North Korean missile found in Alaska?

[Ein]

Is this true?

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200303/kt2003030417272311970.htm

The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday.

I hadn't heard of this....

[Maple]

1. I remember them finding

what they thought were the remains of one some time ago, but nothing more was said about it.

[Ein]

2. That is truely scary, is it not?

It is dated March 4th, 2k3.

*shivers*

[tsipple]

3. Never Confirmed by Any Reputable Media Outlet

Might have been a bad translation, in fact. The story was apparently simply that North Korean missiles may have enough range to reach Alaska.

[Newsjock]

4. Here's the nugget of truth behind this

Old story: Published March 5
http://www.adn.com/front/story/2719687p-2767626c.html

Newspaper says N. Korean missile pieces found in Alaska
Officials puzzled, say closest one splashed down hundreds of miles off coast

By Tom Kizzia
Anchorage Daily News

An unsubstantiated report from South Korea on Tuesday, claiming fragments of a North Korea missile warhead had been found in Alaska, left state, federal and military officials here puzzled.

... Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Tuesday he's never heard of such a thing. Neither had Chris Nelson, the state's missile defense coordinator.

Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said the report probably referred to a three-stage missile tested by North Korea in 1998.

"It splashed in the water hundreds of miles from Alaska," Lehner said. "I've never heard of any piece of a missile landing in Alaska from that test or any other test."

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[Ein]

5. Bush cut the food aid to NK in 2k1, right?

Do you think that 3 stage missile system, after another 2 years of development (taking for granted that they stopped thier programs like the promised under the Clinton/UN food aid deal), could deliver a warhead to our soil?

That is what I am really concerned about.

[Maple]

6. A couple of years ago

it made the headlines in Canada that some brass from the Pentagon were warning us to join their Sky Wars plan...because North Korea could take Montreal out any day now.

Now...if they can reach Montreal...they could certainly reach LA, San Franciso or Seattle...so why they'd be after us I don't know. We all scratched our heads at the time, and muttered 'Muricans'

However, it may well be that they have the range, or are getting there anyway.

[bpilgrim]

7. i guess they really do need that missle shield?

:scared:

peace

[NNN0LHI]

8. Does N. Korea stamp their missiles Made In North Korea or something?

I wonder?

Don

[Ein]

9. No clue.

But I remember when that truck bomb blew the UN meeting to shreds, it was said Soviet munitions were used.

[Maple]

10. Well it wouldn't have

Made in the USA stamped on it for one thing...it would say Korea...in Korean.

And we know by the kind of equipment and rockets used where it came from.

[Ein]

11. Kind of what I figured.

We can tell where certain materials come from by testing, I assume. Or we can tell just based on how the missile is built, I would also assume.

All of this freaks me out. Even if Bush hadn't cut the food aid, the whole situation seemed like a temporary solution.

I don't know why Kim Jong Il even exists, anymore.

[wuushew]

12. a niffty map from a congressional report

http://russia.shaps.hawaii.edu/security/nkag/report.html

[Maple]

13. Yeah, and we know

they can go over Japan because they've done so.

If this is true, they can reach Alaska.

But they'd be a loooooooooong way off course to hit Montreal.

[Andy_Stephenson]

14. Ok now that freaks me out...

Seattle, Las Vegas and Chicago all look within range of Korea.

[wuushew]

15. The only thing for real is Taepo-Dong 1 with two stages

their attempt at three stage was a failure.

Remember this is from the same intelligence community that said Saddam was a threat.

[Andy_Stephenson]

16. Ummmm

seems to me korea is the source though. No...North Korea has me worried. Big time worried...far more than Iraq worried me.

[NNN0LHI]

17. Put a 1000 pound warhead on any of those missiles and they won't...

...even come close to any part of our country.

Don

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/missile_defense/page.cfm?pageID=603

<snip>The only test of a longer range missile occurred in August 1998, when the three-stage TD-1 missile was launched in an attempt to place a small satellite in orbit. This effort was not successful due to a failure of the missile’s third stage. The test did demonstrate for the first time North Korea’s technical capability to launch missiles with multiple stages, as well as its access to solid fuel technology, which was used in the third stage. However, the missile cannot be considered operational without further testing.

Even if the TD-1 were successfully tested in the future, it would have limited capability and could at best deliver a small payload as far as Alaska or Hawaii. As noted in the September 1999 National Intelligence Estimate, if North Korea decided to develop an intercontinental range missile it would likely try to develop the Taeop Dong 2 (TD-2), which could carry larger payloads, rather than the TD-1.

The TD-2 has never been flight tested, although US National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) have stated since 1998 that it was believed ready for flight testing. Even if true, this does not mean that North Korea could quickly turn it into an operational missile once it decided to begin flight testing.

The TD-2 is significantly different than any missile North Korea has built or tested. It would be significantly larger than the TD-1, with a maximum diameter nearly twice that of the TD-1. It would be three times as massive as the TD-1 and would generate greater thrust, so that the mechanical stresses on the body would be more severe than on previous missiles. Moreover, North Korea is expected for the first time to use a cluster of four engines in the large first-stage booster of the TD-2, which increases the complexity of the missile. Most discussions of the TD-2 assume that it will include a third stage, which is required for the ranges usually attributed to it, but North Korea has not successfully launched such a stage.

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