I understood that, and spoke of it as a politically stupid thing to allow it to become a public matter and is thus unlikely to have happened as the reporter intimates. Such saber-rattling is at odds with the "speak softly and carry a big stick" model and creates sufficient noise that it might hamper the President from taking necessary action. I just can't envision that it happened this way. More likely is that the commanders stated that they would be unable to guarantee CONUS safety without that latitude and the Kyodo reporter spun it to effect.
Regional commanders, in fact any commander, in reality any Spec-4 on guard duty at the PX could request the Prez to launch.
And after being disregarded would get a reprimand from their CO for not following the chain of command. As such, the comment bears little similarity to this situation.
The story here is that the regional commanders do not have to go through the JCS to get presidential launch authority.
I still would be more comfortable with more eyes upon such a decision. There is excellent reason for the principle of Congressional declaration: too often we have entered conflict without the full support of the people. Vietnam proved that costly. Kosovo should have.
In reality, this is nothing new. SSBN captains always has independent launch authority under certain circumstances. Those were well regulated, but under some VERY special circumstances, an 0-6 and his officers could launch.
I was aware of that as well, given the standing orders. I would prefer a Congressional pre-authorization should the situation warrant issuance. There was ample time for such discussion as the potential conflict with the Soviet Union developed. Although we are not in the same situation with Korea, there is enough time for such if Congress gets to it soon.