It is apparent you are not a fan of “Juche”. Anyway, it is not surprising the Taepodong 2 malfunctioned. If you have ever read Khrushchev’s memoirs “Khrushchev remembers”, then you would have realized he was scared shitless of the airplane he had to fly in. It was the Soviet equivalent of Air Force One. It was supposed to be the crown jewel of Soviet techonology, but low and behold ole Nikita was scared because it was half-assed Soviet technology. Now, compare that to country that is even more inept.

The Soviets spent 1/6 of their GNP(obviously the same as GDP on their military. Imagine a North Korean economy, that is struggling. It is safe to assume that have of their GNP is towards the military. Do you guys remember the jokes about SCUD missles? It is time to recycle them.

I would like to address the guy who says that Kim Jong Il isn’t the head honcho. My friend works in customs at O’Hare. He encountered North Korean dignotaries. They all had giant Kim Jong Il buttons. Considering that and ole Kim averages 30 below par while playing golf, it is safe to assume who is in power. Then again with about half the economy dedicated to the military maybe they are the ones truly in charge.

How would the government react to that? Would they “punch out” in a blaze of glory going down in a nuclear war rather than go out as an utter and complete failure?

The 1998 test was a TD-1, not a TD-2.

Also, I would be very wary of attributing motives or what amounts to making guesses on North Korean internal politics and political and military leadership views and objectives. It’s simply impossible to know for sure what is going on inside the regime, especially in the upper echelons. We thought we knew Saddam’s calculus in the decade before the Iraq war - it turns out we were pretty much completely wrong in our estimates of how his regime viewed the world, what their priorities were, what they viewed as their primary threats, etc. We can’t afford to make similar mistakes with North Korea and make assumptions on their motivations.

Independence Day 2006, was one of the more bizarre birthdays in our nation’s history. After several days of postponement, NASA launched the Discovery shuttle, marking the first Independence Day launch ever. Troubling, however, were the numerous object…

Not least of the concerns is the marriage of insanity with nuclear technology - whether it’s in North Korea or Iran.

It all sounds to me quite a bit like a temper tantrum gone wrong by Kim Jong Il. Despite all the posturing of the past months, he had received no juicy economic and political incentive offers. Zip. Meanwhile Iran steals all the international limelight …