# U.S. sees possible North Korea space launch in near future **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492 "2016-01-28T14:57:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/1 "2016-01-28T14:57:00Z")
> **[North Korea activity points to possible space launch: U.S. officials](https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-near-140250333.html)** > > By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has seen increased activity around a North Korean missile site, suggesting preparations for a possible space launch in the near future, U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday. The finding... > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has seen increased activity around a North Korea site suggesting movement of components and propellant to be able to conduct a space launch in the near future, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday. They say that it could happen within a couple of weeks and that it’s basically the same technology as used for ICBMs. How much of a concern is this? Are they deterable in the same way that the Soviets and the US were? Can anything be done to prevent this? Do they have even crude nuclear devices that are portable enough to launch on a missile? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/2 "2016-01-28T15:20:10Z")
Other than violating all of the sanctions on them, which they don’t care about anyway as long as the Chinese keep pumping them oil and refrigerators… It poses no danger to us other than as continued development of more reliable missile technology. If they were to actually launch a bomb at anyone, all bets are off and I don’t think that even the most strident Chinese threats could stop us from responding. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/3 "2016-01-28T15:34:20Z")
But is the leadership deterable? My guess would be that, however crazy or incompetent Kim Jong-un might be, the military leadership would refuse to launch a nuclear first strike, at least I would hope that’s the case. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/4 "2016-01-28T16:52:10Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > But is the leadership deterable? My guess would be that, however crazy or incompetent Kim Jong-un might be, the military leadership would refuse to launch a nuclear first strike, at least I would hope that’s the case. In which case they’d all be executed. North Korea is one gigantic repeating Loyalty Test. Orders for mobilization and actions are regularly sent to units to ‘test’ them. Officers who are slow or question their orders are cashiered or executed. I would not be completely surprised to hear that fatboy ordered his army to launch a nuclear missile, just to see if they would comply with the order, planning to order them to stand down during the final count-down. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/5 "2016-01-28T17:20:08Z")
Heh. I imagine we’ll have a North Korean Moon Landing Hoax one day. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/6 "2016-02-07T03:33:37Z")
They’ve launched. [http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2016/02/07/0200000000AEN20160207000900315.html](http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2016/02/07/0200000000AEN20160207000900315.html) > [@](#): > > The communist country has said the launch will put an earth observation satellite into orbit, but the outside world views it as cover for testing an intercontinental ballistic missile. > … > The missile fired on Sunday is believed to have a range of more than 10,000 kilometers, which could reach the mainland U.S. [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaksBf4W0AEc6LI.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaksBf4W0AEc6LI.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2016, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-sees-possible-north-korea-space-launch-in-near-future/744492/7 "2016-02-07T06:27:20Z")
Could the US realistically use the NK launches to test missile defense systems?