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Subscribe to RSSAfter experiencing a critical failure, there has been almost no talk about the rocket that never entered orbit. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
PYONGYANG, North Korea – Quickly after the failed launch of the Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket, two things became abundantly clear: We, the foreign press corps brought in to cover the launch, knew far less about it than our colleagues outside of North Korea, and the only people we would be informing about anything today would be our government-assigned guides/minders.
Many of the foreign news crews – which have been in Pyongyang for about a week – had been assured multiple times by our minders that we would get the opportunity to witness the launch. Two large video screens installed in our little hotel newsroom late Thursday appeared to validate that belief.
Between scuttlebutt gleaned from our research and talks with North Korean space officials, many of us believed that our coverage would begin with an early wake-up call Friday morning from our minders whenever they got the word.
Instead, that wake-up call came not from any North Korean officials, but from NBC’s foreign news desk, prompting us to head down to the newsroom – the only place in the hotel where we can access the Internet – to confirm what was happening.
But what was there to report? Inside the newsroom, the video screens were blank, and local North Korean TV was not showing any rocket coverage. A section of the newsroom seemingly set-up as a post-launch podium for North Korean officials to answer questions was staffed by a disinterested minder.
Meanwhile, on Twitter and foreign news websites, initial reports of a botched launch were being followed up with details about the failure: the location of the debris, what the rocket looked like before it exploded and initial reaction from foreign governments on the incident.
Yet the North Koreans minders were idly chatting among themselves, completely oblivious to the botched launch that just happened, and apparently planning for just another day of guiding us on another highly orchestrated visit through the city.
The North Korean rocket launch fails as the world is watching. See NBC's Richard Engel first report shortly after learning the news in Pyongyang.
That sense was confirmed as I ran back and forth between the newsroom and the live shot positions outdoors. “Please be ready to go this morning for a music festival,” said one minder as he cornered me on a trip back to the newsroom.
“There is no way we’re going on that trip!” I replied. “You know the satellite launch failed today, right?”
My declaration was met with an incredulous stare before the minder slowly turned around and walked away. It was a scene replayed multiple times as minders, unsure what all the excitement was about, corralled journalists and had the news broken to them.
This led to a mass exodus of minders.
North Korea faces rocket reality: Failure is an option
Ironically though, at the one moment when we the press suddenly had the most freedom we’d had all trip, no one had the means to take advantage and begin covering the North Korean side of the launch.
As the pandemonium of the initial push to break news passed, many of us expected the North Koreans to call some sort of press conference to acknowledge the failure and explain what had gone wrong.
But the podium remained unused and the pokerfaced North Koreans in the room gave no hint that we would hear anything from the government about the launch failure. A terse statement on North Korean state television had acknowledged the rocket’s flop into the water to the public, but nothing else.
The lone statement was a great first step toward North Korea becoming a more open and possibly reflects a quiet confidence in the country’s new leader, Kim Jong-un.
Kyodo / Reuters
Kim Jong-un (C), current leader of North Korea, reacts after fireworks were released during the unveiling ceremony of bronze statues of North Korea founder Kim Il-sung and late leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on Friday. North Korea said its much hyped long-range rocket launch failed on Friday, in a very rare and embarrassing public admission of failure by the hermit state.
Unlike his father, Kim Jong-il, who covered up past launch failures, the younger Kim has demonstrated a degree of assuredness in publicly acknowledging the rocket disaster to his people.
This certainly doesn’t mean that the country is turning over a new leaf – after all, the rocket test stunt itself shows that bad habits die hard, if at all. However, Kim’s concession suggests that this young, new leader may not strictly follow the game plan of his predecessors.
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I could do better with a $100 rocket kit.
And get ninety nine dollars in change.
This missile launch reminds me of Pakistani nuclear tests - that were said to have been carried out - but in reality never occured. Those were "me too" tests after India surprised the world with its own tests.
Ive spanked it and had it go higher.
True, indeed, North Korea is incredibly inept. Sadly, it won't stop hysterics and fabricators from launching the US into needless but profitable military action there one day. That is, if the upcoming Iranian invasion doesn't lead to WW III. The US Military Industrial Complex is the true evil empire of the modern world.
I'm the last person to support North Korea but the smugness and satisfaction at this failure is a little over the top considering that the US hasn't had a flawless record of rocket and other space vehicle launches, do Apollo 1 and the Shuttle Challenger ring any bells? something about glass homes and throwing stones comes to mind.
mmm.. United States Citizens smug!? HOW DARE YOU!! :d
Why did anyone from outside of that countries media go there? What were they expecting..the truth..that's a laugh.
They were there for a week, and they found out about it from their own network office what really happen..waste of money going there to listen to IDIOTS of the world!
@ Don not mess....
Touche!
That is a good one, I wonder how much of the younger set even KNOW of Billy Sol Estes - A fraudster like Kim Jong Un.... or Better yet "Kim - Sorry - ***es, all of 'em!......"
They would have made it into orbit had they borrowed my calculator instead of using their own computers.
Epic Fail.
boo hooo what a @!$%#ing joke,it didn't work I thin we should take care of our own country rather that getting involved with other countries
LMAO @ sheepherder1 you made me fall out of my chair laughing!!
When an adult farts in the company of children, the adult should admit to it, rather than blaming the children. Good for Kim Jong-Un.
That was a 8th graders science project, wasnt it? A bottle rocket would have went further.
Those Koreans are smartest than you think, this is just a trick to make us believe that they are in the stone-age, but without drums they will launch the real one. They are playing with us like Iran do, not be so disingenuous , they have Russian technology and right now they are ahead of us.
I thought I was watchin saturday nite live when they showed their mission control..lol. For real. Looks like they have a ways to go.
Obviously the North Koreans were hedging their bets by recording the launch, so that if it was successful, they could later show it "live" to the foreign press!
In other news, North Korea says it is going ahead with a strategic weapon known as the Slingshot1. A spokesman says their scientists are closing in on perfecting a critical component he refered to as the Rubber Band.
In the meantime, North Korea will continue defending itself against agressors by traditional means. By flinging poo.
@Mr. Jones78
To think, despite our failures, that the United States put a man on the moon in 1969 with less mechanical computing power than your calculator. No supercomputers doing teraflops of calculations per second, not even an 8086 processor I had in my first computer in 1984 - with 256k of RAM.
North Korea's "control room" was less convincing than the bridge of the Enterprise was on the original '60s Star Trek!
How do we know it blew up on its own, rather than being shot down?
Hey AussieRob, aren't you forgetting who landed on the moon and returned a man successfully and who protects you ass from those commie bastards? Get a clue. Of course we are smug, they are idiots. We are always going to laugh at Evil's failure, don't you?
Well at least Kim Jong Un isn't QUITE as much of a liar as his lame dead dad was. Although, he did not really have a choice but to have state TV admit the failure with all of the invited press right there.
Yeah you are totally right. The coverage of this event was so massive that there is no way they could deny a failed launch. I'm glad they at least admitted it though. Kim Jong Un went to school at some private Swiss academy and apparently is a big basketball fan. Hopefully being in that environment for so long has left him with a more open mindset than his dad. I won't hold my breath, but one can always hope.
Someone want to tell Kim Jong-un that he's pointing the wrong way if he's trying to locate the rocket. It's a "bit" lower.
Boom! Splash...
um
read the byline, Einstein
He is pointing at some pretty fireworks at an earlier event.
It was a joke, Rick Day. Sheesh.
Failed launch, or successful test.
Think about that, sure it exploded in air into many piece and feel into the sea which does look like a failed launch, but look at the distance it traveled on a map, you'll notice the distance is about miday of where S. Korea is if you rotate the distance from starting point to our right. Now it having exploding in the air is another thing, think about detonating a nuclear warhead in the air (EMP), at about that same distance traveled to mid S. Korea, could this have been a test perhaps to test the possibility of detonating a Nuclear device over central S. Korea causing a EMP and shutting down their power grid for an extended period of time, which could give cover to start a larger war with S. Korea having being sent back into the 19th century with no communication, no radar, pretty much nothing electrical given over a large amount of area depending on a blast zone and power station.
Just a though.
What are the chances we used some type of technology to cause the test to fail?
Yeah, I don't buy that for a second Tom.
Its one thing for a country to develop an atom bomb (hydrogen bomb unlikely) like Fat Man or Little Boy and you may recall those were huge devices. In all liklihood any North Korean weapon would be of equal size (possibly a bit smaller). And the Japan weapons were delivered by bombers. To minaturize a nuclear weapon sufficiently to install it as a warhead on a rocket is a skillset that North Korea does not (nor Pakistan) possess hence little chance the type of rocket North Korea launched could carry the warhead.
@Sue,
Unfortunately Chuck Norris, Vin Diesel, and Steven Segall don't really exist outside of film. We don't have the capability to do something like that. It's like the Kennedy assassination. A cover up of that magnitude would require a much more sophisticated government than we had in the '60s.
We most certainly have the tech to shoot down this rocket. Have had it since 2003. It's a chemical laser and they successfully shot down artillery rounds.
Downfall? It takes huge chemical tanks to operate. It uses intense heat on its targets. Hot enough to turn your car door into molten steel.
Damn!! I was hoping to hear songs praising the "Great Leader and Dear Leader".
They're gone. I hear the new guy is called the Great Successor. Talk about the lamest dictator name ever.
reminds me of the "Great Wizard" of another organization.
Do you think the "Great Successor" is going to eat crow for this failure? I know his people sure would like too.
They must not have gotten Obamas memo: Wait until AFTER the election, then they can do what they want with his help!
Yeah, Obama's a sleazy f*cker, that's for sure.
Yeah Stonedog, and you're a real upstanding American. Does the RNC actually pay you to say that crap??
Rocket go BOOM!
The first laugh of the day I had was when my husband walked into the room when I was getting ready for work and said that the rocket fell apart - I wanted to know if it fell apart on the launch pad, but obviously it wasn't that BAD....
Well the plan was this:
1. Launch the rocket successfully.
2. Then come and show you a video of the successful launch (and act like it was live)
3. Then answer questions...
Step 1 didn't happen soooooooo....
if that isn't a sub-space ICBM platform...ask an expert
North Korea can get it up, but can't keep it up. Seems the country should try feeding its people, whose starvation is just one of the many causes of its impotence.
Definitely see The Vice Guide to North Korea.
Kim Jong-Un absolutely could have had state TV say the launch was successful.
North Korea can get it up, but can't keep it up. Seems the country should try feeding its people, whose starvation is just one of the many causes of its impotence.
With so much hype before the launch, it would have been difficult or impossible to keep that news away from the people.
Now to the reasons for the failure. They range from inadequate duct tape application on said rocket, all the way to U.S. secret space beam shoot-down. Ok maybe the beam just melted the duct tape. But it worked.
And everything in between.
...What do you smoke and can I buy some???
Or it was the aliens we have been working with since roswell.
I understand all of the skepticism regarding the launch of a rocket by N. Korea, but I can't help but wonder if it really is/was an attempt to instill some pride in the people of that nation by joining the powers of the world in attempting to conquer the final frontier. If you poke a caged animal enough times you change their behavior for good, and all of the sactions and theats by the U.N are doing nothing but provoking N. Korea and pressuring the new leader into thinking that he has to prove himself in the eyes of his people so that their nation is not "disgraced". It may not be a bad idea to give them a little breathing room instead of keeping the choke collar tight around the necks of the nations leaders. Maybe if the country doesn't constantly feel at odds with the rest of the world, then they can change their focus from the military to bettering the lives of their people.
And then you woke up right Jay?
Come on!
They don't need pride at the moment jay, they need groceries.
Maybe if the all the leaders of the Nk military weren't neurotic we could talk with them> Unfortunately they feel it is nessessary to keep their populance from interacting with the world ,even in the slightest manner!They insist on spending most of their capital on military hardware which becomes obsolete every 20 years or so.They are the ones with problems. Your approach is the whole army is out of step except Johnny!That would work!Just another uber left wings group of tyrants trying to push everyones buttons!
MAYBE they should worry about their own.
At least their people get something to eat w/a Hershey bar.
Any leader that puts more into a celebration than he does in his own peoples' survival is a tyrant and a crappy "leader."
I think this one was worst than the other one three years ago because it went a shorter distance. In three years we will see this again.
One of the technicians lit the fuse too early!
Or they put too much saltpeter in the gunpowder mix. They should have given it to the masses, then they wouldn't have such a large population to feed.
@ Johnzo.... Good one.
Kind or Reminds of of Wallace and Gromit's A Grand Day Out short realesed in 1989... Except that Gromit made their rocket work.....Rent it if you can....
"Hold on, Little 'Un"... "and think of a Lancashire Hotpot" LOL.....
It's sad that North Korea is spending all of this money on rockets and bomb development when people are starving to death. Perhaps if George Bush had not labled them part of the axis of evil and threatened them they would not be so desperate to create these weapons and weapons delivery systems. I'm sure they want to have the bomb as a deterent for other countries to not attack them. It's a sad situation.
You are clearly a middle school drop out. North Korea has been like this for the last 50 years or so. Not that I like GW, but even I can't blame him for NK.
Johnny~~ Deterrent from what threat? Who's going to attack North Korea? Do you pay attention to current world events? It's North Korea that is the aggressor. What do you think will happen once they reach out and touch someone? I certainly hope nothing happens but if it does I'm hoping it does to the nae Sayers first.
The world isn't a big warm cozy place. Believe it or not, people and countries want to cause harm. Good luck brother. I really hope things work out for you.
Where have you been for the past 59 years? Have you no clue of history? GW is what caused North Korea's problems? Ever heard of a little spat called the Korean War?
This is a global issue, not just North Korea. We have 20% of our children in the U.S. going to bed hungry. Not to mention all the adults.
That doesn't stop us from spending more on the military than nearly the rest of the world combined.
Different countries, same mentalities.
JohnnyB : What does the "d" stand for"braindead"?Check the wiring and tin foil in your cap,take your meds and go take a nappy!I'll watch the world for you while you nappy!
NYMIke: I afraid you are another paid operative of big union and the dimocraps! Who goes hungry in America? I see the welfare queens every day, on tv, bloated from eating too much and not moving enough!You analysis is nothing more than the talking points given to you and your like to espouse today! I've read the same drivel with a slightly different twist on several threads today!Try and least be original! Your mommy says to tell you to come out of the basement around six for din-din!
Actually it was Harry's bumbling that led to this whole dismal mess.
He wouldn't let Doug do his job...
@Johnny B-1876520
Modern Korea was created after WWII, as it had been annexed by Japan after winning the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. It had 2 zones of Allied governing, the North, by the USSR, and the South, by the USA. The South had free elections in 1948 and the North adopted a single ruler government led by the worshiped Kim Il-sung. He imposed a Stalinist style dictatorship and then in 1950, invaded the South. North Korea had the South nearly conquered when the UN decided to step in. Douglas MacArthur's master stroke, the landing at Inchon (with 17 foot tides) and the ability of the UN (read mainly US) forces to divide the invaders, cutting supply lines to those in the South and repelling the northern force back towards the Yalu River all but ended North Korea's flirt with conquest when, unexpectedly, hundreds of thousands of PRC troops poured over the Yalu River and fought the UN troops to a stalemate which led to the country being restored to its original 1945 division, as it exists today.
Everything that has happened in North Korea is the product of Kim IL-sung, his son Kim Jong Il and now his grandson Kim Jong Un. That includes mass starvation, large internment camps for political prisoners, a giant standing army (once estimated at nearly 10,000,000, including all active personnel, reservists and paramilitary). Years and years of trading away food aid for weapons and insistence on self reliance combined with rabid isolationism and nuclear threats and posing have left North Korea drowning in its own Cult of Personality.
Good for them for not flat out lying to everyone (their people).
A question.
1. "can" an ICBM be used to insert a satellite into space?
Yes, an ICBM can be used to deploy a satellite. Which is what makes the situation difficult. If they were using short-range rockets with limited fuel capacity and just enough range to get into orbit, there'd be no real outcry outside of South Korea. But as it stands, NK is using a long-range ICBM so while they can declare they're only launching a satellite, we ( the rest of the world ) have to second-guess every move they make and monitor every launch closely. Fortunately, NK has kept itself in the dark for so long that it currently is having to go through all the trial and error phases other countries already went through decades ago in regards to space and long-range weapon technology. The funny thing is, if the rumors are true that NK received technology/assistance from Iran for their rocket/missile tech, it shows Iran either suckered them big time or suck just as much at it.
Post-Soviet Union Russia used a few old (retired by the treaty) missiles for satellite launches.
thanks guys. Very informative I appriciate it.
The rocket that propelled John Glenn into space was an American made AtlasD which was an ICBM.
The US will find the pieces and we'll know within the month what went wrong and who gave them the technology.
Him fall down go BOOM!
It fell down and can't get up!
Shortly after the launch, North Korean news media declared "it's not only a rocket, it's a submarine too"!
the press.....lol, will wait to be spoon fed and then the media will edit it to sell, sell sell........
Poor Kim, he couldn't get it up!
They must not have gotten Obamas memo: Wait until AFTER the election, then they can do what they want with his help!
Collapse away, Libs, ONLY if you can't respond or argue. He was caught with his big ole mouth telling the Russians the EXACT same thing. Deal with what you voted in. Because he's NOT going to be re-elected.
Wait, Obama said the same thing to North Korea directly?
North Korea leads the world in showing how much is can accomplish with just being stubborn. This rocket looks advanced for 1946, and does not appear to have run the country broke in the process.
The net effect is, as much as, I like to remind people, if you fight and enemy long enough, watching every move, and plan the equalizing counter move, you will have absorbed all of the enemies thinking. It is like a mental computer virus, and then you begin acting like the enemy without noticing.
If you watch the North Koreans military budget being so much larger that its domestic budget, soon out of fear your country's budget take the same lopsided form.
If you watch North Koreans add security restrictions against its citizens, then low and behold you feed insecure and start restricting your citizens.
If you find North Koreans complaining and communicating it, you see them provide distracting ceremonies for amusement, and then when you find your own countrymen complaining and communicating it, you start providing distracting, news, and entertainment.
The only difference between these two nations is their relative wealth North Korea lives with its means, and you try to do the same, except that you are able to waste your resources extravagantly and avoid opportunities to make progress. Over all you act exactly like the North Koreans and do not, and cannot recognize that you are finding the best possible way to become your own worst enemy.
To add the killer instinct of being insanely possessed of your belief and secure in your unfailing faith, you become blind and stubborn, after all that is the way the enemy has remained your enemy. The tit for tat strategy is the fastest possible and it works with diminishing return, and appears convincingly economic, irrefutable, but just by making the case for giving up all other economic activities to play this game, ultimately makes the both sides equal, the strategy becomes same for both sides for every, and the Korean Conflict just continues forever.
The political party that most represents this nihilist, get nowhere, do nothing strategy, has for the most part become like North Korea, stubborn, uncompromising and always seeing enemy under the bed, and then in the faces of everyone they see, then in the dark, then when it is raining, and wearing stylized clothing, feeding, delusion with illusion, dementia with hatred all set ready to explode, not on North Korea but the one place that you call home, and want for safety, but you don't live in your own skin, you don't see the enemy in the mirror.
To look in the mirror properly, you should see the person you want to see, and if you don't you need to make changes.
By the way the solution to the North Korean problem is in the mirror.
HUH?