How Many North Korean Rocket Scientists Were Executed

[MineralMan]

summarily after yesterday's premature detonation? Even more importantly, are there any left in North Korea now?

[democratisphere]

1. I was wondering the same thing. Who got blamed, then executed.

[MineralMan]

6. I don't know, and we'll never find out. However,

you have to wonder how eager whatever engineers are left in North Korea might be to get involved in his missile program. Successfully designing and manufacturing long-range missiles isn't a simple thing. It doesn't take much of a flaw to cause a launch failure, given the high pressure and velocity required to drive such a thing into the air.

We've had our share of disastrous attempted launches, and we are extremely careful with design and manufacturing details. While I'm sure that North Korea has been assisted by China, most of the process has to be taking place inside North Korea.

Their nuclear weapon tests, too, have been plagued with poor performance. Eventually, Kim Jong Un will run out of people capable of creating such devices as missiles and nuclear weapons.

Hasten the day.

[AJT]

2. That went through my mind too.

I am sure heads literally rolled.

[nycbos]

3. It's probably goes something like this.

[longship]

13. Love that film.

BTW, that's Lotte Lenya, who made this song famous.

[Silent3]

4. If they're actually getting low on rocket scientists...

...they'd probably torture and kill family members and friends to "encourage" the remainder to do better next time.

[dembotoz]

5. or was the rocket hacked and if so by whom

would think china has more access than we do and a successful launch is not in their best interest either

[MineralMan]

7. Could be. I have no idea. I suspect, though,

that we don't have much penetration into North Korea. It has pretty effectively isolated itself.

[dalton99a]

12. I think they got sabotaged by China

It's well known (from evidence retrieved from the ocean) that critical parts are "imported" from or through China, and the security on their software/firmware/control side is vulnerable - in fact, the U.S. was able to insert malware into their systems and trace the Sony hack to them.

Regardless, it took the Soviets at least 15 years to perfect a solid propellant rocket, so it'll be a while before North Korea can get anything working reliably.

[dalton99a]

8. Well, Dear Leader knows to Google - "I don't need no stinking scientist"

[MineralMan]

9. Quite a claque of toadies he has surrounding him.

There are no photos, though, of what's on his screen. I'm guessing he's playing "Space Invaders."

[underpants]

10. Would you like to play a game?

[RKP5637]

11. Of any of his missile shots, I sure wouldn't want to have been the one working on this total

embarrassment.