North Korea Mega Thread

[Crumpets]

Am I the only one that is wondering how North Korea's nuclear program has seemingly advanced by 5 years in the past 2 months?

North Korea's nuclear program has been pretty stagnant for years - run of the mill, low-yield uranium bombs. What's changed in the last few months is their missile program. If I had to guess, I'd say we probably had a covert program to sabotage their missiles under Obama, which Trump then inherited and modified in some way - either as part of some 4-D chess strategy to make them think they're making progress when they're not, or as part of some non-strategy to undo everything Obama did.

[Crumpets]

What rotten luck for Trump. He could have spent all day parading around how he got North Korea to back down, and some jerk had to go spout off false equivalencies between neo-Nazis and anti-Nazi Americans and steal the news cycle out from under him!

[Crumpets]

[Crumpets]

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This last test was with an IRBM not an ICBM and likely with a lofted trajectory. Memes like this are dumb and underestimate NK capabilities. The actual ranges are below:

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In 33 years of North Korea's nuclear missile program, the farthest launch they have achieved is 3,700 km, with a theoretical maximum range of ~7,500 km. I could post a map of all of the world with the caption "super duper super weapon mega-scary range (estimated, not successfully tested)," and it would be equally useful to formulating a policy towards North Korea as either the map you posted or the meme I posted.

As it currently stands, South Korea has not changed its defensive posture re: North Korea, neither has Russia or China. Memes like mine are dumb, but maps like yours are blatant scaremongering, trying to get Americans enthusiastic for another unnecessary war.

Take for example:


Now, do you expect this was published to A) prepare missile defenses, and educate people of the proper terminology of which missiles would likely hit which targets or B) AAAHHHHH scary map with places I've heard of on it! We need to do take care of evil mustache dude before those circles reach places I care about!

[Crumpets]

Let's be clear, though - the circular error probable of these missiles is almost certainly god-awful, and North Korea isn't going to risk certain anihilation launching a missile at New York if there's a 50/50 shot it might land in the Atlantic or in the Adirondacks.

[Crumpets]

Let's be clear, though - the circular error probable of these missiles is almost certainly god-awful, and North Korea isn't going to risk certain anihilation launching a missile at New York if there's a 50/50 shot it might land in the Atlantic or in the Adirondacks.

They would if they were attacked or thought they had enough to blackmail themselves back open.

That's true.