North Korean officials confirmed on February 24 that their country is making preparations to launch a communications satellite, a move that would also constitute a new test of North Korean missile capabilities.
The DNI Open Source Center recently reviewed indications in the North Korean press (pdf) that preparations for a new missile test might be underway. The OSC analysis (which pre-dated the official government confirmation of the test plans) also ventured an interpretation of the meaning of such a test.
“Almost certainly aware that a launch would be seen by the international community as provocative, Pyongyang appears to be deliberately raising the stakes, possibly the result of a calculus that envisions making headway in bilateral negotiations if it could present itself as an equal partner,” the OSC analysis said.
The OSC document has not been approved for public release, but a copy was obtained by Secrecy News. See “Analysis: North Korean Media Campaign Signals Possible Near-Term Launch,” February 11, 2009.
As the United States continues nuclear modernization on all legs of its nuclear triad through the creation of new variants of warheads, missiles, and delivery platforms, examining the effects of nuclear weapons production on the public is ever more pressing.
“The first rule of government transformation is: there are a lot of rules. And there should be-ish. But we don’t need to wait for permission to rewrite them. Let’s go fix and build some things and show how it’s done.”
To better understand what might drive the way we live, learn, and work in 2050, we’re asking the community to share their expertise and thoughts about how key factors like research and development infrastructure and automation will shape the trajectory of the ecosystem.
Recognizing the power of the national transportation infrastructure expert community and its distributed expertise, ARPA-I took a different route that would instead bring the full collective brainpower to bear around appropriately ambitious ideas.