Now that’s metal.
Until relatively recently, China’s subs could be heard because of the propeller noise. Then somebody gave them the technology to make a quiet prop.
I suspect nobody has given that technology to NK.
And, since when does the US need a reason to start a war? We are well known for it. We have a reputation to maintain.
AIUI, there is actually a physical pipe running from China to NK used to supply fuels. It has been shut down at least once “for repairs” - that was many years ago.
Kim is not the intended ruler - his older brother was supposed to get the job, but was caught (can’t make this stuff up) trying to get into Disney Japan on a forged 3rd world passport.
This may explain why China is putting up with his incredible arrogance - he has yet to go to Beijing and pay his respects - which should have been his first order of business.
Instead, it was announced that he would go to Moscow for the WWII commemoration.
If this Defense Cheif was one of his own appointments, this is meaningless - the story here would be “what happened to his predecessor”? I suspect the one Kim inherited was killed to make way for this lackey.
The uncle the kid snuffed? He was set up by Daddy to look after Junior while he learned on the job.
What DID happen to Albania? There was the second-to-last Stalinist state.
So now North Korea says it can miniaturize nuclear weapons for placement on the tips of ballistic missiles. And some US military authorities seem to agree despite official skepticism.
I saw a pic on 38North re subs and missiles - it seems there is a strange-looking barge near the sub base with a hatch on top. It was speculated that the barge could be submersible to provide an underwater launch platform.
MUCH cheaper than a sub. And building an entire sub around a missile and its launch tube makes no sense until the missile and tube have been proven to work.
Why is a sub that can fire a missile such a hard technology? NK already has subs and has had them for years, why is making one that can fire a missile so much harder? I’m genuinely curious, as I don’t understand what would make that harder. Couldn’t the sub just surface itself if firing from uinderwater was the problem? At the very least, I’m sure NK has the tech to put biological or chemical weapons on a warhead, and fire that from a sub already.
What will the world do? Nothing, same as we always do. NK has trump cards in the form of using WMD and conventional military against Japan & SK if anyone attacks. NK has helped Iran, Libya, Myanmar and Syria all try to build nuclear programs and nobody has really done anything to NK for it yet. So building a sub that can fire missiles isn’t going to change anything if the world doesn’t do anything while NK tries to help many rogue nations with terrible human rights abuses and ties to terrorism obtain nuclear weapons. In fact I believe NK has 2 reasons for constantly advertising their nuclear capabilities. The first is to intimidate the world (mainly the US, SK & Japan) into not invading, and the second is to advertise to other nations that NK can sell you nuclear weapons and nuclear technology.
Going back in time, the US should’ve invaded the whole Korean nation in the 50s, but hindsight is 20/20 (maybe the Chinese would’ve fought harder had we done that) but it would’ve saved all this bullshit.
I thought we did do that? Didn’t we advance our lines to relatively pretty close to the Chinese border, and that was when the big Chinese counterattack occurred?
Yes. The UN forces recovered all of SK, crossed the 38th parallel, and were almost at the border with China (the river Yalu) when the Chinese counter-attacked and pushed back. The rest of the war ended up with a mostly immobile front around the 38th parallel.
China would no doubt protest, but not much beyond that.
After all, all those Made-in-(South)-Korea products would now have to come from somewhere else – and China is the most likely replacement. A devastated Seoul would be an economic boom to China.
Here’s a missile launch looks like. Now imagine doing it indoors. Making a submarine strong enough that you can launch missiles from it - and still have a submarine afterwards - is very high-tech engineering.
Assuming the North Koreans didn’t fake their missile launch entirely, I’m assuming they built a one-time-use missile launcher and then submerged it. It would look impressive for newsreels but it’s not a viable weapon.
As various intelligence agencies have said, it’s a test of *a part of *a developmental missile launch system. Or a learning experience/experiment leading towards a missile launch system. The US did the same kinds of tests with submersible barges when developing Polaris.
Once USN and its contractors had perfected a missile, a launcher, and a submarine in isolation, all that remained was a few years work to meld the three systems into one complete physical platform / weapons system.
I don’t think anyone except *maaybe *a hysterical Facebooker or Fox Newser has suggested this was a fully operational launch from a fully operational sub on patrol.
Little Kim has perfected the art of holding his breath for 6 months.