North Korea Tests Another Missile in the Yellow Sea

At about the same time it was given out that Napoleon had arranged to sell the pile of timber to Mr. Pilkington; he was also going to enter into a regular agreement for the exchange of certain products between Animal Farm and Foxwood. The relations between Napoleon and Pilkington, though they were only conducted through Whymper, were now almost friendly. The animals distrusted Pilkington, as a human being, but greatly preferred him to Frederick, whom they both feared and hated. As the summer wore on, and the windmill neared completion, the rumours of an impending treacherous attack grew stronger and stronger. Frederick, it was said, intended to bring against them twenty men all armed with guns, and he had already bribed the magistrates and police, so that if he could once get hold of the title-deeds of Animal Farm they would ask no questions. Moreover, terrible stories were leaking out from Pinchfield about the cruelties that Frederick practised upon his animals. He had flogged an old horse to death, he starved his cows, he had killed a dog by throwing it into the furnace, he amused himself in the evenings by making cocks fight with splinters of razor-blade tied to their spurs. The animals’ blood boiled with rage when they heard of these things beingdone to their comrades, and sometimes they clamoured to be allowed to go out in a body and attack Pinchfield Farm, drive out the humans, and set the animals free. But Squealer counselled them to avoid rash actions and trust in Comrade Napoleon’s strategy.

Nevertheless, feeling against Frederick continued to run high. One Sunday morning Napoleon appeared in the barn and explained that he had never at any time contemplated selling the pile of timber to Frederick; he considered it beneath his dignity, he said, to have dealings with scoundrels of that description. The pigeons who were still sent out to spread tidings of the Rebellion were forbidden to set foot anywhere on Foxwood, and were also ordered to drop their former slogan of “Death to Humanity” in favour of “Death to Frederick.” [George Orwell, Animal Farm]

It’s pretty eerie when you consider that Orwell wrote this in 1946.

At around 12:30 p.m. on Friday, North Korea launched one missile on Cho Island near Nampo City in South Pyongan Province. The missile was launched two months after North Korea launched three short-range missiles mobilizing naval vessels in the same region on March 28.

A government source said, “It is difficult to disclose the type and the point of impact of the missile launched by North Korea because it can reveal how we obtained the information. We are closely watching the moves of the North Korean forces while simultaneously investigating whether the missile launch was part of regular training or was for pressuring South Korea.

According to a military source, the missile is either the same type as the Soviet-made Styx surface-to-surface missile with a 40 kilometer-range launched in March or a short-range missile of a similar sort. [….]

Another government official said, “It seems that North Korean forces launched the missile to create military tension and anxiety near the Northern Limit Line (NLL). It appears that North Korea’s militarists who are recently maintaining a strong stance toward South Korea are the ones who guided the missile launch. [Donga-A Ilbo]

[Update: Sounds like it was actually three missiles.]

After this, one unnamed analyst suggests that this is somehow connected to anti-U.S. beef protests that have become the latest vehicle for South Korea’s affection for hating America (if I had said that, I wouldn’t want anyone to know my name, either).

In the same context some have analyzed that North Korea intended to intensify pressure on South Korea by crossing the NLL with its defense ships four times this year.

Since the end of March, North Korea has continued to increase pressure on the South. On the day of the missile launch, it published a bitter editorial in North Korea`s official newspaper Rodong Shinmun, and sent an equally severe telegraph notification to South Korea from its military authority.

Korean Central News Agency, the official news agency of the North Korean government, reported on Friday that Commander Park Rim Su, the North Korean chief delegate of the inter-Korean working-level military talks, sent a telegraph notification to the South reading: “The Lee Myung-bak government is mobilizing forces and right-wing anti-communist groups to spread anti-republic fly sheets that viciously denounce and slander our regime and system.

Have I mentioned how much I love Google Earth?

I can’t be certain that this is the place, but there aren’t really any other places it could be. It’s getting hard to keep a military secret nowadays.

More Google Earth fun here.