[North Korea] The Dear Loser comes into his own.

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Max Peck
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

Norks test-fire ballistic missile
North Korea has test-fired a ballistic missile, the South Korean military has told Yonhap news agency.

It was not immediately clear how far the missile had travelled.

It was fired from a site in South Pyeongan province north of Pyongyang in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, South Korea's military chiefs of staff said.

They said the type of missile was not yet known.

There has been no word from North Korea.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Rip »

Max Peck wrote:Norks test-fire ballistic missile
North Korea has test-fired a ballistic missile, the South Korean military has told Yonhap news agency.

It was not immediately clear how far the missile had travelled.

It was fired from a site in South Pyeongan province north of Pyongyang in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, South Korea's military chiefs of staff said.

They said the type of missile was not yet known.

There has been no word from North Korea.
Your move, 'murica... :coffee:
No move required when the opponent trips and falls on their face.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/north-ko ... eport.html
Yonhap reported that the test appears to have failed.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

Much like American/German/Russian/whoever rocketry pioneers, the Norks show every sign of learning from their failures. One of the indications that Kim isn't as irrational as some would have it is that he doesn't do things like liquidate his technical people when something goes wrong, he just puts them back to work. It's a lot more dangerous to be related to Kim than it is to be one of his engineers.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Moliere »

Enlarge Image

A good book for anyone interested in what it's like being born in a N.K. labor camp.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Holman »

Hopefully this test failure won't embolden South Korea to resist President Trump's shakedown. The gravy train won't last forever.

I'm not worried, though, because I hear Tillerson's deputies in State have been assigned to handle to crisis.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

Holman wrote:I'm not worried, though, because I hear Tillerson's deputies in State have been assigned to handle to crisis.
What you did. It's there, and I see it.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

According to Leaky McLeakface, this was the 3rd test launch of the new NK-17 medium range missile, one of the interesting new designs that was spotted in the big anniversary parade a couple of weeks ago.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile flew for several minutes and reached a maximum height of 71 kilometers (44 miles) before it apparently failed. It said the missile was fired from an area near Pukchang, just north of the capital Pyongyang.

It didn't immediately provide an estimate on how far the missile flew, but a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said it was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile. It broke up a couple minutes after the launch, and the pieces fell into the Sea of Japan.

Analysts say the KN-17 is a new Scud-type missile developed by North Korea. The North also test-fired the missile earlier this month; U.S. officials called that launch a failure.
The KN-17, is believed to be a single-stage, short to medium-range, liquid fueled Scud or No Dong variant, with potential antiship applications. U.S. officials first noted its existence on April 17, 2017.

[...]

It is widely speculated that the KN-17 was first displayed at North Korea’s annual military parade in Pyongyang on April 16, 2017, where a Scud or No Dong variant was seen carried on a tracked transporter erector launcher.

The first test of the KN-17 likely occurred on April 5, 2017, when the missile was launched from Sinpo in the South Hamgyong province of North Korea. According to U.S. Pacific Command, the missile flew a distance of 60 km and reached a height of 189 km before starting to “pinwheel,” landing into the Sea of Japan after 9 minutes of flight time. Reports suggest that the missile “pinwheeled” out of control and was considered a failure by US and South Korean officials.

The second suspected launch of the KN-17 occurred on April 16, 2017 from the same base in Sinpo and was also considered to be a failure, blowing up just seconds after launch.

The missile features distinctive forward fins, presumably to add a terminal guidance capability for increased maneuverability and accuracy. According news reports, U.S. officials believe that this maneuverability could give KN-17 an antiship capability. Given North Korea’s current lack of longer range surveillance and target acquisition capabilities of moving targets, however, it would likely struggle to carry out such an attack successfully.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

And the Commander-in-Chief takes note: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 8253669376

For a 70-year-old dude, Trump shows great skill at transparently fellating via Twitter. He's actually deferring to China instead of staking out a leadership position.

I wonder if Vlad is jealous that his boy is so into Xi?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Blackhawk »

"North Korea is being disrespectful. Bad!"

Uh-oh! Kim's in trouble! It sounds like Uncle Trumpy is going to send him to bed without his supper.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Quipp »

You know you are witnessing some real high quality diplomacy when your President uses Twitter to scold a psychotic dictator with a nuclear arsenal like he is a dog that just pissed on the rug. Can some of the grown-ups in the White House please shut little Donnie up before he breaks the world?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Kraken »

Max Peck wrote:
Holman wrote:I'm not worried, though, because I hear Tillerson's deputies in State have been assigned to handle to crisis.
What you did. It's there, and I see it.
Yeah, I almost got up on my high linkhorse until I realized we were being played.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Freyland »

"...where a Scud or No Dong variant was seen carried on a tracked transporter erector launcher."

Juvenile, I know, but amused me nonetheless.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

Kim Jong-un respectly reminds you that you haven't spoken of him for several days.
South Korea says rival North Korea has launched a projectile believed to be a ballistic missile. It comes days after the election of a new South Korean president.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff had few other details, including whether the launch was successful or what kind of projectile was fired Sunday.

It's the latest in a series of tests by Pyongyang as it pursues a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the U.S. mainland. The Trump administration has called the tests unacceptable and has swung between threats of military action and offers to talk.

The launch also comes as troops from the U.S., Japan and two European nations gather on remote U.S. islands in the Pacific for drills that are partly a message to North Korea.
North Korea launches a missile that flies 450 miles
North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Sunday, sending it from a launch site near its border with China some 450 miles into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The launch is the first since Moon Jae-in, a liberal who is promoting engagement with North Korea, took office as South Korea’s new president Wednesday. Moon immediately convened an emergency meeting of his national security council to discuss the launch.

“North Korea fired an unidentified missile at around 5:27 a.m. today from an area in the vicinity of Kusong, North Pyongan Province,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, according to Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea has been testing missiles at a rapid rate over the past year, apparently working toward leader Kim Jong Un’s ambition to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

The most recent two launches, both last month, were deemed to have failed as they exploded within seconds.

However, Sunday’s missile appears to have been successful.
In a statement late Saturday, the White House said, “North Korea has been a flagrant menace for far too long...Let this latest provocation serve as a call for all nations to implement far stronger sanctions against North Korea.”

The statement also noted the missile’s proximity to Russia: “With the missile impacting so close to Russian soil – in fact, closer to Russia than to Japan – the President cannot imagine that Russia is pleased.”
Did Trump just passive-aggressively tattle on Kim to Putin?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

North Korea’s Latest Missile Test: Advancing towards an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) While Avoiding US Military Action
North Korea’s latest successful missile test represents a level of performance never before seen from a North Korean missile. The missile would have flown a distant of some 45oo kilometers if launched on a maximum trajectory. It appears to have not only demonstrated an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that might enable them to reliably strike the US base at Guam, but more importantly, may represent a substantial advance to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Given speculation over the past months about the possibility of military action by the Trump administration to prevent Pyongyang from acquiring such a weapons, the possible testing of ICBM subsystems in this low-key manner may be a North Korean hedge against the possibility of such action.

We are still awaiting more details on this test, and if the North Koreans follow their usual practice we can expect photographs soon. But unless Pyongyang is hiding something completely new, there’s only one real candidate for this missile. During last month’s parade, one genuinely new missile was revealed – one that looks very much like a small, two-stage version of their three-stage KN-08 ICBM prototype, on displayed on a mobile launcher previously used for the “Musudan” intermediate-range ballistic missile. We don’t have a name for this missile yet; the “KN-17” designation has been used for both this system and for a Scud-derived short-range ballistic missile with a maneuvering reentry vehicle displayed in the same parade. But whatever the name, it would be expected to have about the same performance as the missile just launched.

While the April 15 parade may be the first time this missile was seen, and yesterday’s test may be its first successful flight, there have been earlier indications that such a missile was under development. In January this year, intelligence sources reported that North Korea had deployed two prototype ICBMs at a test site, just under 15 meters long. All of North Korea’s ICBM prototypes and mock-ups are well over that size, which left us puzzled. But this new missile comes in at just under 15 meters, and while its performance doesn’t quite reach ICBM standards it clearly shares a common heritage with the KN-08 ICBM. Quite likely this was the missile that was reported in January.

It may have been tested on other occasions. Two failed missile tests from Kusong in October were presumed to be Musudans, but there was no solid evidence to confirm that – and the Musudan had recently been tested successfully, so it would be somewhat surprising for it to fail twice in a row. It wouldn’t be at all surprising for a new missile to fail twice, and if the missile were launched from a Musudan TEL, it might well be mistaken for a Musudan. Another failed test, on April 16, was initially ascribed to a new maneuvering reentry vehicle system, but may have been this missile instead – both were initially displayed in the parade the previous day, and a successful test of either one would neatly highlight the propaganda event.

While this missile appears to share a common heritage with the KN-08 ICBM, it isn’t simply a KN-08 with the third stage removed. The first two stages also appear to be reduced in scale. Unfortunately, we have little detail about the missile’s design. We do not, for example, know if it uses the same twin-engine propulsion system as the first stage of the KN-08. But the more important question is, what is the new missile for?

One possibility is that it is meant to replace the Musudan IRBM which. represents an attempt to stretch a Cold War vintage Russian missile to reach the US base at Guam, some 3500 km from North Korean launch sites. But the Musudan has proven unreliable in testing, with only one success in at least six attempts, and its performance is marginal for reaching Guam. The Musudan may have been the best North Korea could manage ten years ago, but that level of performance really calls for a two-stage missile. Now, it appears that they have one. But existing North Korean missiles are already capable of reaching targets anywhere in South Korea or Japan, and extending that reach to perhaps 4500 kilometers won’t greatly change the strategic balance – aside from Guam, there aren’t really any interesting targets in that range..

What would change the strategic balance is an ICBM capable of reaching the US mainland. This is not that missile but it might be a testbed, demonstrating technologies and systems to be used in future ICBMs like the KN-08 and KN-14. A full three-stage KN-08 would be very unlikely to work the first time it was tested, and the failure would be both expensive and very provocative. This missile would allow North Korea to conduct at least some of the testing necessary to develop an operational ICBM, without actually launching ICBMs, particularly if it includes the same rocket engines.

If North Korea has already conducted a successful test using the engines and other components of the first two stages of the KN-08, it may be closer to an operational ICBM than had been previously estimated. US cities will not be at risk tomorrow, or any time this year. since some tests have to be done with the full-scale system. With only one test of this reduced-scale system Pyongyang is probably some time from even beginning that process. But given this test and the possible North Korean path forward, a closer look will be needed to see how much progress has been made, and what technologies the North may have demonstrated, as will a reassessment of their ICBM program in that new light.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

Another week, another missile test. This one appears to be the solid-fuel KN-15 (Pukkuksong-2).

North Korea fires midrange missile in its latest test
North Korea fired a medium-range missile on Sunday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, the latest ballistics test by a country speeding up its development of nuclear weapons and missiles.

The rocket was fired from an area near the North Korean county of Pukchang, in South Phyongan Province, and flew eastward about 500 kilometers (310 miles), said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.S. Pacific Command said it tracked the missile before it landed in the sea.

White House officials traveling in Saudi Arabia with President Donald Trump said the system that was tested, which was last launched in February, had a shorter range than the missiles fired in North Korea's most recent tests.

An official from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff also said the missile appeared to be similar in range and apogee to the midrange missile that North Korea test-fired in February. The missile launched on Sunday reached a maximum altitude of 560 kilometers (347 miles), said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules.

In February, North Korea used a launcher truck to fire a solid-fuel missile that it calls the Pukguksong (Polaris)-2, a land-based version of a submarine-launched missile the country revealed earlier. That missile traveled about 500 kilometers before crashing into the sea, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.

The February launch, the North's first missile test after Trump took office, alarmed neighbors because solid-fuel missiles can be fired more quickly than liquid-fuel missiles, which need to be fueled before launch and require a larger number of vehicles, including fuel trucks, that could be spotted by satellites.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Grifman »

Trump is moving an unprecedented third carrier battle group to waters around the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, the North Koreans are visibly preparing for another nuclear test at their test site. If they explode another nuke, will Trump in a sense, be forced to put up or shut up?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

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With the quality of their hardware, maybe Trump figures that if he dumps enough ships into the area, they'll eventually hit one by accident and give him his excuse.

It's like a giant game of Battleship.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Paingod »

Blackhawk wrote:It's like a giant game of Battleship.
Even when they kill South Koreans, people just turn a cheek and wait for it to end.

Trump's not that smart, though, and likely is itching to see what "US MIGHT" looks like. I shudder to think what he'd be like as a war leader.
Trump's Twitter wrote:Our great forces are moving into Ponyan tomorrow. Kim's troops are so weak. Sad!
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Scraper »

Has anyone else noticed that Faux News is beating the war drum on North Korea pretty hard? It has dominated their website since Trump took office. Every tiny provocation by the chubby little dictator is front page news and is usually accompanied by some opinion piece about how real of a threat the North is.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

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Wag the FOX?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Moliere »

Enlarge Image
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Ralph-Wiggum »

I can't really tell what I'm looking at there. Earring holes? Pimples? Vampire bite marks?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:I can't really tell what I'm looking at there. Earring holes? Pimples? Vampire bite marks?
Cancerous moles?
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Kraken »

Scraper wrote:Has anyone else noticed that Faux News is beating the war drum on North Korea pretty hard? It has dominated their website since Trump took office. Every tiny provocation by the chubby little dictator is front page news and is usually accompanied by some opinion piece about how real of a threat the North is.
If Trump had been waiting for a pretext to attack, or even to escalate the threat, Warmbier would have been it. (Warm beer joke redacted.)
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

The Norks celebrate the Fourth of July.
North Korea on Tuesday claimed it successfully test-launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile, a potential game-changing development in what may be the world's most dangerous nuclear standoff and, if true, a direct rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump's earlier declaration that such a test "won't happen!"

The launch appeared to be North Korea's most successful missile test yet. A U.S. scientist examining the height and distance said the missile could potentially be powerful enough to reach Alaska.

In typically heated rhetoric, North Korea's Academy of Defense Science said the test of an ICBM - the Hwasong-14 - marked the "final step" in creating a "confident and powerful nuclear state that can strike anywhere on Earth."

It will be difficult to confirm many details about what happened. North Korea's weapons program is perhaps the most closely held state secret in one of the world's most suspicious nations. U.S., South Korean and Japanese officials earlier assessed that the North fired an intermediate-range missile into waters near Japan.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Isgrimnur »

I love how they don't have that capability yet, but tout their space program successes.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Smoove_B »

Always funny, but the NYT, really?
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article attributed incorrectly a Twitter statement to the North Korean government. The North Korean government did not belittle a joint American-South Korean military exercise as “demonstrating near total ignorance of ballistic science,” that statement was from the DPRK News Service, a parody Twitter account.
From the article:
The account has been run for years by two anonymous authors associated with attorney Ken White, known online as Popehat. Gizmodo even reported on it being fake in January of 2015 in a post that got this blogger blocked from following the account.

But this is far from the first time that some respectable news outlets have been taken in. Newsweek, the Washington Post, Reuters, HuffPost, the Verge, and Buzzfeed have all been tricked by the account.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Holman »

DPRK News Service has a top-tier Twitter game, but I hope they've taken steps to inform the current administration that they're not the real thing.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by PLW »

lol @ "Associated with Ken White"
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

North Korea may have more bomb fuel than thought - U.S. think tank
Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear site show Pyongyang may have reprocessed more plutonium than previously thought that can be used to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.

The analysis by 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project, was based on satellite images of the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon nuclear plant from September until the end of June, amid rising international concerns over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

The think tank said images of the uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon could also indicate operation of centrifuges that could be used to increase North Korea’s stock of enriched uranium, its other source of bomb fuel.

There were signs too of at least short-term activity at North Korea’s Experimental Light Water Reactor that could be cause for concern, 38 North said.
The images of the radiochemical laboratory showed there had been at least two reprocessing cycles not previously known aimed at producing "an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Korea’s nuclear weapons stockpile," something that would worry U.S. officials who see Pyongyang as one of the world's top security threats.

It was unclear if the thermal activity detected at the uranium plant was the result of centrifuge operations or maintenance.

It said the thermal patterns at the plant's isotope/tritium production facility suggested it was not operational and was therefore not producing tritium, an essential isotope used in boosted yield and hydrogen weapons.
Experts at 38 North estimated in April that North Korea could have as many as 20 nuclear bombs and could produce one more each month.

A report by U.S.-based nuclear expert Siegfried Hecker published by 38 North last September estimated North Korea had stockpiles of 32 to 54 kg (70 to 119 pounds) of plutonium, enough for six to eight bombs.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Isgrimnur »

The Daily Beast coverage of our favorite Twitter account.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

North Korea could cross ICBM threshold next year, U.S. officials warn in new assessment
North Korea will be able to field a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year, U.S. officials have concluded in a confidential assessment that dramatically shrinks the timeline for when Pyongyang could strike North American cities with atomic weapons.

The new assessment by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which shaves a full two years off the consensus forecast for North Korea’s ICBM program, was prompted by recent missile tests showing surprising technical advances by the country’s weapons scientists, at a pace beyond which many analysts believed was possible for the isolated communist regime.

The U.S. projection closely mirrors revised predictions by South Korean intelligence officials, who also have watched with growing alarm as North Korea has appeared to master key technologies needed to loft a warhead toward targets thousands of miles away.

The finding further increases the pressure on U.S. and Asian leaders to halt North Korea’s progress before it can threaten the world with nuclear-tipped missiles. President Trump, during his visit to Poland earlier this month, vowed to confront Pyongyang “very strongly” to stop its missile advances.
It's a good thing that the Trump administration has a laser-sharp focus on keeping his promise that this will never happen.
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stessier
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by stessier »

Fired off another missile today.

Current reports are it flew for about 45 minutes and landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Zarathud »

Number of North Korean missile tests
14 during 2017
12 during 8 years of Obama's Presidency

Not winning.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by em2nought »

Zarathud wrote:Number of North Korean missile tests
14 during 2017
12 during 8 years of Obama's Presidency

winning
Fixed that for you. :wink:
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Zarathud
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Zarathud »

My grandfather fought in the Korean War, jackass. You think it's funny, but inviting an attack on American soul is asinine.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by tjg_marantz »

Don't engage.

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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Rip »

Zarathud wrote:My grandfather fought in the Korean War, jackass. You think it's funny, but inviting an attack on American soul is asinine.
Unless it is Trump of course.
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by em2nought »

Zarathud wrote:My grandfather fought in the Korean War, jackass. You think it's funny, but inviting an attack on American soul is asinine.
So you don't favor CalExit then? :mrgreen:
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Max Peck
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Re: The Dear Loser comes into his own. (North Korea)

Post by Max Peck »

And we're back to Twitter diplomacy, wherein it's all China's fault again.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 4132795392 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/sta ... 6294494209
I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet...
...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!
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