North Korean missiles launched

[Tigers!]

Since North Korea has started launching att of those missiles what is the status once they leave NK airspace or territory?
Are they 'fair game' to be intercepted by another party?

At present their is much fear and concern and the NK is getting some sort of morbid pleasure in cowering their neighbours and seeing their missiles fly away?

Obviously intercepting them will have its own ramifications but are Japan, US et al have some justification to possibly intercept once outside NK control?

 

[bilby]

Given the woeful performance of their latest "ICBM" launch, which didn't even get as far as the Japanese coast, it seems that the DPRK are doing a fine job of bringing their own missiles down before they are a threat to anyone else.

 

[steve_bank]

Kim Jomg-Un's obviously phallic masturbatory gestures. It doesn't take a PHD in psychology to see that.

 

[Gospel]

Shoot it down then say "my bad, our missile test collided with your missile test".

 

[Jarhyn]

Shoot it down then say "my bad, our missile test collided with your missile test".

More "finders keepers; you didn't file a flight plan and it wasn't approved by the country of destination so we shot down the unidentified aircraft over our airspace. We found it, and we kept it... Blown apart in several pieces."

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So long as they are in international waters it's certainly not legal to shoot them down. I believe it would be legal to shoot them down if they pass through a country's airspace--but note the keyword: air. I'm not sure what is considered the top of the airspace but it doesn't go to infinity, it's not legal to shoot down a spacecraft that flies over your country.

 

[bilby]

So long as they are in international waters it's certainly not legal to shoot them down. I believe it would be legal to shoot them down if they pass through a country's airspace--but note the keyword: air. I'm not sure what is considered the top of the airspace but it doesn't go to infinity, it's not legal to shoot down a spacecraft that flies over your country.

The top of controlled airspace is at FL600 (~60,000ft). If something flies over your country below this level, without your permission, you are generally within your rights to shoot it down.

The bottom of space is the Kármán Line at 100km (~328,084ft). If something flies over your country above this level, you are generally expected not to interfere with it, and doing so is likely to cause a diplomatic incident. As is shooting down someone else's stuff at any altitude, above international waters.

The legal status of anything above your sovereign state, but between these two altitudes, is basically undefined; If you have the capability to shoot it down, you likely have the international clout to claim that you had the right to do so, but as far as I am aware, there are currently no international treaties that either support or undermine such claims.

So the Soviets shooting down U2 spy planes at ~FL800 was in the grey area, with the USSR being permitted to do it on the "if you don't like it, try fucking invading us to make us say sorry, or STFU" principle.

As the DPRK doesn't really have the capability to punish Japan (or the US) for shooting down North Korean missiles in that airspace, it's presumably permitted, on the basis of the longstanding "what are you going to do about it, punk?" doctrine.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So long as they are in international waters it's certainly not legal to shoot them down. I believe it would be legal to shoot them down if they pass through a country's airspace--but note the keyword: air. I'm not sure what is considered the top of the airspace but it doesn't go to infinity, it's not legal to shoot down a spacecraft that flies over your country.

The top of controlled airspace is at FL600 (~60,000ft). If something flies over your country below this level, without your permission, you are generally within your rights to shoot it down.

The bottom of space is the Kármán Line at 100km (~328,084ft). If something flies over your country above this level, you are generally expected not to interfere with it, and doing so is likely to cause a diplomatic incident. As is shooting down someone else's stuff at any altitude, above international waters.

The legal status of anything above your sovereign state, but between these two altitudes, is basically undefined; If you have the capability to shoot it down, you likely have the international clout to claim that you had the right to do so, but as far as I am aware, there are currently no international treaties that either support or undermine such claims.

So the Soviets shooting down U2 spy planes at ~FL800 was in the grey area, with the USSR being permitted to do it on the "if you don't like it, try fucking invading us to make us say sorry, or STFU" principle.

As the DPRK doesn't really have the capability to punish Japan (or the US) for shooting down North Korean missiles in that airspace, it's presumably permitted, on the basis of the longstanding "what are you going to do about it, punk?" doctrine.

The top of controlled airspace isn't the top of where you have authority. I suspect the dividing line is the Karman line but I'm not sure on that. (And the Karman line is problematic, there have been operational spacecraft that have gone below it. You can't remain below it and stay in space but it's possible to have a lower periapsis on a short term basis and if you're doing an aerocapture maneuver you certainly want to be below it for a while. I'm not aware of anyone ever doing an aerocapture at Earth but it doesn't strike me as out of the question for bringing something back from deep space. I've certainly done it with Kerbals on occasion but whether it's actually more efficient or just a failure of their model I don't know. (Once you make the first blazing pass to get below escape velocity you can slowly bleed off your apoapsis without getting hot enough to burn your shield, you only need it again once you run out of altitude. Note that their model is definitely bugged in this regard, stay prograde for the bleeding passes.)

 

[bilby]

The top of controlled airspace isn't the top of where you have authority.

According to international treaties, it is.

Between FL600 and the Kármán Line is the wild frontier; Authority belongs to anyone who has the ability to wield it.