US Prepares for Possible Missile Launch

[jasmine]

http://news.aol.com/article/n-korea-missile-hawaii/527048




US Prepares for Possible Missile Launch
VIJAY JOSHI
,

SEOUL, South Korea (June 19) -- The United States says it has deployed anti-missile defenses around Hawaii, following reports that North Korea is preparing to fire its most advanced ballistic missile in that direction to coincide with the U.S. Independence Day holiday next month.

Last week, the communist regime vowed to bolster its nuclear arsenal and threatened war to protest U.N. sanctions in the wake of its May 25 nuclear test. It conducted its first nuclear test in April, and there are suspicions it is preparing for a third.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that the military has set up additional defenses around Hawaii, consisting of a ground-based mobile missile system and a radar system nearby. Together they could shoot an incoming missile in mid air.

"Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say ... we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory," Gates told reporters in Washington.

Gates' comments come after Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported that North Korea might test fire a Taepodong-2 missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), sometime around the U.S. holiday of Independence Day on July 4.

Yomiuri said the missile, which could be launched from North Korea's Tongchang-ri site, would fly over Japan but would not be able to reach Hawaii, which is about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

North Korea test-fired a similar long-range missile on July 4 three years ago, but it failed seconds after liftoff.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on Yomiuri's report, which cited an analysis by Japan's Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

South Korea's government also remained silent on the report, but made a general appeal to North Korea to follow international norms.

"We hope that North Korea, first of all (will) give up nuclear ambitions and abide by the agreement that we made in 1992 -- that is, a basic agreement for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo told reporters.

The sanctions mandated by the U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea call on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas — with the owner country's approval — if they believe the cargo contains banned weapons.

In what would be the first test case for the sanctions, the U.S. military has begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam, which left a port in North Korea on Wednesday, two U.S. officials said.
The ship, which may be carrying illicit weapons, was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China on Thursday, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were discussing intelligence.

It was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but it has been involved in weapons proliferation before, one of the officials said.
Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs are centerpieces of the regime's catalog of weapons of mass destruction.

On Thursday, the independent International Crisis Group said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."

Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa in Tokyo, Jae-soon Chang in Seoul, and Anne Gearan, Pauline Jelinek and Jeannine Aversa in Washington contributed to this report.

[whatever]

NOw is NOT the time to be pissing these idiots off and I'm sorry but I don't have faith in Obamas ability to NOT do that.........

[jasmine]

Has anyone heard anything else about this? Empty threats? Over excitement?

[ahippiechic]

We're flying today, so I know it's gonna be a ***** going thru security.

[hesnothere]

Just this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070400061.html?hpid=topnews

TOKYO, July 4 -- Defying the United States on Independence Day, North Korea fired seven missiles on Saturday into the sea off its east coast.

North Korea has threatened to launch another long-range missile. But it is believed to need at least several days of preparation before a launch, and no such preparations have yet been observed, according to military officials in Seoul.

[SHELBYDOG]

Umm, the missiles were launched & got like 300-350 miles! :duck

[Bahet]

Good thing we went after Iraq instead of N Korea or Iran. :rolleyes

[SHELBYDOG]

In N. Korea, Missiles Herald A Defiant 4th
Seven Are Launched on U.S. Holiday



By Blaine Harden and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 5, 2009

TOKYO, July 4 -- Taunting the United States on its birthday, North Korea fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan early Saturday in a provocative move that some experts said might have been intended to discourage deployment of new missile defenses against the communist state.

The Independence Day launch was the North's biggest one-day barrage of test missiles in three years. It drew strong criticism from countries in the region, as well as renewed resolve from the Obama administration to punish Pyongyang for its continued defiance of U.N. resolutions.

The seven rockets splashed harmlessly into the sea, and U.S. analysts said all appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets less than 350 miles away. Some independent experts said the firing of multiple missiles may have been intended as a warning to adversaries that North Korea would seek to overwhelm their missile shields.

"The chief challenge with missile defense is coping with large numbers of missiles, and the firing of seven has a saturation quality to it," said Dennis M. Gormley, a former member of numerous military and intelligence advisory boards and a senior fellow at the Monterey Institute's James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington. "It at least raises the specter of these kinds of attacks."

Pyongyang made no comment Saturday about the missiles. But launches had been expected this weekend because North Korea had warned ships to avoid waters near its east coast through July 10.

In Washington, the Obama administration reacted with dismay to the latest in a series of North Korean provocations that included an underground nuclear test on Memorial Day.

"This type of North Korean behavior is not helpful," said State Department spokesman Karl Duckworth. "What North Korea needs to do is fulfill its international obligations and commitments."

A senior administration official predicted the tests will lead to the further isolation of North Korea, which was hit with new U.N. Security Council sanctions last month after its May 25 nuclear test. "It's not going to change anything, and we're going to continue to implement these sanctions in the resolution," said the official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified.

The sanctions have infuriated the government of Kim Jong Il, which responded to them by vowing last month never to give up nuclear weapons and to start making more with enriched uranium.

When challenged, North Korea has a history of rattling its military hardware. It fired four short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast on Thursday, when senior U.S. diplomats were in Beijing trying to persuade the Chinese to be more diligent in enforcing sanctions against the North.

After North Korea's warning to local shipping traffic, there had been speculation that it might attempt a longer-range missile test, possibly firing one of its 4,000-mile-range Taepodong-2 missiles in the direction of Hawaii. But U.S. analysts said Saturday there are no indications that such a launch is imminent.

Such an act would have been far more provocative, said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. "In that sense, at least, today's launch could have been far worse," he said.

North Korea's neighbors sharply condemned the new launches. South Korea's foreign ministry called them a "provocative act" that violates several Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from all ballistic missile activity. The South Korean military said it is "fully ready to counter any North Korean threats and provocations based on strong South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture." The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Military officials in both countries told reporters that the North Korean missiles appeared to variants of the Scud, a Soviet-era weapon with a range of about 300 miles.

Government officials quoted in Japanese and South Korean news accounts said the missiles may have been Nodongs, a modified, longer-range Scud. North Korea has more than 200 of these missiles, which are capable of striking nearly all of Japan. The Japanese government considers them a serious threat, and it spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years buying two U.S.-made antimissile defense systems.

North Korea's recent belligerence, in the view of many analysts, is related to a succession underway in Pyongyang. Kim is 67 years old and has appeared frail since suffering a stroke last summer.

Warrick reported from Washington. Staff writer Scott Wilson contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070400061.html?wprss=rss_world

[SHELBYDOG]

NOw is NOT the time to be pissing these idiots off and I'm sorry but I don't have faith in Obamas ability to NOT do that.........

I thinking these idiots are simply idiots & Obama didn't have to stop anything, these missiles didn't even make it to Japan.

[Jolie Rouge]

North Korea Test-Fires Seven Missiles, Drawing Condemnation
By Saeromi Shin

July 4 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea test fired seven short- range missiles, two days after launching four rockets, spurring condemnations from the U.S., South Korea and Japan.

The launches took place between 8 a.m. and 5:40 p.m. today, from Kitdaeryong in Kangwon province, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in statements. “South Korea’s military is fully prepared to deal with any threats and provocations by the North, based on a strong joint defense alliance with the U.S.,” the statements added.

North Korea fired the missiles off its east cost, Yonhap news reported earlier, citing a government official. The missiles are estimated to have a range of as much as 500 kilometers (310 miles), enough for the North to strike most of South Korea, the Korean-language news agency said.

The communist nation fired four short-range missiles on July 2 in defiance of United Nations sanctions imposed after a nuclear test. North Korea has used such launches in the past to counter international condemnation of its nuclear program. The regime fired six short-range missiles in May, after its detonation of a nuclear bomb.

The UN Security Council approved measures on June 12 to curb financial transactions with North Korea and to prevent the country from proliferating weapons of mass destruction after it conducted the nuclear test on May 25. The atomic detonation followed the North’s launch in April of a ballistic missile technically capable of reaching Alaska.

U.S. South Korea, Japan

The U.S. is “closely monitoring” North Korea’s activities, said Karl Duckworth, a State Department spokesman, in a telephone interview today. “North Korea should refrain from actions that aggravate tensions and instead focus on denuclearization talks and implementation of its commitments” from 2005 to abandon nuclear weapons, Duckworth said.

Japan condemned the North Korean launches, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said today in a faxed statement.

They violate United Nations Security Council resolutions 1695 and 1718, Kawamura said in the statement. The missiles probably fell into the Sea of Japan, he said.

South Korea also condemned the firings, calling them a “provocative act.” The South Korean government expressed “deep regret” that North continues to escalate tensions in Northeast Asia, the nation’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site today.

Warning of Retaliation

The UN resolutions authorize inspections of air or sea cargo suspected of containing material usable in the development of nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. The U.S. Navy has been tracking a North Korean ship that it suspects may be carrying illicit weapons technology.

North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, has repeatedly warned that any move to seize its ships would be met with military retaliation.

North Korea walked out of international talks to dismantle its nuclear program, kicked UN inspectors out of the country and declared it will continue to develop its nuclear arms, including starting a program for highly enriched uranium.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yu Myung Hwan said in a July 2 interview that the government “doesn’t take these short-range missiles as seriously as it would a mid-range missile or a long- range missile.”

The U.S. doesn’t see any indication North Korea is poised to test a long-range ballistic missile capable of landing near the Hawaiian Islands, according to four government officials.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayZKFRte_kus



I thinking these idiots are simply idiots ...

:yeah:


...Obama didn't have to stop anything, these missiles didn't even make it to Japan.

Japan - our allies - or South Korea - also our allies ... I’m not real comfortable with any innocent folks getting popped by a nuke by a whim of some egomaniacal, crazed dictator.

Also, the experts are weighing in : http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529814,00.html


Experts Find Soviet Parts in North Korean Missile

“With concerns rising about a possible North Korean long-range missile test this weekend, two independent scientists say the regime may be using an old Soviet ballistic missile to boost a rocket capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States.”

As “Barney Fife” was fond of saying ” Nip it in the bud!” It’s a can that can’t be kept on a permanent kick-it-down-the-road status.

SCUDs can be fired from a mobile platform (remember Saddam’s?) and could conceivably be fired from a container ship. If they can get within 300 km of any country’s coast, they have the ability to hit that country.

[jasmine]

like I have said here before in other posts, N. Korea is one country that I have been scared of, don't know why, just one of those gut feelings, just seeing their military so dignified marching all in a row, and they are just plain mean and nuts.

Why does it seem we are not hearing any of this on TV news, just have to find it on the internet? Atleast I havn't been hearing it on TV.

[galeane29]

like I have said here before in other posts, N. Korea is one country that I have been scared of, don't know why, just one of those gut feelings, just seeing their military so dignified marching all in a row, and they are just plain mean and nuts.

Why does it seem we are not hearing any of this on TV news, just have to find it on the internet? Atleast I havn't been hearing it on TV.

I've been hearing about it on FOX

Also, the other stations have more important things to report about dontcha know? You know like Michael Jackson's death and other celebrity news.