Aloha: North Korea Announces Detailed Missile Flight Plan
In a transparent ploy to
legitimize their upcoming "space launch," the North Koreans submitted plans of their ballistic missile launch to UN aviation and maritime agencies yesterday. More details emerge today as the
UN's International Civil Aviation Organization releases its warning to aviators:
In a letter to ICAO earlier this week, the North said the launch would take place between April 4-8 and between 11:00 a.m. and 4.p.m. (KST), it added. Of the two potential danger areas identified, one is in waters close to Japan's northeastern area and the other is in the East Sea, according to a map released by ICAO. The map appears to show that if successful, a multi-stage rocket would fly over Japan after shedding its first booster in the East Sea.
Digging further, I found the
ICAO news release (PDF) which includes the coordinates of the two danger areas where the North Korean missile will drop its booster stages and created this map:
Connecting the dots between the launch site (orange triangle) and the two danger zones where the two stages will splash (red triangles), we can see where the missle could head --- again, according to the North Koreans themselves:
- They indeed plan to overfly Japan, shedding the first booster in the Sea of Japan.
- Depending on the range of the missile, the trajectory is making a bee-line for Hawaii.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Welcome,
Jules Crittenden,
LGF and
Campaign Spot readers.
Could it actually reach Hawaii? Who knows ... but the North Koreans did recently test an ICBM engine that would
put California in reach. Whether that engine will power this missile is unknown.