Several chroniclers of The Bomb have concluded that the term “nuclear strategy” is an oxymoron. The dilemmas of crafting a nuclear strategy and planning to execute are best dealt with on paper. But even on paper, dilemmas are hard to finesse or work around — including the most basic question of what the user hopes …
Another North Korean Missile First
by | 2010-10-10 | 27 Comments
In all the hubbub over the Musudan IRBM (to say nothing of the artful illusion of hair) it was all too easy to miss that this weekend’s big parade in Pyongyang also featured the first appearance of at least one other missile. It’s a variant of the Nodong medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) with an Iranian-style …
It’s a Comb-Over!
by | 2010-10-10 | 7 Comments
Holy cow. Kim Jong Il’s famous pompadour is a comb-over! Well, now we are sure it is not a wig. My guess is that the photographer from Iran’s Mehr News Agency doesn’t get another visa to North Korea. The much bigger news, by the way, is Pollack’s other observation that the parade contains the first …
North Korea Debuts an IRBM
by | 2010-10-10 | 52 Comments
After a long wait, North Korea’s “Musudan” intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), a weapon with a reported range of 2,500 to 3,000 km, has made its first public appearance. Described as a copy of the Soviet R-27 submarine-launched ballistic missile (a.k.a. RSM-25, a.k.a. SS-N-6, a.k.a. Serb), it has never been flight-tested in North Korea, as far …
