SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post

Oberon · 10-12-17, 08:52 AM

Indeed, their cyber division is top notch, it's how they get a lot of their money these days. I believe they fleeced Bangladesh for $93m not that long ago. Then it's electronically laundered and goes through shell companies in the PRC to get various things dispatched to the border regions of China where they then 'go missing' across the border into the DPRK. It's a thriving economic industry down there, which is part of the reason the PRC is so reluctant to completely shut down trade with the DPRK because it accounts for most peoples earnings in that region. That being said, they are slowly tightening the noose, so we've got to give them some credit. Of course, backing a nuclear armed state into a corner is sure to work out well.

In regards to missiles that can hit the US, we're still not 100% certain of the Hwasong-14s range, I believe the current estimate is around 10,000km, which gives it access to roughly the western half of the US. Honestly, I think that the Hwasong-14 can go further than that, we just haven't seen its full potential yet.
The 14 though is just the first step, their next goal is to transition from liquid to solid fueled missiles, as it stands they fuel them horizontally and then roll them out to firing position and launch. This gives them the opportunity to fuel them underground in hidden shelters which reduces the warning time that the US would get, but it increases the risk that when they go to erect the thing, it falls over and explodes...and yes, this has happened, but with the Hwasong-12 apparently on the 15th April test this year.
Solid fueled missiles don't have that risk, and they don't need fueling because there's no evaporation risk like the liquid fueled ones. You can keep them on standby for some time before you need to change it over, and if you have it inside a canister then you have greater protection and it's easier to reload the TEL after launching. They have the technology for solid fueled missiles and canister launchers, they just haven't done it to the size of an ICBM yet. The Pukguksong 1 and 2 are solid fueled cold launch missiles, but they are SLBMs and IRBMs respectively.
There's still one TEL that appeared in their parade which hasn't shown up yet, and that's this thing:

So they could well have some surprises left for us over the coming year. Things seem fairly quiet at Sinpo at the moment, they're constructing more buildings which is possibly to create more SSBs or a new class of SSB, but actual tests have quietened down at the moment. There was a spate of ejection tests which had people thinking we might be seeing a new solid fueled missile coming into play since the Pukguksong 1 and 2 have already been tested, or it could be that they're working on a new ejection system for the submarine, since one of their test launches broke the conning tower.

10-12-17, 08:52 AM	#740
Oberon Lucky Jack Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 25,976 Downloads: 61 Uploads: 20	Indeed, their cyber division is top notch, it's how they get a lot of their money these days. I believe they fleeced Bangladesh for $93m not that long ago. Then it's electronically laundered and goes through shell companies in the PRC to get various things dispatched to the border regions of China where they then 'go missing' across the border into the DPRK. It's a thriving economic industry down there, which is part of the reason the PRC is so reluctant to completely shut down trade with the DPRK because it accounts for most peoples earnings in that region. That being said, they are slowly tightening the noose, so we've got to give them some credit. Of course, backing a nuclear armed state into a corner is sure to work out well. In regards to missiles that can hit the US, we're still not 100% certain of the Hwasong-14s range, I believe the current estimate is around 10,000km, which gives it access to roughly the western half of the US. Honestly, I think that the Hwasong-14 can go further than that, we just haven't seen its full potential yet. The 14 though is just the first step, their next goal is to transition from liquid to solid fueled missiles, as it stands they fuel them horizontally and then roll them out to firing position and launch. This gives them the opportunity to fuel them underground in hidden shelters which reduces the warning time that the US would get, but it increases the risk that when they go to erect the thing, it falls over and explodes...and yes, this has happened, but with the Hwasong-12 apparently on the 15th April test this year. Solid fueled missiles don't have that risk, and they don't need fueling because there's no evaporation risk like the liquid fueled ones. You can keep them on standby for some time before you need to change it over, and if you have it inside a canister then you have greater protection and it's easier to reload the TEL after launching. They have the technology for solid fueled missiles and canister launchers, they just haven't done it to the size of an ICBM yet. The Pukguksong 1 and 2 are solid fueled cold launch missiles, but they are SLBMs and IRBMs respectively. There's still one TEL that appeared in their parade which hasn't shown up yet, and that's this thing: So they could well have some surprises left for us over the coming year. Things seem fairly quiet at Sinpo at the moment, they're constructing more buildings which is possibly to create more SSBs or a new class of SSB, but actual tests have quietened down at the moment. There was a spate of ejection tests which had people thinking we might be seeing a new solid fueled missile coming into play since the Pukguksong 1 and 2 have already been tested, or it could be that they're working on a new ejection system for the submarine, since one of their test launches broke the conning tower.