Defense Ministry reluctant to retrieve N Korean rocket debris

Tuesday 21st April, 06:24 AM JST

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smithinjapan at 12:22 PM JST - 21st April

Would there actually be any benefit in finding it? If it indicates without a doubt whether it was a missile with a dummy warhead or satellite then I guess it has value, but is it worth the money and potential hazards?

As to claims that it belongs to North Korea, I'm actually with Ossan on this one: " If they complain, study it then drop it back down and let them get it." Agreed. I also agree with Ossan that this is a stupid statement to make before they even know where the debris is, if they can find it, etc.
Coolasapool at 12:46 PM JST - 21st April

waste of money.. bothered
unscrejects at 01:36 PM JST - 21st April

Read between the lines people. The Defense Ministry has no clue where it fell. Hell they have no idea where it flew! The US is telling them it went over Japan and that's about it. They called "In coming!" twice and were wrong both times!
nandakandamanda at 02:09 PM JST - 21st April

Smokescreen.
gogogo at 02:11 PM JST - 21st April

unscrejects: Excellent point :)
hannari at 02:25 PM JST - 21st April

What a stupid commemt to make if the debris hasn't been located yet.

I think the "retrieve" in the title is about making an agreement of intent, as is the order of doing things in Japan.

In other words, you have to agree that retrieving the thing is desirable BEFORE spending any effort/money on attempting to look for it.

It's not stupid... just a preliminary move in making decisions that the western world thinks is null, and the Japanese see as a logical first step to ensure that the important players are in agreement.
likeitis at 02:33 PM JST - 21st April

Hard to tell where the bullcrap politics start and the truth begins on this one.

Its less like Japan is reluctant and more like they simply can't.

smithinjapan: Would there actually be any benefit in finding it?

A couple. One is the political benefit of being able to scream "You lied!" at the top of your lungs. The other is throw tax money into the salvage and get a kickback.

But I think all they got is this lame attempt to try and score some points by talking about it. They want to keep this in the conscious of the Japanese mind, because the seek to exploit the fear of NK for various purposes, such as the recent talks of Japan acquiring nukes. Scumbag politicians!

What you want is the last stage, the tip, to prove outright that the rocket was not a 'satellite' and was indeed a military rocket, which it was.

Pump24, finding the tip may prove it was no satellite, yes. But you can't prove it was a missile unless there was a warhead in there. And why would they put a warhead in there and not aim it at anything? Since they hit nothing, and since they said they were not trying to hit anything, ie their words matched what happened for the most part, odds are there is either a satellite in there or a dead weight, neither of which would prove it was a missile.

Oh, yeah, I know you desperately want to believe it was a weapons test, and I know that for you the dead weight would prove that. But consider this: Even if the satelitte story was a 100 percent lie, just who is NK trying to fool? The world or their own people? It might very well just be their own people and not the world. It could also be both an internal propaganda ploy AND a weapons test at the same time.

But personally, I think the weapons test is futile and I think NK probably knows it too. I don't think they will ever be able to produce enough of them to amount to a weasel's last fart if war broke out.
smithinjapan at 02:52 PM JST - 21st April

likeitis: "But I think all they got is this lame attempt to try and score some points by talking about it. They want to keep this in the conscious of the Japanese mind, because the seek to exploit the fear of NK for various purposes, such as the recent talks of Japan acquiring nukes. Scumbag politicians!"

Believe it or not, that is something I intended to hit on in the post -- at least the first half of what you say (this announcement was made in order to keep the launch in the public eye), but alas I did not. Thanks for bringing up this point, though, as I think it's the underlying reason beyond any doubt. Otherwise I don't think there would be any reason to publicly announce 'doubts' about retrieving it rather than a flat out statement they would or would not (which will come later).
nandakandamanda at 03:37 PM JST - 21st April

If Israel is going to be on the receiving end of one of these one day, then they will want to be studying it now, if not already.
ogtob at 05:35 PM JST - 21st April

How could N. Korea claim "possession" of the final stage of the missiles since they claim a satellite is in space broadcasting revolutionary songs? They would have to claim it was fake.

I think fishing the warhead out of the water would be the best way to prove they are liars. If the Russians can plant a flag on the Arctic seabed why can't somebody go find the rocket.

Finally, if the Military don't know where the debris fell then they had no chance of shooting it down either and the missile batteries in Shinjuku park were only there for show and to give the Uyoku a stage for their black bus rants.
likeitis at 07:30 PM JST - 21st April

How could N. Korea claim "possession" of the final stage of the missiles since they claim a satellite is in space broadcasting revolutionary songs?

There is more to a final stage than just the satellite. Even if it were successful, there would still be debris. However, I think that debris would be in space. I don't think that little detail will trouble the people of NK, so I am sure they will go ahead and claim whatever is found and just tell the people its natural. Or tell them nothing.
Den Den at 10:20 PM JST - 21st April

So they can't find the satellite, couldn't shoot down the rocket, and can't even find the booster rockets. Lucky it was only one peaceful satellite-launcher and not something more sinister.
OssanAmerica at 01:46 AM JST - 22nd April

It's not stupid... just a preliminary move in making decisions that the >western world thinks is null, and the Japanese see as a logical first >step to ensure that the important players are in agreement.

I disagree. I still think it's stupid. A preliminary step would have been to declare that a search operation was being considered or planned.
butakun at 07:46 AM JST - 22nd April

I was hoping they would go and retrieve the first stage. Contrary to what the others are saying above, I am of the opinion that the retrieval of the first stage would yield lots of valuable information as to how mature their turbomachinery and rocketry are. It's true that the upper stage (or the payload itself) is more interesting from a political point of view, but the upper stages are far easier to engineer and manufacture. In rocketry, first stage design often acts as a resume of the country's techlogical maturity. It challenges almost every aspect of engineering disciplines.

Especially considering that Japan is the only country ever to have successfully retrieved a first stage from deep sea (H2 failure in 1999), I think it's a pity.
elbudamexicano at 04:44 AM JST - 23rd April

I'm sure this is all just some American CIA cover up. Let the Japanese pretend they don't care, but let the CIA find it and see how "advanced" these dudes in the backwards kingdom of DPRK really are??