North Korea just tested another one of its ICBMs made out of twigs and rubber bands into the air. Maybe it worked this time?
The Japanese government, which doesn’t appreciate rockets being flung around willy nilly, is pissed — despite the fact that North Korea typically has no idea what the hell it’s doing. Japan says the test launch — which North Korea says was meant for peaceful, satellite-deploying purposes — passed directly over Okinawa, but there was no attempt to shoot it down.
This will increase tensions in an already tense area, lead to international condemnations, stall the peace process that could someday unite North and South Korea, and take more money out of the mouths of starving North Koreans and into a rusty log flume with which Kim Jong-un wants to spook the globe.
RT @reuterszengerle: Japan govt spokesman says #NorthKorea missile launch is “extremely regrettable” and “Japan cannot tolerate this action”
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) December 12, 2012
Update: Contrary to earlier reports of debris in the sea, there’s now word floating around that the launch might have been a success — meaning the rocket didn’t fall apart, and North Korea possibly put a satellite into space.
South Korea Defense Ministry to @yonhapnews – “seems as though rocket launch may have been a success” #DPRK #NorthKorea
— Security Clearance(@natlsecuritycnn) December 12, 2012
Update 2: ABC News says the missile flew along its “expected trajectory,” according to anonymous US officials.
Update 3: North Korea says it successfully put its “Bright Star-3″ weather satellite into space. Emphasis placed firmly on the “North Korea says” portion — there’s no independent confirmation of any of this, yet. Until someone other than a state-run mouthpiece says the launch was a success, this rocket (and its satellite) could still be sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
REU: NORTH KOREA CONFIRMS SATELLITE SUCCESSFULLY ENTERED ORBIT -
YONHAP— Michael van Poppel (@mpoppel) December 12, 2012
Top photo from a previous failed attempt.
I doubt they'd say they'd done it if it was a failure, given that NASA or the ESA will no doubt be looking to confirm/deny this.
when the last time North Korea care what NASA or ESA says? :P
haha Fair point. Would just seem silly to say something that can be blatantly disproven.
"we found a unicorn lair"
--North Korea, some time last week.
Point taken.
Obviously there is some kind of 'Free Crack' scheme in NK... I'm down with it.
seriously though, I'm willing to give em the benefit of the doubt on this one.
I'm sure they mean "we've identified the location at which one of our old fairy tales took place. no, theres no unicorns there, coz unicorns dont exist. but yeah, that story about our old emperor that lived in a castle with his unicorns? yeah. this is the place it was based on."
...but I have my doubts.
That actually came down to bad translation. They weren't talking about actual unicorns, if you'd read into it.
see my previous comment.
cool - didn't see it before :)
What! Do you mean like when their last launch, instantly recognisable to the rest of the world as an unmitigated failure, was celebrated on North Korean national media as a resounding success.
Wasn't aware they proclaimed the previous launch a success.
To be fair, it did launch successfully... It just didn't fly very far.
FLASH - NASA Reports that the Hubble telescope stopped sending telemetry and is not responding to ground commands after it reported a collision with an unknown object in space....
Yup, I can confirm, they have posted a pic of the satellite here: http://goo.gl/chBqn
They also said they found a unicorn den?
maybe it was the unicorn that flew on a rainbow into space
robot unicorn???
Zombie unicorn.
Last edited December 12, 2012 10:31 pm
It looks like a giant Tampon
I don't think a tampon is what you think it is.