Just as the mission planners predicted.

As real estate prices rise, urban planners predict that new service by the fleet of 46 high-speed trains will stretch Seoul into an oval-shaped megalopolis.

Ten years ago, planners were predicting oil at $75 or $100 a barrel in the 90's.

But those numbers are far short of the capacity of 160,000 flights a year that planners predicted would be achieved by now.

By 2010, planners predict a quadrupling of nuclear output to 16 billion kilowatt-hours and a doubling of that figure by 2015.

"More parking is needed for commuters and shoppers; the planners never predicted the growth that we've seen in recent years."

Communist officials and economic planners, who used to spend much of their time praising the virtues of socialist economies, are now predicting hard times.

The issue is not whether planners can predict precisely where and when future threats will emerge.

But opponents of the plan say translating the theory into practice will be much harder than planners predict.