Nice public photos...

Japan and US warn N.Korea against missile launch - Yahoo! News


I find it very interesting that we have released photos of exactly where we expect the launch control to occur. In the picture from the article, it says "possible vehicle".  I don't know about you, but that looks like a truck to me. Now, the eVil  North Koreans could have fake dummy trucks, but I don't see why. So what if people are driving to work, at a launch control center. We have to have better evidence than that, a rocket on a launch pad (harder to hide), and lots of fuel would be nice. I bet that we have one, as we seem to know that the launch is 33 m high, which is extended from the TD-1 launcher height. The TD-2 is about 100ft tall and the TD-2's use TM-185 (20% Gasoline + 80% Kerosene) and AK-27I (27% N₂O₄ + 73% HNO₃ + Iodium Inhibitor) last time I checked.

The picture is a good way to send a message to the North Koreans, with one public picture you tell them that you could shut down and missile launch with one attack, and you don't even have to destroy their missile. We have currently have assets that would make an attack on the mainland United States a non-issue. The problem comes in when the North Koreans want to attack Japan or other nations in the area. Japan just bought a nice set of radars and defensive missile from us, after the TD-1 launch that went into it's airspace. The Japanese (in early June 2006) have 4 AEGIS destroyers with SM-2's (soon SM-3's), and will also use PAC-3's for land based defense. 


The TD-2 does have the range to hit parts of the United stages, but I don't think that the North Koreans have the capability to launch the TD-2 and have a successful warhead separation. They tried before to launch the TD-1 and told everyone that they were launching a satellite into orbit. There was a problem with the launch and nothing ever was placed into orbit. The rumor is the the third stage blew up, right before separation or burnout. They pretended that they had been successful though.

I wonder what will happen. The South Koreans say that the launch is looking like it can be ready by June 17th or 18th.


Update: I just found out that Japan has sent two of those AEGIS destroyers to the Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean. So the Japanese are taking it seriously.