A North Korean spy satellite crashed some time ago. Kim Jong Un has apparently executed some engineers with an anti aircraft gun so that the next guys will build one that works. It seems to be a status point to have working spy satellites. I thought most countries kept that sort of thing secret, calling it a “People’s Peaceful Weather Observation Satellite” or something like that.
Where did you see this? Your own citation says something completely different.
North Korea monitoring groups haven’t reported any purges or dismissals of scientists or others involved in the failed launch
I was being facetious, remembering his killing some political opponents with an AA gun.
Ah, sorry, I’m afraid the joke went as well as a North Korean orbital launch.
I will tell another joke, and it will be the very best.
No need to fear, we don’t have anti-aircraft cannons here.
How about naval guns?
I actually don’t know (of my own knowledge) what the mods keep in their armory, but I certainly don’t. Even a smallish 3" gun takes too much room for my already junk-choked garage.
Well, they have a navy. Perhaps a 16" gun is too quick for Un. He can watch longer with an AA gun.
My suspicion is that North Korea wants the rest of the world to know that they have things like spy satellites, as it helps to burnish their image as an actual power in the world, and that they as a country, and Kim Jong Un, as a leader, are worthy of respect.
I agree, but it points out that Un is playing single dimension checkers or something equally…Un, for lack of a better term.
I’m thinking if an Evil Overlord wanted to execute a failed Henchman in spectacular fashion, he (why are they always “he”?) would use his naval gun as more of a navel gun.
As in stand right here in front of this waist-high tube and salute the Emperor, you who are about to die. BOOOM!!!
I was thinking out of a naval gun.
Ah, a variation upon the classics.
Which was more or less what Emperor Lil Kim was rumored to have done with that failed henchman a few years ago. IIRC the rumors were later found to be unsubstantiated, but nevertheless, bungling henchmen have a poor life expectancy in NK.
I particularly liked the report of bystanders being injured when grapeshot instead of a blank cartridge was used, and of soldiers being injuring by pieces of flesh and bone. Humans: what a species.
They would be Indian troops and not British, would they not?
From the Wikipedia article:
Not only sepoys were executed by being blown from a gun. In 1798, mutiny broke out among the British soldiers in the 1st Battalion of the Madras Foot Artillery. One British soldier was condemned to be blown from a gun.[38] This, however, seems to have been exceptional, and one historian says that the soldier Forster is the only European on record to have been blown from a gun by the British.[39]
So, not many.
Point of order; Korean names put the family name first. “Kim” is his family name and “Jong-Un” is his personal name. Calling him “Un” is like referring to our current president as “Seph”.
Eh, if he really wants attention he should send up a few balloons…