Posted on 05/01/2005 5:17:40 AM PDT by Raycpa
Report: N. Korea May Have Fired Missile
1 hour, 20 minutes ago
The U.S. military informed Japan that North Korea may have fired a short-range missile toward the Sea of Japan on Sunday morning, Kyodo News service and national broadcaster NHK reported.
The reports quoted unidentified government sources as saying that the U.S. military informed Japan's Defense Agency of the possible missile launch. The government was attempting to confirm the information, the reports said.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the U.S. military both refused to comment, and an official at the Japanese Defense Agency said he could not confirm the report. The South Korean defense ministry also said it could not confirm the account.
NHK said the missile was believed to have been fired from the reclusive nation's east coast and to have traveled 65 miles into the Sea of Japan.
Word of the possible test came just days after a top U.S. military intelligence official told a U.S. Senate committee that North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear weapon, a potentially significant advance for the communist state.
Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, in testimony on Thursday, did not specify whether he was talking about a short-range missile or a long-range one that could reach the United States.
Two defense officials later said that U.S. intelligence analysts believe North Korea is several years away from being able to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile that could reach the United States from the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea's missile development program has spurred Japan to join the United States in putting together a joint missile-defense system. North Korea startled Tokyo in 1998 by launching a long-range ballistic missile over the Japanese archipelago and into the Pacific Ocean.
Pyongyang has played upon the threat by intermittently test-firing short-range missiles since then.
The Japanese Cabinet in February approved legislation that would allow the defense chief to order the military to shoot down incoming missiles.
Six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions have been stalled since last June. Washington's top envoy on the issue, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said on Thursday in South Korea that the North's refusal to return to the talks is a problem but they are still the best way to resolve the matter.
It's South Korea's cage that's being rattled this time around. All that artillery aimed as Seoul isn't as frightening as 1 or 2 nuclear-tipped short-range missiles.
That's fortunate because otherwise I guess they would just have to watch the missile coming at them and do nothing about it.
Maybe I shouldn't be so shocked by the absurdity of that statement because our Democrats as recently as 9/10/2001 were arguing that it was intimidating to our enemies to try knocking their missiles out of the air...missiles that would be heading toward US cities.
It's South Korea's cage that's being rattled this time around. All that artillery aimed as Seoul isn't as frightening as 1 or 2 nuclear-tipped short-range missiles.
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Western Corridor is no more...everything is pulling back down south
Have we done anything to draw back troops or lower troop levels around the DMZ? I should have kept better track of what was going on there, but I don't want our boys in harms way with that maniacal helmet on the loose in NK.
Point taken, though a nuclear artillery shell requires quite a bit more miniaturization than a missile topped with one (8" warhead for early nuclear artillery or 5" for later artillery, with the produced versions of the 5" nuke shells having sub-kiloton warheads, vs. 18" warhead for the FROG-7).
I want a 12-pack of OB Beer and a 1/2lb of Bulgogi and Rice or I'm gonna get pissed!
Probably a little Saber rattling at Japan for two reasons....a) they are talking about making their own nuclear arsenal as protection from the DPRK...and b) they are going to be part of the missile shield.
I also read the other day that the Jappanese are working on re-doing the parts of their constitution that makes it almost impossible to deply the JDF beyond their own borders.
Bulgogi, outstanding food. Was it in Korea that I had "33" beer? (Maybe forty years ago now.)
The North Koreans, taking the Iranian's advice, would explode a warhead high over the center of the Japanese island, to maximize its EMP effects, hundreds of miles in the air from Patriot-missile type defense systems.
Given the above, the North Koreans do not need pinpoint targeting ability for an EMP strike over Japan.
You would have had 'bulgogi' in ROK for sure, but the "33", or "ba me ba", would have been 'the Nam'. About the only thing drinkable in Korea fourty years ago would have been "OB" and "Crown", not to mention the old rot gut favorites like "soju" and "dondonju".
There is no need for a reentry vehicle for an EMP mission. It's exploded above the atmosphere of the target country.
I made a lot of Asian ports in those days, they start to 'run-together.'
With what? We probably have less than 50,000 troops we can use for this given our commitments in the middle east.
OH TG be careful well I going ping North Korean news list
What we ought to do is be prepared for the next North Korean saber-rattling missile test and shoot it down in flight to send NK a message.
The same as March 2003. An anti-ship cruise missile test.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.