But sometimes I hit the Pacific Ocean…
It seems our favorite dictator’s new missile didn’t quite work out as well as planned:
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command officials acknowledged today that North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 missile at 10:30 p.m. EDT Saturday which passed over the Sea of Japan/East Sea and the nation of Japan.
Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean.
No object entered orbit and no debris fell on Japan.
The North Koreans, for their part, insist that
state media in North Korea said that the “Kwangmyongsong-2″ satellite had been placed in orbit.
The satellite was transmitting data and the “Song of General Kim Il-sung” and “Song of General Kim Jong-il” – references to the late founder of North Korea and his son, the current leader – the report said.
Now Kim will have to listen to his boy bands on BitTorrent like everyone else. Pity.
I have to admit some level of shock that Kim would allow himself to have a failed missile test. Talk about showing your hole card. Not only does he lose some ability to threaten the US, he has to lose tremendous face with his own generals, who have to wonder whether they are backing the right horse. They had all the time in the world to get it right…
If I were the US, I would start some leaks in South Korean newspapers that the reason the test failed was that the CIA had penetrated the North Korean missile program and sabotaged the missile plans. Let Kim run through his scientists trying to find the defector. He has limited design resources – he cannot exactly create his own rocketry experts on a childhood diet of gruel and beatings – and the threat of a fifth column would have to be taken exceptionally seriously. Get in his dome.
