Earlier this week, the appearance of an Iranian-style nosecone on a North Korean missile raised eyebrows all over the wonk-o-sphere. That the two countries cooperate in missile development is not exactly new news, but the images from Kim Il Sung Square gave eloquent testimony to this relationship. But just how far does the technical collaboration …
Win, Lose or Draw?
by | 2010-10-12 | 27 Comments
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 …
