Future bright for projectiles

You may have seen one of a number of headlines, such as the following from the Guardian: "US west coast may be within North Korean missile range, says Seoul." (North) Korean News, not surprisingly, has a number of stories about the "satellite" launch, including not-too-subtle hints as to the military significance. For instance, "Title of DPRK Hero Awarded to Contributors to Successful Launch of Satellite":

The title of DPRK Hero, gold star medals and Orders of National Flag (First Class) were awarded to Choe Chun Sik and 100 other scientists, technicians, workers and officials.

By successfully launching satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2 they instilled great national self-esteem and conviction of sure victory into the service personnel and people of the DPRK and dealt a sledge-hammer blow at the hostile forces' desperate moves to check the advance of the DPRK. They also made a great contribution to remarkably raising the international prestige and influence of the DPRK.

A decree was promulgated by the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK in this regard on Saturday.

Iran is denying that if had anything to do with recent North Korean missile advances:

Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics has denied that Iran cooperates with North Korea on missiles and expert exchange.

Brigadier General Ahmed Vahidi, Minister of Defense described the claims as ‘only speculations’ and said that Islamic Republic of Iran has not sent experts on missiles to North Korea.

In providing a response to the question on sending expert on missiles to North Korea, Vahidi said that no expert had been sent.

Iran admitted most of its role in supplying missile technology to Hamas (and got thanked publically for the rest) and it loves to take credit for things. We are bound to see more interesting statements from Iranian officials. Stay tuned.