North Korea apparently suffers missile launch failure on founder’s birthday

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: Japan Times

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said the U.S. Strategic Command systems have detected and tracked what officials assessed as a failed North Korean missile launch.

“We strongly condemn North Korea’s missile test in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions, which explicitly prohibit North Korea’s use of ballistic missile technology,” the official said. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said the missile launched from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America. The South’s Defense Ministry said it wasn’t immediately known whether the missile fired Friday morning was a short-range or midrange missile. <snip>

Friday is the birthday anniversary of the late Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather and the nation’s founder. North Korea has occasionally used such celebrations to stage nuclear or missile tests that outsiders consider provocations.

Read more: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/15/asia-pacific/north-korea-suffers-missile-launch-failure-founders-birthday-seoul/#.VxDHmXChQgI

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Now that's embarrassing...

[Orrex]

1. Well, this happens to a lot of men as they get older

Don't feel bad, Kim Jong-Un!

[LiberalElite]

6. launchus interruptus?

[Helen Borg]

2. Somebody's head is going to get chopped today in North Korea.

[iandhr]

3. I imagine people who get promotions in NK kind of feel like this.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. "That's what you said the last time"

When it comes to little Kimmy, the Chad Vader version might be more apropos (good series, by the way)

[Divernan]

5. You jest, but seriously there will be multiple executions

and three generations of relatives of those executed will be put into the mass slave labor camps in North Korea, where they will be systematically starved and worked to death. People are executed for uttering a single criticism of any of the Kims. This level of failure and international humiliation will require multiple people be held responsible for embarrassing Kim Jong Un. That country is an unbelievable nightmare. North Korea was a topic last year for a book review/study group to which I belong - and it was beyond chilling and horrifying - truly a descent into madness there.

[secondwind]

8. I agree... :-(

[gordianot]

4. It is always not a threat to someone due to failure of technology.

North Korea is allowed by its only ally China to exist in a state of perpetual threat. Granted this is mostly bluster but the day is coming when the technology works and that excuse does not work. When it is too late expect big regrets by those who let this happen for political advantage.

[secondwind]

7. I wonder how many heads will roll over this...

[Nitram]

9. Good news. NK is the last country we want with a reliable missile program.

[cynzke]

10. HEADS WILL ROLL!

[Adrahil]

11. Well, that's a couple of dead engineers.

I have no doubt that the nut will execute a couple engineers to make his point.

[dembotoz]

12. wonder if bain capital is looking at it as an opportunity

just reroute a plane full of H1B visas who think they are going to work at disney and instead work for kim joke uuuuck

fine print in the contract

[sofa king]

13. I wonder, did it fail, or was it made to fail?

For fifty years now there has been a rumor that the United States built a fatal flaw into its ICBM guidance system chips, then let the Soviets steal it.

Since the Soviets didn't fully understand how the system worked, but needed a guidance system right away, they copied the deadly flaw and put it in their own ICBMs, which gave the US the option to terminate any Soviet launch we didn't like.

North Korea's program is a similar one, based upon theft of intellectual property and reverse engineering, only now one is dealing with billions of traces on a chip instead of thousands, all the easier to hide a fatal flaw.

The rumor has made it into numerous thriller books (a recent example is Breakpoint, by Jon Harris), which suggests there may be a grain of truth to it.

[JesterCS]

14. Premature detonation

Love Ahkmed the Dead Terrorist ( easy guys, it's Jeff Dunhams character )

[FLPanhandle]

16. I'd laugh more but people might be killed for this

Nasty place to live