Goodbye, FBM>

[Svartalf]

It'll be interesting to see how the North spins this one.

I'm mostly relieved the thing didn't breach Japan's airspace... I doubt they'd have backed down and then it might have gotten ugly.

[Rum]

I see the USA have withdrawn a plan for food aid to NK in response to the launch.

[FBM]

So is this just a a blip for the rocket scientist or the end of his Korea?

I just figured this one out.

[Brian Peacock]

Good-bye FBM. You were the greatest. We're going to erect a 50ft statue in your honour.

[FBM]

Thank you, Brian. Also, make sure that the penis on my statue is at least 9ft. It's a guy thing. TYIA.

[Brian Peacock]

Thank you, Brian. Also, make sure that the penis on my statue is at least 9ft. It's a guy thing. TYIA.

Is that 9ft turgid or flaccid? the artist will have to know.

[JimC]

Pathetic, really. I mean, it ain't rocket science...









Wait...

[Rum]

Pathetic, really. I mean, it ain't rocket science...









Wait...

In Soviet Russia rockets launch you!..

[Svartalf]

and Sputnik was the first satellite...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

and Sputnik was the first satellite...

Launched in a rush just days before the US was going to launch.

[Svartalf]

How long would it have taken Brezhnev to send cosmonauts to the moon had Armstrong not won the cup?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How long would it have taken Brezhnev to send cosmonauts to the moon had Armstrong not won the cup?

They had decided to concentrate on near-Earth efforts when it became clear that the US would beat them, about the time the Apollo program launched the first of its Command Modules. If the US program had slammed to a halt at that point the Russian would still have to do their own work, and getting a crew back alive was always their begging problem.

[Warren Dew]

I see the USA have withdrawn a plan for food aid to NK in response to the launch.

The U.S. always reneges on those deals.

Okay, the U.S. is always too stupid to write the obvious conditions into the deal.

[FBM]

IIRC, Clinton managed a deal with NK in which they would shut down their nuke facilities under monitoring, in exchange for regular shipments of oil. But then the Republican-majority Congress refused to honor/fund it, so after waiting for a while, NK kicked out the monitors and went back to their nuke program. My time line on that may be shuffled up a bit, tho. Neither history nor politics is my strong point.

[Warren Dew]

IIRC, Clinton managed a deal with NK in which they would shut down their nuke facilities under monitoring, in exchange for regular shipments of oil. But then the Republican-majority Congress refused to honor/fund it, so after waiting for a while, NK kicked out the monitors and went back to their nuke program. My time line on that may be shuffled up a bit, tho. Neither history nor politics is my strong point.

The deal with the Clinton administration was that they would quit pursuing nuclear weapons in exchange for us building a civilian power plant for them. The power plant construction fell way behind; it was never clear to me whether that was because of us dragging our feet or because of delays normal for the nuclear industry. Either way, North Korea started work on their nuclear weapons program again.

I think it was when the Bush administration came in that they substituted shipments of heavy fuel oil for the nuclear plant. Then that got cancelled for political reasons, I think - though there might have been suspicions that North Korea was pursuing a uranium bomb when what they'd promised to halt was their plutonium bomb program. There was also some food aid in there, though my recollection is that the food aid wasn't so much a part of a deal as it was an agricultural price support in the U.S.

I'm sure the North Koreans just see us as incorrigible cheats. Of course, since what they're doing is essentially blackmail, maybe they shouldn't expect too much.