NORTH KOREAN MISSILE WARHEAD FOUND IN ALASKA

Korean Times ^ | March 4, 2003 | Staff Report

[hchutch]

The ONLY consolation we have is the fact that it was a dud. Very small consolation, IMHO.

I think we ought to, if possible, shoot the next one down.

[Pharmboy]

Well, they couldn't actually FIRE it to get there, they sent it FedEx...

[Calpernia]

GOOD POINT!

[longshadow]

I don't know the trajectory of the NK test shots, but IIRC, they were detonated in the stratosphere.

Test launches of ballistic missiles these days are done with dummy warheads (for good reason); if the missile gets away from you and lands on foreign territory with a live warhead, it could start a war. Also, it it failed to detonate, your enemy could pick up your rocket and know exactly what you had for a warhead. None of the N. Korean missile tests launched over Japan have include a live warhead, AFAIK.

[sandydipper]

Give it 2 days and it'll be for sale on eBay.

[shadowman99]

Send it to Drudge, let him verify. I'm at work or I would do it.

drudge@drudgereport.com

[Sabertooth]

NK has missiles that get get that far up in the stratosphere and rain debris down on Alaska?

I don't honestly have a great grasp of the ballistics and trajectories of their missiles. My scenario might be nothing.

We're agreed, however, that the DPRK didn't deliberately fire an undetected missile at Alaska.

[rs79bm]

Things won't change if the U.S. Government doesn't get off their asses and start showing the world why we are a superpower. This bullshit of asking other nations for permission or going to the utterly useless U.N. is hogwash. What a bunch of sh%t. The people we are trying to please by going this route are going to think that way regardless. In the meantime, our enemies think we are weak and defenseless, and have to conjure with other nations in order to be successful. Why do you think North Korea is acting this way, shooting off missiles and starting up Nuclear reactors? Well, they wouldn't if we start a massive troop buildup on their borders are start bombing the sh%t out of their infrastructure. This talk of a "peaceful resolution" to North Korea is absolutely asinine. Do you really want to "chat" with this lunatic and reach a peaceful resolution, which will "essentially" leave him in power? For future administrations to deal with?? (hint, hint, Clinton Administration), or do you want to deal with this lunatic, and remove him from power before it is too late? I think the U.S. Government is making a huge mistake by playing into the hands of our enemies. We have already waited to long to take care of the Iraq situation, and are looking for a peaceful resolution with a communist thug in North Korea. If we don't start acting on both of these fronts soon, we will lose all creditability and G.W.'s approval with go downhill fast. Uncertainty is death, And the U.S. right now does not look like the Superpower that it trully is. I think we need to get our asses in gear, and fast. Time is running short.
Sorry for the rant, and don't worry, I am behind the U.S. 110%, but that's my take on the situation.

[Poohbah]

This debris is apparently from their 1998 satellite launch attempt.

[tubebender]

Another Clintoon coverup ?

[Poohbah]

Apparently this is debris from their 1998 satellite launch attempt.

[Core_Conservative]

This missle warhead - is probably from one of the test fireings they've had recently. It got disconneted from the main body on impact, and floated through ocean currents to one of the Islands in Alaska. IMHO

[Polycarp]

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200303/kt2003030417272311970.htm

`NK Missile Warhead Found in Alaska¡¯

By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday.

``According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska,¡¯¡¯ former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. ``Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang¡¯s missile capabilities.¡¯¡¯

The report was the culmination of monthlong activities of the Assembly¡¯s overseas delegation to five countries over the North Korean nuclear crisis. The Assembly dispatched groups of lawmakers to the United States, Japan, China, Russia and European Union last month to collect information and opinions on the international issue.

The team sent to Japan, headed by Rep. Kim Hak-won of the United Liberal Democrats, reported, ``Nakayama said Washington has come to put more emphasis on trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States since it recognized that the three countries are within the range of North Korean missiles.¡¯¡¯

According to the group dispatched to the U.S., American politicians had a wide range of opinions over the resolution of the nuclear issue, from ``a peaceful resolution¡¯¡¯ to ``military response.¡¯¡¯

Doves, such as Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, called for a peaceful settlement of the current confrontation, by offering food, energy and other humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken country, while urging the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Rep. Markey also said the North should return to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the U.S. should make a nonaggression pact with the communist North.

Hardliners, however, warned that the North¡¯s possession of nuclear weapons will instigate a nuclear race in the region, provoking Japan to also acquire nuclear weapons. Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said the U.S. might have to bomb the Yongbyon nuclear complex should the North try to export its nuclear material to other countries.

Over the controversy concerning the withdrawal of U.S. forces stationed here, most American legislators that the parliamentary delegation met said U.S. troops should stay on the peninsula as long as the Korean people want, the report said.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr

03-04-2003 17:27

[cake_crumb]

Visions of Jimmy 'Da Peanut Man' Carter, grinning that toothy, vapid grin, holding his Nobel Peace Prize for causing a large part of the present mess with NK in one hand...and with the other hand on a chunk of North Korean, long range missile. Maybe he can giggle stupidly and and say 'See! Diplomacy ALWAYS works better than military action, hyuk hyuk!!"

It's the UN's mess. Send Blix back there to finish the job he screwed up years ago. On to Iraq.

[aristeides]

This may turn out to be as embarrassing to our air defense as Matthias Rust's flight to the Kremlin was to Soviet air defense.

[Core_Conservative]

Since when did the European Union become a country?

Might as well be - they are mostly idiots anyway - damn socialists!

[ewing]

Drudge already uses Hole N Ones screen captures from FR, (without credit or link) so I will let him work on this by himself..he probably has already got it being that the article is 7 hours old according to Google

[Lady Jag]

Good detective work. Here's a snippet for the link you provided:

Q: Could you clarify for us, there are reports out of Japan that part of this North Korean missile might have landed near Alaska. Do you have any information about that?

A: I have no information about it. First of all, as I understand it the only way we have to trace the debris of this missile is through radar tapes, and there is considerable disagreement within our own intelligence community as to how to interpret these tapes. We are continuing, our analysts are continuing, to meet to try to reach a consensus position on this and other questions stemming from that August 31st missile launch.

Q: Is there any evidence that there was a warhead that might have gotten...

A: I'm not aware that there is any evidence of a warhead.

• Q: On the same point, I guess I'm confused about your statement that there is considerable disagreement in our own intelligence community because the State Department I believe has already publicly said they believe it was an attempted yet failed satellite launch, and I believe this Department said the same thing.
• A: I'm talking about the dispersion of the debris. The question Susanne asked dealt with the dispersion of the debris from the missile.

Q: But there's no disagreement about what it was.

A: We believe that they tried and failed to launch a satellite. That hasn't changed.

Q: Will you then just explain a little bit further the question of the disagreement over the dispersal of the debris field. Can you quantify the ranges where the disagreement is? Nautical miles versus nautical miles?

A: No, I don't choose to do that. It's a disagreement on interpreting data at this stage. It could well be resolved. But I don't think whether it went X or X plus 1,000 kilometers is really relevant. What's relevant here is what I stressed last Tuesday and what the State Department has stressed as well, is that that three stage missile with a solid fuel third stage was an advance that shows they have greater capability to fire payloads over longer distances. That is worrisome to us. We are engaged in missile talks with the North Koreans, and we hope that we can succeed in those talks, in convincing them not to continue. But North Koreans are not easy to deal with on these issues.

[Kryptonite]

That's exactly what I thought of when I read this article.

[harpseal]

Actually somewhere in the back of my mind there was some report arround 1999 of a Nrth Korean test that was headed towards Alaska. Now Cheyene Mountain has a very good system for predicting balistic impacts. If the missle part were to impact in an unoccupied area they would have upped DEFCON but not necessarily returned fire. If they also tracked it being destroyed as part of the test it merely would have been intel at that point.

I do not know if the BS meter should be pegged to going off the scale or not on this one.