Comments on: Splish Splash: North Korea’s Missile Took a Bath

By: Chuck S.

Chuck S. — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:22:14 +0000

My take: The Beloved Leader of N. Korea loves international attention, is one of the world’s great egos, probably has a Napoleon little-person complex (compared with westerners), has no qualms about starving his populus or defying other nations, with the possible exception of China which provides him with many supplies, and can magnify any/all of this by becoming a reliable international nuclear weapon and missile source, highest bidders please line up at the back door. This makes him very dangerous. Taking him out could really piss China off, which also is dangerous. He is a gigantic pain in the ass. He is a conundrum. At least that’s how I view him.
CS

By: fred heidrick

fred heidrick — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:20:33 +0000

amaerica has a 747 jumbo jet with a laser under its nose maybe the jet shot the missile down with the laser leaving no evidence.

By: Pat Racimora

Pat Racimora — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:55:31 +0000

Thanks Sassy and the others who made nice comments about the toon. It was fun to draw.

By: Pat Racimora

Pat Racimora — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:54:23 +0000

Yep–You are right. I didn’t use quite the right words. I was just thinking that when people who don’t have it right are close or have borders with any country it is a scary thing.

By: Sassy

Sassy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:20:36 +0000

I love the cartoon Pat!
Although it is a serious problem for the world, all I could visualize was that little commie strapped to the tip of that flying thing-a-ma-jig!
What screeching! LOL!

By: BARB

BARB — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:06:59 +0000

I find it very difficult to believe anything from an administration that literally stole the election…by stealing the nomination from Hillary Clinton or the MSM that went along with it. Where and from who is the news coming from that the NK missile launch was a failure? Sounds like another invention…just like the recent one saying that an assassination attempt was planned against BO in Turkey!!!! Since NK totally ignored the so-called threats (meaningless and empty) by the BO administration, the next best plan they came up with is to tell all of the Obamatrons…that it really didn’t matter that NK totally ignored BO, as the NK launch was a failure.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:44:20 +0000

China always walks a fine line in its relationship with the DPRK, and this case is no different. Its top priority does seem to be to preserve the North Korean state as a buffer between China and the U.S. sphere of influence. China clearly wants reform from North Korea, just not at the expense of it as a viable state.

Anyway, my interest in the situation is mostly from the Japanese perspective because I spend a lot of time there, but these are some articles on the Chinese/Russian side of the alliance that may be of interest.

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-02/2007-02-07-voa73.cfm

http://freekorea.us/2008/02/27/shafted-winners-losers-and-casualties-of-the-north-korean-mines/

By: elise

elise — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:40:27 +0000

Thanks for the link Don. It is my understanding there is a large quantity of nuclear material unaccounted for from the time of the fall of the Soviet Union. They didn’t guard it too well apparently. Some of it may have been intended for nuclear reactors, but some of it was enriched.

By: elise

elise — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:30:44 +0000

I believe Israel test fired an Arrow missile on Sunday. Lots of things flying around in the air right now.

By: JozefAL

JozefAL — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:06:30 +0000

Just a point of correction (call it a nitpick if you want, but the point remains), but by NO STRETCH of the imagination is North Korea “partially landlocked”. If it is, then you’ve redefined “landlocked”. A country which is “landlocked” is one that is completely surrounded by land (it’s “locked” in by “land”–hence, “landlocked”). Examples of landlocked countries include Bolivia, Switzerland, and Mongolia.
Some countries, like Iraq and Dem Rep of Congo are effectively landlocked because the coastlines they have are very small and surrounded by countries with much larger coastlines. With countries like these, any breach in diplomatic relations with the neighboring country/countries can cut off the coastline completely with the country dependent upon a friendly neighboring country.
With North Korea, however, the country has extensive coastlines on both its east and its west. The eastern coast is on the Sea of Japan, with an excess of 500 miles between the North Korean and Japanese coastlines (at the closest). North Korea’s western coast is the Bay of Korea, a part of the Yellow Sea. (Incidentally, if China should test missiles by launching them to sea, a failure would risk hitting Japan, the Ryukyu Islands or Taiwan, but almost no one would describe China as “partially landlocked”.)

By: TeakwoodKite

TeakwoodKite — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:31:35 +0000

Great work Pat. Another Classic.

By: TeakwoodKite

TeakwoodKite — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:30:10 +0000

It is instructive to remind folks that we went through a lot of failed launches before we got “The Right Stuff”.

It is problematic that the North Koreans will learn from this as we did. As will the Iranians, since the technology has aspects in common in this case.

How many millions of parts does a space shuttle have?

By: TeakwoodKite

TeakwoodKite — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:22:23 +0000

LOL

By: Don X

Don X — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:22:05 +0000

Terrific cartoon and important issue, well presented, Pat. Nuclear proliferation is an issue for the world to continue to take seriously. I thought your comments were on target, Rich For a recent report on progress toward non-proliferation that has been done internationally to date, you may be interested in the site below from the World Nuclear Association which represents people and organizations of the global nuclear profession.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf12.html

By: Sonic Ninja Kitty

Sonic Ninja Kitty — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:50:30 +0000

Sorry–I didn’t mean to be cavalier about the people in Hawaii–just trying to say the North Koreans are well aware of what the reaction to an actual offense would be.