Taep'o-dong Is Not For Satellites

The Leftist™™ site Think Progress posted a piece that supports North Korea in her efforts to launch a missile, and criticizes the U.S. for activating the missile defense shield. Administration Responds to North Korea Missile Stunt With Missile Defense Stunt. Included in this is the following;

Fortunately, the missile the North Koreans may test does not work either. The last time they fired a long-range missile was in 1998, it went about 1300 killometers (sic) and failed to put its tiny payload into orbit.

This is clear proof that the Lefties™™ do not know what they are talking about. Neither the Taep'-dong 1 nor any other North Korean missile was intended to place a payload in orbit. The North Koreans know what is necessary for that. These are built to be weapons. One does not orbit a weapon. One drops them on targets.

For more about the Taep'o-dong missiles, The Taep'o-dong Missile Series. Read both links. There is a lot of good information there.

So, where did this notion that this is all related to satellite launches come from? It came from the liberal government of South Korea, which routinely covers for North Korean actions as part of her "Sunshine Policy". This is why the liberals lost in such a big way in the recent elections, and now the Sunshine Policy will soon be history. The people of South Korea have gotten tired of kidding themselves about the North.

So, as part of the Sunshine Policy, the South Korean government covers for the North by announcing that these are satellite launches. Nothing to worry about. This is willfullyly blind position. The North Koreans know perfectly well what is required to place a payload into orbit, and did not design these missiles to do that. North Korea is all about weapons and weapon sales (in addition to counterfeiting American $100 bills and manufacturing illegal methamphetamines and heroin) to make money for Kim Jong-Il and friends.

Of course liberals tell us that it is wrong to call North Korea a criminal government, reserving that designation only for the United States.

The people of South Korea are getting sick of their government and it is beginning to show up even in liberal news outlets. An editorial in the Digital Chosunilbo, I Say Satellite, You Say Missile

The government has reportedly concluded that what North Korea is preparing to test-launch is likely a satellite rather than a ballistic missile. The North Korean regime has starved millions of citizens to death or driven them into modern-day slavery and prostitution in China, but, our government says, it now merely wants to launch a satellite to compete in the noble field of science and technology.

We have no way of knowing exactly on what grounds the government makes a judgment that differs so markedly from that of the U.S. and Japan. Everyone knows that more than 90 percent of our information about the North relies on U.S. intelligence satellites. Since when has the government developed its own intelligence capability? If it did, it would be a spectacular achievement.

...

This administration also offered an "independent" assessment on the North'’s nuclear arms program, namely that it was "“for defense purposes"” and therefore had some justification. Along the same lines, it has now decided to call a satellite what the entire world says is a missile. A missile, it seems, is a crisis, and a satellite is its resolution. Naive or stupid, who knows? But it'’s a shame the people have no government but this one to rely on.

Not for long.