North Korea Taunts War against Japan and USA

[Luke_Wilbur]

North Korea's test-firing of several missiles has sparked world outrage.

[HailtotheChief]

As we all were celebrating our Independence Day with grand displays of fireworks, North Korea attempted its own fireworks and test-fired at least seven missiles, including the medium-range Taepodong-2, designed to theoretically reach Alaska. Although the Taepodong-2 test technically failed, politically it succeeded in drawing attention to the threat that North Korea still poses not only to the United States, but to its Asian neighbors who unsuccessfully tried to stop the North's test.

 

I think we should drop paint bombs and splatter the capital city, Pyongyang, in protest.

[Guest concerned]

Chinese President Hu Jintao told Bush that China is committed to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and opposed to any actions that might intensify the situation, according to a statement from the .

 

Hu said China is "deeply concerned" over the current situation. "Under such a complicated situation, it is highly necessary for all the related parties to keep calm and show restraint."

 

Unless I do not know something, I think that we did not provoke this confrontation.

[Luke_Wilbur]

Despite international appeals, North Korea has gone ahead with a long publicised rocket launch. Authorities from the United States, Japan, and South Korea confirm that the rocket lifted off at 11.32 local time (02.30 GMT) on Sunday April 5, 2009.

 

"A short time ago a flying object appeared to have been launched from North Korea," read a statement by the Japanese government. The rocket seems to have passed over the Japanese capital of Tokyo and headed over the Pacific Ocean. Two parts of the rocket, the first and second stages, fell either side of the Japanese home islands, falling into the Sea of Japan and the Pacific.

 

A statement by the North Korean official news agency said that the rocket had successfully launched a satellite which is now broadcasting "data" and North Korean propaganda songs. A South Korean source told the South Korean Yunhap news agency that the rocket did appear to be carrying a satellite. The North Korean statement calls the rocket Unha-2 ("Galaxy-2") and the satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 ("Lodestar 2").

 

The Unha or Eunha（Galaxy) is a North Korean expendable carrier rocket, which experts say utilises the same delivery system as the Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile. The designation Unha-2 has also been used to refer to the rocket, however it has not been confirmed whether this is part of the name, or a serial number for an individual rocket.

 

The Taepodong-2 is a designation a North Korean three-stage ballistic missile design that is the successor to the Taepodong-1. Very little is currently known about the missile design. Based on the size of the missile, the fuel composition, and the likely fuel capacity, it is estimated that a two stage variant would have a range of around 4,000 km (2,500 statute miles) and a three stage variant would be capable of reaching as far as 4,500 km (2,800 statute miles), giving it potentially the longest range in the North Korean missile arsenal. The burn time of each stage is a little over 100 seconds, thus allowing the missile to burn for 5 or 6 minutes. Future highly speculative variants of the missile could be capable of a range of approximately 9,000 km (5,600 statute miles). At maximum range, the Taepodong-2 is estimated to have a payload capacity of less than 500 kg.

 

President Obama of the United States condemned the launch as "provocative" and stated that "North Korea has ignored its international obligations...and further isolated itself from the community of nations." America, Japan and South Korea will discuss the launch at an emergency UN Security Council meeting at 15:00 EDT (1900 GMT).

 

Pyongyang's one ally, China, has called for "restraint" on all sides. Both China and fellow veto power Russia oppose further sanctions on North Korea.

 

Resolution 1718 enacted in the wake of a stated 2006 nuclear weapons test bans North Korea from missile development. North Korea claims that the rocket is a launch vehicle to orbit a satellite, however its neighbours suggest that this is simply a cover for a long-range missile test, a missile that could potentially hit Alaska and the West Coast of the United States.

 

 

DigitalGlobe

[Guest Jacob]

North Korea is getting this technology from the Chinese.

[Guest Merle David Kellerhals Jr.]

The United States is prepared if North Korea launches a long-range ballistic missile in the direction of Hawaii near the July 4 weekend, President Obama says.

 

“This administration, and our military, is fully prepared for any contingencies,” Obama said in a CBS News interview broadcast June 22.

 

North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons test in May and launched a Taepondong-2 long-range ballistic missile in April. After the weapons test, the U.N. Security Council June 12 voted unanimously to impose a new set of economic, trade and security sanctions on North Korea. The Security Council also unanimously condemned the April rocket launch.

 

Since then, numerous sources have indicated that North Korea appears set on testing another long-range missile, an act that is prohibited by a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution.

 

“I don’t want to speculate on hypotheticals,” the president said of North Korea’s purported missile threat. “But I do want to give assurances to the American people that the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted in terms of what might happen.”

 

“What we’re not going to do is to reward belligerence and provocation in the way that’s been done in the past,” the president said.

 

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a Pentagon press briefing June 18 that he has ordered additional precautions should North Korea choose to launch a long-range missile toward Hawaii.

 

“So without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say, we are, I think we are in a good position, should it become necessary to protect American territory,” Gates said.

 

North Korea’s Taepondong-2 missile reportedly has a maximum range of 6,700 kilometers, enough to reach Hawaii, Alaska and most of East Asia. However, the April launch failed soon after liftoff and plunged into the Pacific Ocean, similar to a 2006 launch that failed on liftoff.

 

Noting that South Korea, Japan and the Security Council, which includes Russia, China, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, unanimously agreed June 12 on the additional sanctions after concluding that North Korea has violated international law, Obama said, “I think the international community here has spoken.”

 

“One of the things that we have been very clear about is that North Korea has a path toward rejoining the international community, and we hope they take that path,” Obama said.

 

Defense Under Secretary Michele Flournoy is scheduled to meet with Chinese defense officials in Beijing June 23–24 for the U.S.-China Defense Consultative Talks. The issue of North Korea and its missile tests is expected to be a significant part of the talks. Flournoy is expected to travel on to Seoul for further talks with South Korean officials.

 

China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia have been conducting multilateral discussions with North Korea — known as the Six-Party Talks — to convince the regime of Kim Jong-il to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

 

And the U.S. Navy is tracking the whereabouts of the 2,000-ton North Korean-flagged, cargo ship Kang Nam after it left Nampo, a port near the North Korean capital Pyongyang on June 17. Admiral Mike Mullen, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said in a Pentagon press briefing June 18 that the United States would enforce the terms of the latest U.N. Security Council resolution (1874), which is designed to stop North Korea from exporting nuclear weapons, weapons’ materials or missiles and missile parts.

 

That resolution includes provisions for interdicting ships suspected of carrying such prohibited cargo.

[Guest wiki]

North Korea threatened "powerful nuclear deterrence" on Saturday in response to military drills supported by the U.S. and held by South Korea.

 

The National Defense Comission of North Korea, headed by their leader Kim Jong-il, declared that they would "counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces" in a "retaliatory sacred war." Ri Tong-il, an official with North Korea’s delegation to the ASEAN security forum, had said earlier that they would show a "physical response" to the drills. Though Japan sent four military observers in apparent support of the drills, China criticized the plans.

 

Tensions had recently become especially high in both sides of Korea after the sinking of a Cheonan warship in South Korea, killing over 40 people. An international investigation concluded that the warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo. North Korea still strongly denies any involvement in the incident, calling the results "fabricated" and refusing to apologize. "If anyone should apologize," said Ri, "it should be South Korea, responsible for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of an explosion."

 

Despite this, on 25 July 2010, the US and South Korea began their major military drills together in the Sea of Japan.

[Guest Rex]

Things do not look very bright at this moment.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_hCAu8dHbU

[Guest human]

I'm still waiting for Japan to get into the mix militarily. Then China is going to be popping aspirin by the bucketful.

 

I still won't forget that time when the Japanese hostages came back from Iraq. Remember the reception that they got back at home for coming back alive? Wow Wee!!

 

God help north korea if it ever attacks Japan, because Japan won’t forgive.

 

 

 

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Things do not look very bright at this moment.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_hCAu8dHbU