that

"Donald Trump 'willing to cut off trade' with China to reign in despotic North
Korea"

[http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/853919/World-
War-3-North...](http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/853919/World-War-3-North-
Korea-USA-China-Russia-Kim-Jong-un-Trump-Munchin)

~~~
ourmandave
I wonder if anyone in Beijing has thought through the idea that someday maybe
a nuclear armed NK deciding it doesn't want to play nice with them anymore.

Like, if Saddam had nukes he'd probably still be alive.

------
quuquuquu
Not fun to wake up to a missile flying over my house here in Hokkaido XD

I don't know how this going to end, but it feels weird to be in the crosshairs
as collateral damage in a proxy war.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Japan is not really collateral. North Korea hates Japan apart from the US. In
fact it's really the US that's collateral.

~~~
ajross
Neither is true. The DPRK isn't trying to pursue a war against its enemies in
a military sense. They're trying to extort money from the world community as a
price for peace.

~~~
dba7dba
True. It's all about extortion.

------
breitling
>The missile is likely to have reached an altitude of about 770km (478 miles)

For reference, the International space station is about 220 miles above earth.
This missile went twice as high.

Why does a missile need to go so damn high? Do all of them do that or only
this because it was a test?

~~~
ashark
Wild guess from the highly relevant experience of having played Kerbal Space
Program: if you don't actually intend to achieve orbit (which is mostly about
going _sideways_ really fast, not up) it may be more fuel-efficient to reach
your target by going relatively high, to lengthen the amount of time you spend
in little/no atmosphere before coming back down. _Or_ maybe you want to be
going really fast on the way down for some reason. _Or_ (relatedly) it's
harder to shoot down a missile on that kind of trajectory than a flatter one.

~~~
nine_k
Going down really fast has an excellent reason: the faster you go down, the
less time a counter-missile has to intercept you, and the harder it is (speed
and acceleration requirements become insane).

------
reustle
I'm currently on a ship sailing through the Bering Sea and down through the
north Pacific towards Hokkaido over the next week or so. I am not sure if we
should be more worried about typhoon Talim or North Korea :)

~~~
taheca
Red sky at noon means nukes you're DOOMED!

~~~
classicsnoot
Red sky in morning, deterrence is thorny.

------
ourmandave
So immediately the US dollar falls against the yen and gold goes up. Why?

[https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/14/asia-markets-focus-on-
north-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/14/asia-markets-focus-on-north-korea-
yen-gold-fed-boe.html)

I mean, I know why, except this is the just the bazillionth time that NK has
"cried wolf". I just can't muster the level of panic all the headlines demand.

Quick! Somebody suggest Moar Sanctions that the Chinese will go on ignoring.

------
ryanqian
North Korea is a joke to our civilization world, can't imaging why it's still
there playing fire.

~~~
ringaroundthetx
Because they haven't gotten burnt yet.

------
danschumann
I heard an interesting psychological profile of Hitler once, and the person
said he didn't actually want to win. He had horrible means, so why assume he
didn't have a horrible goal(losing, consciously or subconsciously)? I think
North Korea's leader has horrible means, and may have a horrible goal, some
sort of suicide where he destroys his whole country via the USA. Him thinking
he can capture Guam is perhaps only possible to believe if he has really bad
thinking. He has really bad ways of dealing with his people, so it's possible
he is subconsciously trying to destroy himself.

~~~
boznz
I actually agree. People are applying rational thought to an irrational person
and we know how well that usually works out.

~~~
wyatte
What is it that makes you believe he is irrational? Just curious because I can
come up with some pretty rational arguments for most of his actions.

