Posted on 02/07/2016 4:23:32 PM PST by Kaslin
This story actually broke just as we were warming up for the debate last night and our readers were discussing it in comments while most of the political sphere was focused on New Hampshire. Ahead of their original schedule, Kim Jong-un launched a missile into orbit allegedly carrying an “Earth observing satellite” over the objections of pretty much everyone else on the planet. Like we needed this on top of everything else that’s going on.(WaPo)
North Korea on Sunday declared that it had successfully put an "earth observation satellite" into orbit under the direct orders of leader Kim Jong Un, and said it planned to launch "many more."
Both the South Korean defense ministry and the Pentagon said that the rocket, launched at 9 a.m. North Korean time from a launch pad near the Chinese border, appeared to have successfully reached space.
The United States, Japan and South Korea immediately condemned the launch, a move widely seen as another step toward North Korea mastering the technology for making a missile capable of striking the mainland United States. The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting for later Sunday to discuss how to respond to the country's latest provocation.
It certainly looks like they put something into space, though how much of an actual satellite it is remains to be seen. The particularly bad news is that this was a long range launch, passing directly over Okinawa, and could hit any number of targets if it wasn’t heading for space. Couple that with their most recent nuclear weapons testing and you’ve got a recipe for some furrowed brows in all the western nations. For that matter, even China condemned the launch (though in rather mild tones) and they’re Kim’s only remaining friends in the world with any real power.
Even though the news was still fresh off the press it showed up at the GOP debate. Ted Cruz offered a few dire words on the subject when asked.
With respect to North Korea and what we should do now, one of the first things we should do is expand our missile defense capacity. We ought to put missile defense interceptors in South Korea. South Korea wants them. One of the real risks of this launch, North Korea wants to launch a satellite, and one of the greatest risks of the satellite is they would place a nuclear device in the satellite. As it would orbit around the Earth, and as it got over the United States they would detonate that nuclear weapon and set of what’s called an EMP, and electromagnetic pulse which could take down the entire electrical grid on the Eastern seaboard, potentially killing millions.
We need to harden the grid to defend ourselves, and we need missile defense to protect ourselves against North Korea.
There’s been plenty of discussion of the threat of a North Korean EMP attack on the United States for years now with varying opinions on just how effective it would be. The overwhelming consensus is that it certainly wouldn’t be good, but precisely how bad it would be depends on a lot of factors including the efficacy of the bomb, where it was relative to the continent, altitude and other questions which can’t be answered up front. Perhaps the bigger question is just how up to date our intelligence is and if we would really know for sure if they had developed the ability to load a bomb on such a mission.
The second, more obvious worry is that it wouldn’t be heading into space, but directly for Seattle. So what do we do about it? Missile defense systems in South Korea sound good, but there are logistic and political hurdles to that, mostly involving China. I’d love to have a definitive answer here short of wiping out Pyongyang preemptively, but I don’t. Thankfully I’m not running for president. Let’s hope whoever wins this election has something in mind, because North Korea is no longer just a hypothetical problem.
You know whatever Trump wants to do would be yuuuge and the best though. Doesn’t matter if it would work or not.
Kim is a proxy for China. He can and wil act on China’s behalf, while China keeps a poker face and laments those bad North Koreans, and those naughty things they did.
Meanwhile, in the crater that used to be a major U. S. City, nobody voices any complaints.
Hmmmmmm.... I wonder what one NK ICBM and one NK nuke would go for on the Mideast market?
We need to close the hole in our southern-facing radar defense.
I don’t think we have time to harden our grid; I think Obama plans to have one of his communist and/or Islamist surrogates do the dirty deed in November or December while Obama is in South America gloating with his communist buddies.
I’ve posted a lot about this, and why I think this is the plan. At http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3393827/posts?page=3855#3855 there is a post which gives links for people to see my comments about this.
When we seriously consider Obama’s involvement with communists and Islamists, how they helped to put him illegally into our White House, and all that he has done to strengthen them and weaken us... I think this is deadly serious. This is the only thing the candidates should be talking about, until we get this place protected.
How the HECK can Obama tell our DHS to destroy intel on known terrorists, even as he is decreasing border security and deliberately bringing in people from nations that hate us - people our FBI says it is impossible to vet.... and NOT be tried for treason? With friends like Congress, who needs enemies?
Right now, Congress needs to designate all money for Secret Service for the First Family and for Air Force 1 to be spent on enforcing the border and collecting intel that WON’T be deleted. Obama and his family need to know that if this nation goes down, they go down with us. Only then will Obama think about actually protecting this nation.
Is there a downside to wiping out Pyongyang preemptively?
Seriously, would anyone offer more than a token complaint?
Wipe out Pyongyang and Tehran simultaneously?
Here is a launch video on YouTube. This is from North Korea news, so it’s propaganda.
Pyongyang is an isolated country of malnourished people run by a megalomaniac dictator that no one takes seriously except for the fact that he has nuclear weapons. A preemptive strike eliminating the top government officials would be a liberation not an attack.
I am impressed with Cruz knowing that our electric grid is vulnerable and needs hardening.
He is the only candidate that has even mentioned it.
Meanwhile, Obama has made things much worse.
Yeah, but both NK and Iran possibly/probably now have the capability of hitting us with an EMP via satellite. Given that Obama’s owners and comnunists and Islamists I don’t think we’d be safe from an EMP attack unless both of them are neutralized.
I don’t know; can we blow their satellites away? They’d still have missile launch capabilities. IIRC Venezuela has promised to let Iran use their soil for missile launch...
Both countries are scary because Kim Jung Un is crazy and Iran wants to start Armageddon...
And meanwhile Obama is opening our borders, shutting down our military, and throwing away intel on known terrorists. While sending a Hellfire missile to Cuba, landing a drone on an Iranian landing strip, and asking Iran to “help” our sailors...
How can anybody fail to see that Obama is the enemy? He openly sides with them at every opportunity.
>>...eliminating the top government officials would be a liberation not an attack.<<
Great post. Absolutely agree.
Should be Obama’s owners ARE communists and Islamists
The candidates ALL need to be talking about the threat of an EMP attack. Obama has made us very, very vulnerable to a LOT of different kinds of attacks, and I think Obama is just waiting until November or December to unleash the dogs of war - although he alluded to this plan back in July of 2008 when he said he would be POTUS for “the next 8-10 years”.
If we did it, of course.
Dead people don’t retaliate.
A preemptive strike against North Korea would probably be quite simple and almost certainly completely successful.
We should know exactly where their nuclear capabilities are located and their leadership, that which matters, is all clustered around one city. The one with an active electrical grid.
The strike should eliminate the entire possibility of a retaliation. The South Korean Army could simply walk across the 49th parallel and mop up whatever resistance is left.
We need only worry about the reaction of China, which would probably be one of relief.
"We"? I don't recall anyone named JAZZ SHAW or even Jazz Shaw at any debate. We he (or she) at the kiddie table? Maybe she was making sandwiches.
...and if they take out Seattle?
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