February 18th, 2013 at 9:05 am » Comments (5)

To further add to the hostile image the North Koreans are trying to create for themselves with the international community, they also recently conducted an engine test for their road mobile KN-08 ICBM: North Korea tested an engine for its new long-range missiles one day before its third nuclear test last week, government sources here said Sunday. Pyongyang carried out a function test of the engine for its long-range “KN-08″ missiles on the Dongchang-ri launch site in North Pyongan Province on Monday, according to multiple government sources. It was one
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January 15th, 2013 at 6:51 pm » Comments (3)

I am not buying into North Korea having a nuclear ICBM capability in 5 years unless someone gives them technology for this capability.  However, I do not put it past the North Koreans to pretend they have a nuclear ICBM capability within the next 5 years while they simultaneously work on developing the real capability: North Korea expert and Georgetown University Professor Victor Cha predicts that North Korea will be able to load nuclear warheads on its ballistic missiles as early as in the next five years. Cha made the
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December 19th, 2012 at 9:23 am » Comments (12)

Richard Weitz has an article published in The Diplomat that provides a good rundown of the issues surrounding the recent North Korean rocket test. Here is how he wraps up his article: The Obama administration remains committed to the “action for action” approach that combines the use of positive and negative incentives with a willingness to engage the DPRK within the multilateral context of the Six-Party Talks. Under its policy of “strategic patience,” the Obama administration has demanded that the DPRK give some concrete indication, before resuming the Six-Party Talks,
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April 26th, 2012 at 7:17 am » Comments (23)

I was skeptical on whether or not North Korea’s new ICBM that was introduced during a military parade would even work considering their past failures and now analysts are saying that the North Koreans are faking everyone with their new missile: Analysts who have studied photos of a half-dozen ominous new North Korean missiles showcased recently at a lavish military parade say they were fakes, and not very convincing ones, casting further doubt on the country’s claims of military prowess. Since its recent rocket launch failure, Pyongyang’s top military leaders have made several boastful statements
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April 20th, 2012 at 5:06 pm » Comments (13)

The US and South Korea are both playing their part by publicly calling out China about its export of missile technology to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions, but both will likely do nothing about it: South Korea has asked China to verify claims that a missile launcher displayed by North Korea last weekend is of Chinese origin, in a potential violation of United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang, a senior Seoul official said Friday. North Korea unveiled a new long-range ballistic missile on Sunday during a mass military
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April 19th, 2012 at 5:50 pm » Comments (0)

Nothing surprising here; the only thing surprising would be if the US actually tries to hold China accountable for violating UN resolutions against North Korea: Yet, analysts have long questioned the effectiveness of sanctions against North Korea. Some analysts said Tuesday that China may have violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by providing 16-wheeled missile-launching vehicles that were seen in a military parade in Pyongyang on Sunday carrying a new type of missile. Ted Parsons of IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly pointed out similarities to a known Chinese vehicle: “The same windscreen design,
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April 16th, 2012 at 8:00 am » Comments (2)

It seems the North Koreans just can’t get enough of showcasing missiles: North Korea rolled out what appeared to be a new ballistic missile, Sunday, as the impoverished state marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-sung with a massive military parade. The unveiling came after the North’s young and untested leader Kim Jong-un vowed to proceed with his late father Kim Jong-il’s “military-first” policy in his first public speech. A South Korean military official said the missile is presumed to have a range of up
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April 16th, 2012 at 3:52 am » Comments (1)

I would think that whether or not the ROK Navy found any rocket debris that this is what they would be telling the media in order to not let the North Koreans know whether or not they recovered debris:  South Korea’s navy made little progress in recovering North Korean rocket debris on its third straight day of attempts Sunday, officials said. About 10 South Korean navy vessels were searching international waters of the Yellow Sea off the country’s west coast, but did not find anything presumed to be rocket fragments,
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April 14th, 2012 at 4:43 am » Comments (13)

I would agree with the White House assessment that their North Korea policy is not a failure but it is not a very bold policy either: The White House denied Friday that North Korea’s rocket launch showed that President Barack Obama’s efforts to engage the isolated country’s secretive Stalinist regime had been a failure. “Absolutely not,” Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters aboard Air Force One as Obama headed from Washington to Florida, on his way to a summit in Colombia. Mitt Romney said Thursday that the
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April 13th, 2012 at 11:32 pm » Comments (0)

Stripes Central has a number of graphics posted that people have been making that are making light of the recent North Korean launch failure: You can see more images at the link but with all the jokes about North Korea it is appearing more and more likely they will have to try something to get people to fear them again instead of making jokes about them.