In other news...

[sarisataka]

North Korea is expected to launch an ICBM at full range on Saturday — here's how it could go down

On Saturday, North Koreans will celebrate the anniversary of their country's founding, and experts think the country may mark the holiday with a full-range test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korean media earlier this week reported that a North Korean ICBM appeared to be on the move, and CNN cited the South Korean prime minister on Thursday as saying that "some believe" a launch Saturday was possible.

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Possible trajectories may send the missile south toward the pole or into the Pacific south of the US. Even unarmed, the missile's reentry vehicle would pose a huge threat to maritime life and traffic as it blazes through the atmosphere at many times the speed of sound.

But there's no guarantee the launch would be unarmed. In 1966, as the US and the outside world doubted China could build a functional nuclear-armed ICBM without outside help, Beijing launched a missile at full range with a nuclear payload.

http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-expected-icbm-launch-full-range-september-9-2017-9

The Day of the Foundation of the Republic could be a real blast this year

[longship]

1. The question is: How credible are DPRK's claims?

I say that Kim Jong Un is lying through his false teeth.

He's only made six nuclear tests, only two of which were credibly successful. The last one was on the high end of yields, but that just means it was big, probably not able to be weaponized and deliverable by an ICBM, especially not DPRK's ICBMs, which have a rather poor record of getting to suborbital trajectories. One of their latest missile tests didn't.

Don't listen to the media screeching. The DPRK does not have a workable nuclear weapon deliverable by their so-called ICBMs. They don't even have an intercontinental missile, let alone a weaponized nuclear weapon. It's utterly laughable that they have a fusion bomb (H bomb).

[sarisataka]

2. Were I in the intelligence community

I would not mind them attempting a whole range ICBM test. It would be nice for them to openly reveal their capability

It would also help identify if these are truly home built devices or reverse-engineered / donated