New missile eyed as young Kim Jong-un strays from script

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...t-topics-World

New missile eyed as young Kim Jong-un strays from script

• by: Rick Wallace, Tokyo correspondent
• From: The Australian
• April 16, 2012 12:00AM

NORTH Korea's young leader made a surprise address at the start of an enormous and meticulously choreographed military rally yesterday at which reports suggested that the rogue state may have unveiled a new type of missile.


Kim Jong-un spoke for more than 20 minutes before tens of thousands of troops and citizens assembled in Pyongyang's Kim
Il-sung Square to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth. Coming just two days after the humiliating failed rocket launch, the rally featured a cavalcade of the North's mostly antiquated military hardware parading through the square to the strains of military bands.


Mr Kim, dispensing with his reclusive father Kim Jong-il's reticence in public speaking, gave an address styling himself as commander of an ever more powerful military force and an atomic arsenal.


"Today the Korean Public Army has become a modern army with nuclear weapons," the 29-year-old said. "Superiority in military technology is no longer monopolised by imperialists."


If the young leader was feeling the strain of the failed rocket launch, it was not apparent as he stood on the balcony dressed in a black Mao suit saluting military units and sharing jokes with the generals standing around him.
Mr Kim is in control at a vulnerable time for the Kim family kleptocracy after the death of Kim Jong-il in December and the failed rocket launch.
While Mr Kim is expected to pursue his father's "military first" politics, already major stylistic differences are emerging between the reign of the father and the son.


The failure of the Unha-3 rocket the North launched on Friday was acknowledged by the regime, which in the past has spun failed rocket launches as successes with the ludicrous claim that they had placed satellites in orbit that were beaming back patriotic songs.


And where his father notched just one single public address in 17 years, in which he said "Glory to the heroic Korean People's Army" at a 1992 parade, Mr Kim gave a lengthy televised oration that analysts said was more reminiscent of his grandfather's era. While the speech contained the obligatory digs at the North's "Imperialist" enemies, Mr Kim also struck an oddly conciliatory note, extending greetings to South Korean citizens and foreigners.


Observers said the young leader's voice - which most North Koreans also heard for the first time yesterday via state TV - was deeper than that of his father and more similar to that of "eternal president" Kim Il-sung.
He also directly addressed the failed rocket launch, saying the nation relied on North Korea's fighting troops more than its rockets and cannons.
Mr Kim read closely from a script prepared on paper and he looked down at his notes throughout, lifting his gaze sporadically.
Squads of gun-toting soldiers marched through the square as state TV's cameras cut to Mr Kim on the balcony sharing a laugh with some of the generals alongside him.
Artillery pieces, tanks and rocket launchers - many apparently models from as far back as the 1950s and 60s - were followed by what appeared to be drones or replicas of drones mounted on the back of trucks.
A wide array of large missiles was paraded through the square including a large one painted in camouflaged colours that news agency AP reported may have been a never-before-seen model.
There have been reports that North Korea has been developing a next-generation ballistic missile to replace the sputtering Taepo-dong series and extend strike capability as far as the continental US, but analysts said that it was impossible to say at this stage if the missile seen in the parade was the rumoured new intercontinental ballistic missile.


Korea specialist Leonid Petrov of the University of Sydney said while Mr Kim made some slips in his delivery, he appeared to be spearheading an image makeover for the regime.


He said the speech included all the "desperate old rhetoric of the Communist regime" but Mr Kim was clearly trying to mark himself out as a more populist and open leader, in the style of his grandfather rather than his taciturn father.


"For a 29-year-old to address 25 million people and basically the whole world is quite a significant appearance," he said.

[Toad]

"Today the Korean Public Army has become a modern army with nuclear weapons," the 29-year-old said. "Superiority in military technology is no longer monopolised by imperialists."

...annnnd I'm looking at this picture and thinking... "modern?" You see what they're carrying?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPG-7

The RPG-7 (Russian: РПГ-7) is a widely-produced, portable, unguided, shoulder-launched, anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Produced June, 1961-present

A US Army evaluation of the weapon gave the hit probabilities on a 5 meter wide (15 ft), 2.5 meter tall (7.5 ft) panel moving sideways at 4 meters per second (9 miles per hour).^[8] This probability decreases when firing into crosswind due to the unusual behaviour of the round; in a 7-mile (11 km) -per-hour wind, the gunner can not expect to get a first-round hit more than 50% of the time beyond 180m.

1960's technology, low hit probability, and the hit says nothing about armor penetration effectiveness.

"Modern" military. Sheesh.

[Ryan Ruck]

Those ones they are carrying are the tandem warhead RPG rounds. They are meant to be used on ERA equipped vehicles. More advanced than the standard RPG warheads.

[Malsua]

Commies just love to march around showing their dicks off.

[vector7]

North Korea “Flexes Muscles” at Military Parade






Tags: Pyongyang, North Korea


North Korea staged massive celebrations in Pyongyang’s main square with a grand military parade to celebrate the 100th anniversary of founder Kim Il-sung on Sunday, 15th April, also known as the Day of the Sun. 20,000 soldiers and officers accompanied by military vehicles and fighter aircrafts marched in front of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un who reaffirmed the supremacy of country’s military in his first public speech since he assumed power in December of last year.

“Let us make every unit of the Korean Public Army the shield and bombs which safeguard the revolutionary headquarters,” said Jong-Un.

[Toad]

Those ones they are carrying are the tandem warhead RPG rounds. They are meant to be used on ERA equipped vehicles. More advanced than the standard RPG warheads.

I'll give you advanced round, but the delivery is still point-and-click.

[Ryan Ruck]

That's true but it's popularity is due to its simplicity. I've seen a lot of footage of our guys carrying them around the sandbox.

We have our own version called the SMAW but as far as I know, it isn't field reloadable like the RPG. It's just a single use tube.

Sometimes the Russians do something right and the RPG is one of those things.

[American Patriot]

Sometimes simplicity is better

[vector7]

N.Korean Missile Platform 'Came from China'


The 16-wheeler platform used in the military parade in Pyongyang (above) looks very similar to the platform from a Chinese maker of special vehicles (below). /AP-Yonhap

The mobile platform that transported what looked like an intercontinental ballistic missile in Sunday's military parade in Pyongyang was probably imported from China. A government source here said it looks very similar to platforms from a Chinese maker of special vehicles.

The mobile platform was about 20 m long and had 16 wheels. According to sources, a Chinese company that manufactures specialized mobile launchers for ICBMs and multiple launch rocket systems for the People's Liberation Army produced and exported eight 16-wheelers known as the WS-51200 between 2010 and 2011.

That would mean Beijing may be in violation of a UN Security Council resolution banning shipments of weapons to the North. UN Security Council Resolution 1874 prohibits North Korea from launching long-range projectiles using ICBM technology and bans other countries from dealing in such weapons and related technology with the North.

[vector7]

Analysts: China broke sanctions if N. Korea using its missile launcher

By Shaun Waterman-
The Washington Times
Monday, April 16, 2012


A military vehicle carries what appears to be a new missile during a mass military parade through Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday, April 15, 2012, to celebrate the centenary of the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

• Comments (102)

China likely provided the mobile long-range missile launcher that North Korea displayed in a military parade over the weekend, which would put Beijing in violation of U.N. sanctions, analysts say.

The 16-wheeled vehicle, known as a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL), is apparently based on a Chinese design, said Ted Parsons of IHS Jane's Defense Weekly.

The Chinese and North Korean versions of the TEL “have the same windscreen design, the same four windscreen wiper configuration, the same door and handle design, a very similar grill area, almost the same front bumper lighting configuration, and the same design for the cabin steps,” Mr. Parsons noted.

North Korea’s TEL was featured in a massive parade in Pyongyang over the weekend, one of a series of events held to commemorate the centenary of the communist regime’s founder, Kim Il-sung.

“If confirmed, China’s involvement in providing this erector-launcher to North Korea would put it in breach of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874,” said James Hardy, the Asia Pacific editor for Jane's Defense Weekly.

The resolution bans countries from supplying North Korea with “any arms or related materiel, or providing financial transactions, technical training, services, or assistance related to such arms.”

The supply of such a vehicle to North Korea in defiance of international sanctions “would require approval from the highest levels of the Chinese government and the People’s Liberation Army,” said Mr. Parsons.

That has serious implications for the six-party talks on curbing North Korea’s nuclear program - the only forum for discussions between Pyongyang and the international community.

China, which hosts the talks, has been consulting with the U.S., Russia, Japan and South Korea to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for concessions like food aid or a suspension of sanctions.

If China has been secretly aiding the North Korean ballistic missile program, that “could fatally undermine the six-party talks [because they are] built on the premise that there is a unanimous desire to prevent the North from developing a nuclear capability,” Mr. Hardy said.

[Ryan Ruck]

Peterle,
The transporter may be able to be used for commercial purposes but it is likely considered "dual-use technology" and thus restricted from being exported to NK.

[American Patriot]

Oh, the US Government thinks of everything.

[vector7]

Report: China Shipped Launch Vehicles to N. Korea



A North Korean vehicle carrying a missile is seen by during a military parade in Pyongyang, April 15, 2012. Related Articles

• N. Korea Denies Plans for Nuclear Test
• S. Korea Closely Watching North’s Air Force
• UN: N. Korea Aid Efforts 'Seriously Underfunded'

VOA News
June 13, 2012

Japanese officials say China has violated a U.N. embargo by supplying North Korea with vehicles capable of transporting and launching ballistic missiles.

Local media Wednesday quoted government sources as saying that a Chinese company sent four giant, 16-wheel missile launch vehicles to North Korea last August.

The Asahi Shimbun, which first reported the story, said the U.S. has not publicly criticized China over the matter because it does not want to embarrass Beijing and because it needs China's support to help stifle Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin denied the allegations Wednesday, saying Beijing has not violated the U.N. resolutions prohibiting the sale of arms, training, and other assistance to Pyongyang.

"I want to stress that Chinese companies did not export items banned by relevant security council resolutions and China's own laws and regulations. The relevant reports were not true," said Liu Weimin.

In April, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged that China has provided "some help" to North Korea with its ballistic missile program through trade and technology exchanges.

His comments came after Western defense experts spotted what appeared to be Chinese-made missile launch vehicles prominently displayed at a military parade in North Korea, which does not have the technology to make such vehicles.

The Asahi Shimbun said in its report Wednesday the vehicles exported from China were likely the same ones in the military parade.

The report said the vehicles were transported on a Cambodia-registered ship, which was tracked U.S., Japanese and South Korean spy satellites as it arrived in North Korea on August 4. Japanese coast guard officials later inspected the vehicle and found a document detailing the export of the vehicles.

After defense experts spotted the missile launch vehicles in April, China's foreign ministry vigorously denied any wrongdoing on Beijing's part, saying China had not violated the resolution.

Beijing has been uncharacteristically critical of its ally North Korea following Pyongyang's failed satellite launch in April, which Western nations said was a disguised long-range missile test - also banned under U.N. sanctions.

[American Patriot]

Which would explain why they aren't saying shit to them.....

[MinutemanCO]

I guess we know who China has chosen to start a major conflict in the region. Now how do we know the launch vehicles didn't come with warheads attached?

[vector7]

PRC Sold Mobile ICBM Transport Vehicles to N. Korea; Obama Admin. Covered It Up (Breaking)
JNN News Network, Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese) ^ | 14 Junwe 2012 | JNN News Network (Freeper Translation)
Posted on 06/12/2012 9:26:34 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo

The news report is HERE:

LINK.

This is from Japanese TV news today, it reports that the sale occured in August last year (4 mobile transporters used in North Korea's massive military parade showcasing the mobile nature of their ICBM program, including modified Scud, Nodong, etc.). Japan caught wind of this dangerous, nefarious PRC-DPRK deal in October.

The United States also came to know this material fact.

The sale marks a complete violation of UN embargoes on such material and equipment for export to the DPRK for thier intermediate and long range missile program. Japanese news notes the US kept silent about this development despite knowledge of what had happened. In the meantime of course we know about Obama overtures to the North Koreans through diplomatic channels to somehow keep them in a safe box until after the election, and other absolute dastardly if not seditious foreign policy actions.