DPR Korea Space and Missiles

Japan readies anti-missile defence for N Korea rocket




Japan has ordered missile defence systems to be prepared in response to the planned launch of a North Korean long-range rocket next month, Japanese Defence Minister Naoki Tanaka has said.

Reports said the defence systems would be deployed near the island of Okinawa to shoot down the rocket should it threaten Japanese territory.

North Korea says the rocket will put a satellite into orbit.

But the US and its allies believe the launch is a pretext for a missile test.
'Grave provocation'

Pyongyang said last week it was to mark the 100th birthday of its late Great Leader Kim Il-sung with the launch.

The announcement drew widespread criticism that the launch would violate UN Security Council resolutions.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
image of Lucy Williamson Lucy Williamson BBC News, Seoul

News of this satellite launch - coming just weeks after North Korea had promised the US it would suspend missile tests - has led to a lot of head-scratching in the region.

The announcement was full of assurances that the country would abide by international regulations for space technology, and avoid rocket parts landing in neighbouring countries.

But Pyongyang knows that both the UN and the US take a dim view of "peaceful" launches like this - seeing them as a cover for long-range missile tests, banned under UN Security Council resolutions.

Some see the satellite launch as evidence that parts of the North Korean establishment are less than comfortable with the US deal - under which the Pyongyang suspended uranium enrichment in return for food aid. They want to reassert the country's military strength and political independence.

Others see it as further evidence than Kim Jong-un is playing the same cat-and-mouse game his father was accused of - using provocations to elicit greater bargaining power with the US and others.

And North Korea is also having to bear in mind its domestic audience. 2012 has been billed as a year of celebration - the centenary of its founding president's birth, and the moment North Korea will mark its emergency as a "strong and prosperous nation". The satellite launch may deliver the much-desired image of strength, but it risks losing the American food aid it desperately needs to mimic even minimal prosperity.

The resolutions were imposed after a similar launch in April 2009. Japan is particularly concerned as the last North Korean rocket was launched over the country.

"I have ordered officials to prepare to deploy the PAC-3 and Aegis warships," Mr Tanaka said.

The Japanese parliament also passed a resolution condemning the launch.

South Korea, China and the US have also expressed concern over the planned launch.

"It would be a grave provocation threatening the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and north-east Asia," the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

Nuclear envoys from South Korea and Japan held talks in Seoul to work out how they would respond if the launch were to go ahead, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua said Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun met Pyongyang's ambassador to express Beijing's "worry".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called North Korea's announcement "highly provocative".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said any launch could discourage aid donors.

"Such an act would undermine recent positive diplomatic progress and, in its effect on international donors, would likely worsen the humanitarian situation inside the country," he said in a speech in Singapore.
Satellite view of North Korean missile launch site at Musudan-Ri (file photo from 2009/Digital Globe) North Korea used its launch site at Musudan-Ri for the 2009 rocket launch
'Peaceful purposes'

Last month, Pyongyang agreed to suspend long-range missile tests as part of a deal for the United States to supply 240,000 tonnes of food aid to North Korea.

It also agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and to allow back UN weapons inspectors as part of the deal.

A US state department spokesperson said it would be "hard to imagine" giving food aid to North Korea, as previously agreed, if Pyongyang went ahead with the rocket launch.

In the launch three years ago, Pyongyang said the satellite made it into orbit and characterised it as a test of its satellite technology.

The move drew condemnation from the US and South Korea and led to the UN resolutions prohibiting the North from nuclear and ballistic missile activity.

Foreign officials said there were no indications that a satellite had reached space and that the launch was a cover for Pyongyang to test long-range missile technology.

North Korea said last week that the launch of a rocket carrying a satellite would take place between 12 and 16 April.

The ''working satellite'', the Kwangmyongsong-3, is an opportunity for ''putting the country's technology of space use for peaceful purposes on a higher stage'', said a North Korean spokesman.

The rocket would be launched from the Solace Satellite Launching Station in Cholsan county, North Pyongyang province on the country's west coast.

State media also reported that the North has already launched two experimental satellites.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17484628

New Images Show North Korea Readying for Rocket Launch

April 02, 2012

VOA News

New satellite images of a North Korean rocket site show evidence of increased preparation for a space launch that Washington sees as cover for a long-range missile test.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said Sunday that satellite photos taken last Wednesday show a mobile radar trailer, not previously present at the new Tongchang-ri site, and rows of what appear to be empty fuel and oxidizer tanks.

The Institute said the photos also show what appears to be activity near the launcher assembly building, where news reports indicate the stages of the Unha-3 rocket are located.

Pyongyang says the launch will put a functional satellite into orbit as part of the celebration of the 100th birthday of the late leader Kim Il Sung, the founder of the communist state and Kim Jong Un's grandfather.

The United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan all have condemned the planned launch. Even Pyongyang's long-time ally, China, has expressed rare disapproval, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned."

The Aspen Institute "think tank" in Berlin said Sunday that North Korean and American delegations had held informal talks in Germany. Charles King Mallory, executive director of the Institute, confirmed the meeting but did not comment in detail on the contents of the so-called "track two" talks or who participated in them.

"Yes there was a meeting," admitted Mallory, "it discussed the four principle areas of the September 15th 2009 joint statement, those would be: peace treaty, they would be economic cooperation and development, denuclearization and confidence building measures, that's what happened."

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that Pyongyang will hold a special Workers' Party conference on April 11, just days before the satellite launch. Analysts say the delegates are likely to appoint the country's new leader, Kim Jong Un, to the post of party general-secretary, previously held by his father Kim Jong Il, who died in December.

The North's announcement of the launch plan came just over two weeks after Pyongyang reached a deal with the United States to suspend operations at its Yongbyon uranium enrichment plant and impose a moratorium on long-range missile tests and nuclear tests in return for 240,000 tons of food aid.

Washington said last week it is suspending plans to start food deliveries as it can no longer trust the North to stick to arrangements on monitoring distribution.

Pyongyang criticized the U.S. move Saturday as an "over-reaction" that would kill the February 29 agreement.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/dprk/2012/dprk-120402-voa01.htm

This is the problem with the current approach to the DPRK. Let them test the thing already. There are clearly three potential outcomes.

It'll either 1) fail like the last time, 2) put a satellite in orbit, or 3) represent a clear missile test.

If 1: and move on. If 2: test another AEGIS ASAT round on another old satellite, and move on. If 3: suspend all aid talks and ignore the DPRK ad infinitum, as why the hell should we be feeding someone we're still technically at war with in the first place.

How is this so hard to figure out?

If they're trying a super-secret nuclear warhead toss into Washington (clearly this has to be seen as a definite possibility given the massive overreaction to the DPRK doing something that is, based on past results, likely going to blow up shortly after being lit anyway), well, WTF else are the AEGIS BMD destroyers for? Put them near the capital, and then if the RV noses over towards the area, well, blast the thing out of the sky. But don't touch anything, until I guess Syria or Russia can inspect it and say "yes damn it was radioactive," as we'd never be believed in a billion years. At which point either A) retaliate in kind, or B) refer to response 3 above.

Clearly, I need to be running this damn thing over here.

Plus, the damn Norks got IHS distracted, and they just now approved my article for publication

GarryB wrote:it is up to the US to come up with varifiable evidence that North Korea is not acting in good faith, or they can shut the up.

Hence part of the reasoning behind just waiting the damn thing out and seeing what transpires.

GarryB wrote:Too late though isn't it?

Did you forget which government we're talking about here?

GarryB wrote:I don't follow you?

That's because your sarcasm detector is clearly broken. I was referencing the US government...for whom noticing the sensible solution after the fact seems to be in the rulebook.

Plus, when did Iran invite the IAEA to visit the new enrichment plant? That'd settle this thing in about ten seconds. If they're enriching past 20% or so, they aren't making fuel rods for any LWR they've got or the 1.5 kg/month of 20% HEU they want for the Tehran research reactor.

North Korea launches long-range rocket

North Korea has launched a long-range rocket, according to South Korea and the United States.

The planned launch has been widely condemned by the international community, which has accused North Korea of trying to develop its military technology.

Pyongyang said that the rocket would peacefully advance its space programme.

Reports from US, South Korean and Japanese officials suggest the launch failed shortly after take-off.

"The flying object is believed to have flown for more than one minute and fallen into the ocean. This does not affect our country's territory at all," news agency AFP quoted Japanese Defence Minister Naiki Tanaka as saying.

Japan and South Korea had previously warned that they will shoot the rocket down if it enters their territory.

South Korean Defence Ministry spokesperson Kim Min-seok told reporters that the rocket has been fired at 07:39 local time (22:39 GMT).

There has so far been no word from North Korea about the launch.
Celebratory plan

The UN Security Council has scheduled an emergency session for Friday morning to discuss the launch.

The US and other countries have expressed concerns that this launch is a cover for testing a long-range ballistic missile, which could used to cover nuclear weapons in the future. Under UN resolutions North Korea is banned from carrying out ballistic missile tests.

But there has been no confirmation as yet of whether the rocket was launched successfully. A report on ABC News quoted a US official as saying there was a "larger than expected flare" when the rocket took off and they believe it may have failed.

The three-stage rocket was launched as part of celebrations to honour North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, whose 100th birthday it would have been on Sunday.

The BBC'S correspondent in Seoul Lucy Williamson says this launch would have been planned for some time, most likely during the rule of Kim Jong-il who died late last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17698438


So after all these threats by Japan and U.S , they do nothing...

Can we have the thread renamed to DPR Korea Space and Missiles ????

N.Korea pledges more space launches in defiance of ‘enemy forces’
Published time: May 03, 2015 13:28



North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) provides field guidance at the newly built National Space Development General Satellite Control and Command Centre in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang May 3, 2015. (Reuters / KCNA)

North Korea will launch more satellites into orbit despite international objections, the country’s leader Kim Jong-un said during a visit to a newly-build space command and control center.

"The status of the (North) as a satellite producer-launcher remains unchanged though the hostile forces deny it and its space development can never be abandoned, no matter who may oppose," Kim was quoted as saying by state-run KCNA news agency.

The new, 13,770 square-meter center is reported as having the necessary equipment for real-time space mission control, instruments for space launch monitoring and an electronic data archive, research labs and other facilities.

Kim has stressed that the North will continue its efforts to become "a space power.” He urged to "provide more cutting-edge facilities for the center, build a base in which a satellite test can be done and erect something symbolic of the center."

North Korea has conducted four space launches under its Kwangmyŏngsŏng satellite program. The latest in December 2012 was successful. Pyongyang insists its space program is legal and purely peaceful.

However, launches of ballistic missiles by North Kora are banned by a number of UN Security Council resolutions that were imposed following its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Critics say Pyongyang is merely testing ballistic missiles with a goal to develop ICBM technology as part of its space program.

North Korea previously claimed it has developed long-range ballistic missiles with a range allowing them to target the US mainland with nuclear weapons. Defense experts doubt it, and say DPRK has a long way to go to develop missiles with long enough range, and to miniaturize its nuclear devices enough to fit into a warhead.

I like those neatly put displays at DPR Korea's station. Their 3D simulation of the launch trajectory shown on KCNA was also very good.

Kim Jong Un Keeps New Missile Command Center at Arm’s Length

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150505/1021747931.html#ixzz3ZIBWLxvb

Pyongyang Announces Successful Launch of Ballistic Missile from Submarine

North Korea said that it has successfully carried out an underwater test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

The North Korean state news agency KCNA reported that Pyongyang had successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine; the launch was personally overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, the agency said.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the test that was touted by Kim as a "miraculous achievement" of his country.

He described the missile as "time bomb which will go off on the backs of our hostile enemies at any time," according to the KCNA, which reported that the missile was launched from a submarine far from the mainland.

The state press did not specify when or where the launch was carried out, and also kept mum on the size and range of the missile.

The announcement of the launch came a day after Pyongyang threatened to open fire without warning on any South Korean naval ships entering the countries' disputed Yellow Sea border off the west coast.

The South Korean Ministry of National Defense was quick to pledge that "if the North provokes, the Republic of Korea will react decisively."

Last month, the head of US Northern Command Admiral William Gortney told reporters that North Korea may be capable of putting a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile that could reach the United States.

North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and conducted a series of underground nuclear weapon tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. Pyongyang's nuclear program has triggered multiple protests from the international community.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150509/1021907260.html#ixzz3Ze1kHdor

How come UN placed sanctions on N.Korea missile launches ? Every nation has right to do it . Russia and China didnt intervene ? Japan isnt interested in a unified korea . I guess usa bribe south koreans leaders . Korea will get united the day murikan troops will leave s.korea .

Pics of the Sub that performed the recent SLBM test...looks like it's equipped with a single launcher

N Korea Readies Rocket to Orbit a Satellite in October – Media

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered earlier this year a new aerospace entity to prepare to test-launch what the country calls a rocket carrying a space satellite, Japanese media reported Tuesday.

The planned launch is timed for the 70th anniversary in October of the country’s ruling Korean Workers Party, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported, citing unnamed "sources in a number of governments."

According to Kyodo’s sources, Kim Jong Un ordered the National Aerospace Development Administration to prepare to test-launch a rocket carrying a space probe.

Even though Pyongyang insists that satellite-carrying rockets are purely peaceful, the United States, Japan and South Korea suspect the project will "effectively be a test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile" that the North is allegedly developing, according to the report.

The Defense Ministry in Tokyo believes the rocket’s range could top 10,000 km if it were to be used as a long-range missile.

North Korea launched the rocket from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, in the northwest of the country.

North Korea later announced it successfully test-fired a ballistic missile from a submerged submarine, fueling speculation that Pyongyang is trying to increase a variety of ballistic missiles, Kyodo reported.

Pyongyang is also believed to be developing the Hwasong-13 rocket, which people in the Western intelligence community suspect is a mobile ICBM called KN-08.

The Kyodo report originated in Washington, adding fuel to speculation in the US, Japan and South Korea about Pyongyang deploying a new class of ballistic missiles.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150519/1022301991.html#ixzz3aaENtaQ0

flamming_python wrote:Looks like NK's sub-building industry is roughly where the USSRs was in the late 50s; this sub bears a resemblance to the Foxtrot class launched in 1957; while the first Soviet SSBNs were introduced in 1959 (Hotel class).

That's because it probably is a clone of the Foxtrot...

I think the NK has proven it knows how to use subs pretty well...ROKS Cheonan sinking

On the night of the sinking the U.S. and South Korea navies were engaged in joint anti-submarine warfare exercises 75 miles away from the site of the sinking. This exercise was part of the annual Key Resolve/Foal Eagle war exercise, described as "one of the world's largest simulated exercises", and involved many modern U.S. and South Korean warships

North Korea Reportedly Builds Long-Range Missile Pad

North Korea has erected a launch pad capable of firing long-range missiles larger than those of the past, South Korean media reported on Wednesday.

Pyongyang began work in late 2013 to extend its 50-meter-tall launch pad in Dongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, near the border with China.

It appears to have nearly finished the work to make the launch pad 67 meters tall, a government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Yonhap news agency.

"We believe that the North will use the extended launch site in Dongchang-ri to fire a long-range missile longer than the Unha-3," the source said. "We think (the North) will carry out a provocation around the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers' Party on October 10," he said.

Military and intelligence officials believe the new launch pad is now capable of firing long-range missiles twice the size of the 30-meter-long Unha-3, which was used to put a satellite into orbit in December 2012.

North Korea is banned under UN Security Council resolutions from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology, the Yonhap report said.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150722/1024908478.html#ixzz3gbtmtyT4