Well, I tend to agree with Robert in that the *missile launch* was completely successfull, and that was what the whole hoopla was about.

The Taepo Dong-2 msl launch proved NK can (possibly) deliver a nuke to Japan, and definately to South Korea.

Oh, wow. Nice.

If NORAD says it landed in the Pacific then I presume they tracked it all the way. I'm just curious what kind of payload it was carrying and where it went (did it seperated or just crashed with the first stage?).

Forget about this "experimental satellite" rethoric from Comrade Kim - launching sats is nice, but doesn't strike fear into our capitalist hearts enough to pull our checkbooks. North Korea has only one (political) card to play and that is its (real or perceived) nuclear weapons capability. Without it, it is an insignificant backwater to the rest of the world. The NORKORs rattle their missile cage once in a while hoping for some attention, terrified the rest of the world will move along to more interesting venues.

So once again North Korea shot itself in the foot by showing off its technological superiority, which will now result in Japan beefing up its already beefed-up ABM kit, extra funding for US BMD programs and accelerated sales of PAC-3/SM-3s to South Korea.

But it sure was a successfull missile launch.

..... I'm just curious what kind of payload it was carrying and where it went (did it seperated or just crashed with the first stage?) .....

Marcase,
according to NORAD/NORTHCOM :
..... Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean .....

Surely they tracked the launch using every available resource, but I wonder how a late fifties technology rocket (something like an early 1958 Vanguard or Thor-Able), from an industrially backward country, can worry the whole world .....

Just one note on Marcase's comment. DPRK has been able to hit Japan for some time, hasn't it? Nodong already provided that capability.
What's interesting is that, if in fact the launch was a failure (apparently Moscow has suggested it may not have been, but who knows what that is based on), North Korea continues tostruggle with reliability issues. That's probably no surprise, but interesting to observe so visibly.

Interesting way to look at it sferrin, but I don't agree, at least not from a technical point of view. Regardless of if it was a space launcher or missile, it should be viewed as a failure if the Pacific splash-down info coming out of Japan and the U.S. are accurate. It is hard to believe the North Koreans would build that sized missile and then plan it to not fly full range. The North Korean testers would want to demonstrate warhead/payload separation.

In another respect I agree, though. If North Korea was worried the U.S. was starting to ignore it because Washingt was worried about working out relations with Iran, it certainly seems to have at least for a few days achieved its goals of drawing the world's attention. The Dear Leader does seem like a little kind sometimes: "Look at me, look at me."

To redstone, I wish I knew what was on top of the booster (maybe some empty bottles of Hennessey Kim Jung-Il is apparently so fond of). We may never find out, unless the U.S. or Japanese launch an involved recovery mission, and even then we may never find out.

Michael, you raise a really interesting point on how this will influence the missile defense debate in DC, particularly, if the rumors are true the FY 2010 budget will see missile defense take a hit.

I agree, the advocates of missile defense will use this to argue for sustained funding. But detractors will probably say that the ship-based SM-3 capability in existence and the interceptor capability now in Alaska is adequate to handle the current threat from North Korea, since the DPRK is seemingly unable to reliably reach the US. I suspect they would argue that the number of interceptors in place as part of the GMD system are sufficient for the time being.

It will be interesting to see who wins out. Looking forward to what you, Amy, and the rest of you guys hear in the coming days and weeks.

Robert Wall:

"Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan/East Sea. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean."

That's exactly what a successful missile shot would look like.

Marcase: The next few days will tell us if there's anything actually up there. Takes more than a press release out of NK to make it so ;-) I wouldn't be at all surprised if somewhere in the DoD is video footage of the entire flight.