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China-Japan-Koreas
Norks used dummy satellite, SKor experts say
2009-04-09
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA -- The satellite that North Korea insists it has sent into orbit was evidently a dummy that the North manufactured to justify testing a Taepodong-2 missile, South Korean space experts say.
No, reeeeaally? What would we do without experts?
The apparent use of a dummy that looked like a satellite on the launch pad boosts US, Japanese, and South Korean claims that the North fired its long-range missile on Sunday to continue developing the technology rather than to pursue space exploration.

Disagreement over North Korea's motivation is one issue blocking the UN from issuing a resolution on Sunday's launch. China, which wields veto power on the UN Security Council, says it's still unclear if North Korea launched a missile or a satellite.
And it won't ever be clear to them ...
Scientists and engineers here disagree. "They cannot have been shooting a real satellite," says Myung Noh-hoon, director of the Space Research Center at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the country's leading base for science and engineering. "They did not build a satellite."

Mr. Myung, in charge of development of South Korea's satellites in his facility in the city of Daejeon, about 90 miles south of here, bases that assessment on two realities. First, he says, in the two days since the missile was launched, we have been "trying to catch the signal from the satellite." That was not possible, he says, "because it was a dummy, not a real one."
Can't hear the songs and praise for the Dear Leader ...
Second, he adds, while North Korean scientists and engineers are known to have built several hundred short- and mid-range missiles as well as nuclear warheads, there's never been any sign of fabrication of a satellite. "I never heard of them building a satellite," says Myung. "Their level of satellite technology is lower than South Korea's." Six South Korean satellites have gone into space successfully from launch sites in other countries. In July Seoul plans to launch a 100-kilogram (220-pound) satellite -- its first from South Korean soil.

Another factor adding to the conclusion that North Korea never had a satellite was the similarity between the latest episode and the launch on Aug. 31, 1998, of Taepodong-1, which also flew over Japan before landing in the Pacific. Then, as on Sunday, North Korea said the satellite went into space broadcasting patriotic paeans to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994 but holds the title of "eternal president."

Scientists do not understand how North Korea could fail in such costly attempts if they ever intended to loft satellites in the first place. North Korea is believed to have obtained the technology from Iran, which has shot its own satellite into space.
And if you can't trust Iranian satellite technology, what can you trust?
Myung believes, though, that North Korea can count the launch as a success. "They shot a long-range missile farther than ever before," he says. This one went approximately 2,000 miles, twice the distance of Taepodong-1 and nearly half the distance needed to deliver a warhead to Alaska or Hawaii.

As for ever finding the debris from whatever North Korea had as the payload on the latest launch, "it may have been burnt up while returning to the Earth," says Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. "As far as I know, their satellite technology is very outdated," says Mr. Kim. "They have tried to advance ballistic missile technology. They do not care about satellites."
No kidding ...
Posted by:Steve White

#2  How much work could it be to put together a radio broadcaster with a tape deck?
Posted by: Mitch H.   2009-04-09 14:31  

#1  Well, doesn't that just put the "D" in "Duh!"
Posted by: crosspatch   2009-04-09 03:53  

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