GOOD MORNING. NORTH KOREA AMBASSADOR IN BEIJING THREATENS RESUMED MISSILE LAUNCH TESTING BY DPRK

Kyodo News, Japan (Translated by Freeper) ^ | 11 January 2003 | Kyodo News (In Japanese Translated by Freeper)

[AmericanInTokyo]

From Japan (based on Kyodo News reports in Japanese from Beijing, China), report on statement by North Korean Ambassador to China regarding additional threats toward the United States, this time on resumption of missile testing and launch (photo, above, of DPRK Ambassador to China Che Jin Su, making provocative threat on Saturday at press conference).

Synopsis from Japanese text by AIT:

DPRK Ambassador to China Mr. Che Jin Su States: "We Will Now Resume Missile Launches, and Further, We Will Take Nuclear Measures On Our Own to Protect Against US Nuclear Threats"

Ambassador to China from North Korea Che Jin Su gave a news conference today in Beijing, China and he stated that their country is now halting a previous freeze on missile launches. He stated that due to American nuclear threats, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea also reserved rights, with regard to nuclear development, to move forward to protect itself.

The Ambassador said, "since it is the US' fault for the end of the Agreement, it is not out of the question that we move to this option." He said that while the North Koreans had not produced nuclear weapons, because of the United States position, all bets were off and they would take whatever measures necessary to counter the nuclear threat from the United States.

He stated further, "it is the United States which has adopted a plan of use of nuclear weapons against our Republic in a pre-emptive manner. Therefore, if they continue with this line, it only stands to reason that we will not put up with it and we will move to take defensive measures ourselves."

[End of Text]

[AmericanInTokyo]

For morning brinksmanship comments and bumps.

[Keith in Iowa]

Time to rewrite some lyrics from The Sound of Music and cue the singing nuns for their rendition of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea"...

[Bahbah]

Loonies. Do we know how far they can reach with these missles? Not all the way to Tokyo, I hope.

[Victor]

"The hills are alive.....with the glow of neutrons....."

[Iwentsouth]

The test fired a missle over Japan before.

[johnb838]

These putz's should be notified that any missile launch in the direction of:

1) ROK
2) Japan
3) Taiwan

will be considered nuclear attacks and then we just wipe the problem off the map. I'm sick of these morons. I thought we weren't going to give in to nuclear blackmail.

[maquiladora]

Loonies. Do we know how far they can reach with these missles? Not all the way to Tokyo, I hope.

Are you kidding? They test fired a missile half way across the Pacific, right over Japan back in 1998, by now they probably can hit Alaska.

From a declassified CIA report to the Congress in 1998:

"There is evidence that North Korea is working hard on the Taepo Dong 2 (TD-2) ballistic missile. The status of the system's development cannot be determined precisely. Nevertheless, the ballistic missile test infrastructure in North Korea is well developed. Once the system is assessed to be ready, a test flight could be conducted within six months of a decision to do so. If North Korea judged the test to be a success, the TD-2 could be deployed rapidly. It is unlikely the U.S. would know of such a decision much before the missile was launched. This missile could reach major cities and military bases in Alaska and the smaller, westernmost islands in the Hawaiian chain. Light-weight variations of the TD-2 could fly as far as 10,000 km, placing at risk western U.S. territory in an arc extending northwest from Phoenix, Arizona, to Madison, Wisconsin. These variants of the TD-2 would require additional time to develop and would likely require an additional flight test."

[kiras]

We should bomb their nuclear facilities a la what Israel did to Iraq in the early 80's.

[thinking]

One has to wonder, what the heck is up with these guys....
I am beginning to think that China is behind these outbursts.

China sees an opportunity to "evict" western influence from the region, while the religious war in the middle east occupies the western power's military...

[maquiladora]

Which would lead to an invasion of the South, and the strong possibility that many thousands of Americam troops would be killed.

If it was as easy as that, we would have done it a long time ago and not have Bill Richardson playing the diplomatic game now.

[happygrl]

"Many a thing you know you'd like to tell them.

Many a thing you like to understand.

But how do you make them stay ?

And listen to all you say ?

How do you make a Madman understand ?

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Korea ?

How do you hold a nuke weapon in your hand ?"

(Apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein)

[Mr. Mojo]

Where are the idiots who were/are saying that we shouldn't be building an ABM system now? Their reasoning - that it's too "devisive," or "expensive," or "ineffectual," or "warlike," - looks pretty suicidal right about now.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Do we know how far they can reach with these missles? Not all the way to Tokyo, I hope.

Way past Tokyo. We may very well find out the hard way that they can reach Pearl Harbor.

If you know how much thrust they get from the fuel they are using, how much fuel is in the tanks, and what the payload weighs, you can figure the range. But it IS rocket science.

[maquiladora]

No. The last thing China wants is a nuclear armed DPRK.
The DPRK sooner or later is going to collapse and the South will take control of everything, and if there are nukes, they'll be in the South's hands.

And that is totally unacceptable for the Chinese. If South Korean can have nukes, why not Taiwan?

[Bahbah]

Woah! No, I wasn't kidding. I had no idea. Thanks for the information.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You might be right. What's prevented the NK's invasion up to now ?

[Centurion2000]

Loonies. Do we know how far they can reach with these missles? Not all the way to Tokyo, I hope

Tokyo is considered short range for these idiots. LA and San Francisco are 'in range' as well.

[Bahbah]

See Maquiladora's post #7 for some very specific information. She seems to have some rocket science expertise.

[cgbg]

We should bomb their nuclear facilities

Today South Korea is stronger militarily than North Korea. The problem is that Seoul is within reach of NK artillary so in a war while SK would prevail they would take massive civilian casualties.

For this and other reasons SK wants to work things out with NK and they want us to give them some running room.

This would be in our interest as well.

I think Bush has a wrong policy on this one.

We should tell SK and NK to work it out in a way that ends NK's nuclear program. Give them a time limit. If they don't work it out then we intervene as you suggest.

Since SK faces the brunt of any actions we may take they should have the opportunity to solve this matter on their own.

[Noslrac]

Would it be fun to shoot each and every one of their test missiles down with our handy dandy missile defense stuff?