Well, here we go. I have no idea what the ramifications or "fall out" will be from this, but MSNBC has this headline up right now: North Korea launches rocket, Japan says Missile reportedly was traveling over Japanese islands
The rocket is supposed to fly over Japan, dropping boosters to its west and east on a path that runs southwest of Hawaii.
So, are we glad that Obama's in office instead of McCain?
Sorry for the short diary. If we don't get some informative discussion going here, I'll delete this and just write this off as a way of informing the community of breaking news. Maybe some folks smarter than me can speculate on the long term ramifications of this, internationally and politically.
Edit: the MSNBC article says:
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday the international community would take action if North Korea went ahead with the launch to show Pyongyang it could not act with impunity.
Time to speculate on what these "actions" might be.
Update from MSNBC:
The Japanese government said the rocket flew over Japan and its second booster stage had splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, indicating the launch had been successful.
2nd Update:
The Japanese government asked for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council after the rocket flew over its territory.
Looks like the Japanese are taking their complaints to the UN.