N Korea

[ctg492]

North Korea launched a ballistic missile off the east coast of the Korean peninsula.

Seems like a potential Emergency to be prepared for, so I posted this here. What is your take on this? I used to blow off anything that little fellow does, now I think there is far more to be wary of and are we and others ready to head off an emergency situation?

[iris lilies]

North Korea launched a ballistic missile off the east coast of the Korean peninsula.

Seems like a potential Emergency to be prepared for, so I posted this here. What is your take on this? I used to blow off anything that little fellow does, now I think there is far more to be wary of and are we and others ready to head off an emergency situation?
Someone needs to take the little fellow out.

[ctg492]

thanks, my thoughts exactly. seems like a time bomb waiting to go boom. I read every article that comes up on the crazy and think why is this not getting more coverage and attention.

[LDAHL]

They've been testing missiles for years. A lot of it amounts to a highly aggressive form of begging for food. And of course they've made a real cyber nuisance of themselves to outfits like Sony.

[bae]

Check the batteries in your smoke detectors, get your blood pressure checked, and eat properly.

[jp1]

I'd add to bae's suggestions that if this particular scenario scares you, don't travel to within 3,000 miles of North Korea. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/04/04/map-this-is-how-far-those-north-korean-missiles-can-actually-reach/ The article is a little out of date, but the point is pretty clear. He likely won't be sending missiles to the mainland US within any of our lifetimes.

[CathyA]

I think all his soldiers will end up needing knee replacements......which I'm not sure they have there. Have you ever seen all those troops marching? Their knees won't last much longer.

I hope he's just an irritating insect flying around our heads, and doesn't end up doing something really stupid and unexpected, which leads to devastation.

[bae]

He likely won't be sending missiles to the mainland US within any of our lifetimes.

The missiles thing is such a tool for creating fear and hatred, and driving our military-industrial complex to newer heights of excess.

If I were A Bad Guy with a nuke, I wouldn't use some lame complicated missile, that could be tracked easily to point-of-origin. I'd crate up my nuke in a shielded Conex intermodal shipping box, put it on a freighter through some cutouts, and sail it into the port of LA or New York or Seattle or Houston or ..., and detonate it. Nice dirty mess, taking out both a major piece of economic infrastructure and a major US urban area. Fun for all the kids.

[Rogar]

The missiles thing is such a tool for creating fear and hatred, and driving our military-industrial complex to newer heights of excess.

If I were A Bad Guy with a nuke, I wouldn't use some lame complicated missile, that could be tracked easily to point-of-origin. I'd crate up my nuke in a shielded Conex intermodal shipping box, put it on a freighter through some cutouts, and sail it into the port of LA or New York or Seattle or Houston or ..., and detonate it. Nice dirty mess, taking out both a major piece of economic infrastructure and a major US urban area. Fun for all the kids.

I read a similar scenario for getting a missile close to the coast, but then launching it into the atmosphere and creating an EMP. I seem to recall the details were that the idea altitude was 300 miles and one smaller sized nuke could disable much of the coastal area. Might have been some speculative sci-fi mixed into the account I was reading, but I can see it.

[bae]

I think the popular culture/media depiction of the EMP threat is a bit full of purple-prose and more-than-a-bit overstated.

But my understanding is hampered by time spent working on high energy physics, and hanging out with dumb people at Los Alamos.

[ToomuchStuff]

A country that is still in the midst of war, fires off a missle and there is a question about emergency preparedness?

With the amount that they spend on their military, rather then on things that would help the day to day lives of their citizens and their food shortages, it doesn't seem too surprising to me to see him have something like this done. Not just an ego thing (against the rest of the world), but a fear thing for its own citizens (we need to defend against, rise up and I will feed you to the dogs, etc).