**The "North Korea Watch 2013" Update Thread**

When and how do you think North Korea will be liberated? Do you think anytime soon or will it take many of years?

When and how do you think North Korea will be liberated? Do you think anytime soon or will it take many of years?

The United States and Russia didn't go through the whole Cold War without developing anti nuclear technology you know. They would need a very large amount of nuclear missiles to hit the US or Japan.

You'd be surprised... While Russia has long since had ABM batteries located around Moscow the US has only really gotten into the game since the 90/91 Gulf War and re-programming the Patriot missile system. Knocking out an incoming ballistic missile is incredibly difficult and certainly not something to be just assumed will happen, no matter what the defences set up in front of it are.

To give you some idea of the scale of the issue, imagine the following scenario;
You're in London and an object the size of a dart (standard pub-type dart) is thrown at you from Edinburgh. This dart is travelling fast enough that it will cover that 400mile distance in around 2 minutes. When that dart is at the tip of it's ballistic arc and heading back down towards you it's travelling at around 10 times the speed of sound. You are then using an object about half the size of a standard pin (half the length and half the diameter) to attempt to knock it out of the sky. Not only does your pin have to travel equally as fast, but it has to engage the incoming object almost precisely head on and compute all this when the closing speed between the two objects is roughly 20 times the speed of sound. Or about 15-18,000mph. Sure, you might shoot 5 or 6 pins to be extra hopeful of a hit, but the odds are astronomical.

By far the better hope is to not have the dart thrown at you in the first place.

You'd be surprised, evidence shows that Israel was able to knock out SCUD missles with patriot batterys. This was many years ago, I think it is ridiculous to suggest that the United States does not have the capability to knock down a ballistic missile, given the evidence.

ICBMs travel at about 4km per second on re-entry, a maximum speed of approx Mach25. The Scud systems topped out at about Mach5. That's a colossal difference.

While systems have improved in the meantime, it is still not accurate to say it's an easy fix. Sure, if everything went exactly according to the best case scenario for such things, a US Patriot from an AEGIS-class radar would take one out. But in this case those perfect conditions are not something to be guaranteed. Tracking them is not an issue these days, but hitting them is still not easy. And then you've got to wonder whether or not they will reliably destroy any inbound. An successful engagement would at best guarantee a huge area of ground would be showered with heavily radioactive shrapnel.

ICBMs travel at about 4km per second on re-entry, a maximum speed of approx Mach25. The Scud systems topped out at about Mach5. That's a colossal difference.

While systems have improved in the meantime, it is still not accurate to say it's an easy fix. Sure, if everything went exactly according to the best case scenario for such things, a US Patriot from an AEGIS-class radar would take one out. But in this case those perfect conditions are not something to be guaranteed. Tracking them is not an issue these days, but hitting them is still not easy. And then you've got to wonder whether or not they will reliably destroy any inbound. An successful engagement would at best guarantee a huge area of ground would be showered with heavily radioactive shrapnel.

NK does not have ICBMs, NK does not have missiles that travel anywhere near Mach 25

I'm sure hitting MIRVs is an exercise in almost unachievable precision, but I always assumed the goal would be to take out the missile during the boost or mid-phase.

In an ideal world, yes, but these systems had always been based on taking out a Chinese or Russian style missile; where they will be launched from thousands of miles away and getting in close wasn't an option. So they are very much based on the engagement during re-entry phase.
With smaller Scud-type missiles this isn't that tricky [still not simple, though it is at least something they've had practise at], but obviously gets harder when it's MIRVs, decoys, etc.

I see. That explains why the US are acting as though a north korean missile is so much of a bad scenario.

Yeah, very much the ideal case is for there to be no launch at all.

However, a NK test firing would at least provide the US with a live fire exercise free of charge, which is awfully kind.

Such is the generosity of the great North Korean nation.

Yeah, very much the ideal case is for there to be no launch at all.

However, a NK test firing would at least provide the US with a live fire exercise free of charge, which is awfully kind.

The US should test out their new laser on it. Could you imagine the looks on their faces if the US were to cook their precious missile for them all to see?

Pretty sure this contains a spelling error, but...

Putting "mongler" instead of "monger" could have been deliberate - maybe a passing reference to "Mongoloid"?

Putting "mongler" instead of "monger" could have been deliberate - maybe a passing reference to "Mongoloid"?

Far more likely is the fact that person who made it is just a bit thick.