A fully-loaded 747-400 here folks. Loaded with South Koreans and Americans--one can imagine. Pretty serious stuff. Especially if we are to expect more of these caustic launches by Kim Jong il.
Posted on 07/06/2006 7:32:32 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
Asiana Plane in Close Shave as North Launches Missile
--North Korea Launches Two Rounds of Missiles --N.Korea’s Missiles Right on Target --Missile Launch to Chill Inter-Korean Ties --Unwelcome Fireworks for U.S. Independence Day --South Koreans Angry at N.Korean Missile Shock --A Bad Misjudgment From North and South --N.Korea May Try Launching Another Long-Range Missile --N.Korea’s Missile Launch ‘Part of Regular Drills’ --Seoul’s Late Response to Missile Launch Draws Flak --An Urgent Problem, a Leisurely Response
Some 10 minutes before North Korea test-fired its fist missile early Wednesday, an Asiana Airlines passenger plane crossed the missile’s future trajectory above the East Sea, it emerged Thursday, highlighting Pyongyang’s recklessness in firing the rockets without warning. The first missile was fired at 3:32 a.m. Asiana says flight OZ 235 from Chicago to Incheon International Airport flew across the area above the East Sea between 2:30-3:10 a.m. The track chart confirms the story.
The airline says there is no way of knowing how dangerous the situation was since it has no information about the flight time and altitude of the missile. But chances are that a planeload of passengers had a close shave.
North Korea gave no warning before test-firing altogether seven missiles on Wednesday, saying there was no point since spy satellites have been monitoring its every move for a month.
But its failure to give fair warning could have endangered airplanes or ships and does violate international law. North Korea is obliged to give advance notice of any missile it fires to the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization. When it test-fired a Taepodong-1 missile in 1998, the North also ignored that obligation and was given a warning by the UN Security Council.
What’s worse, the North did nothing to protect fishing vessels from South Korea, Japan and Russia in the East Sea while giving secret notice to its own vessels to stay out of the waters since July 3. The Japanese government said some 280 fishing boats were out around the time the missiles were fired close to areas where missiles fell.
Local governments and fishermen in Japan have slammed their central government for issuing an emergency evacuation order at 8:53 a.m., a full five hours after the first missile was launched.
South Korea issued no such order, even though it admits it intercepted the North Korean warning to fishing boats as early as July 3. Seoul believes it has done enough by closely watching whether the North would actually fire the missiles and postponing the foreign minister’s overseas trip. In short, the government knew but did not tell the public of the danger ahead.
Government officials say they kept the lid on classified information concerning national security since they were unsure whether the North would go ahead with the launch, but would have confidentially warned airlines and told fishing businesses to stay clear after the missiles were launched.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
A fully-loaded 747-400 here folks. Loaded with South Koreans and Americans--one can imagine. Pretty serious stuff. Especially if we are to expect more of these caustic launches by Kim Jong il.
On Fox this morning, a Clinton hack was opining on this. The interviewer asked her about her negotiations with NK when she was working on that project, and she got very snippy--"Let's not talk about what Clinton did, let's talk about how Bush has failed." We can thank the Clintons for this latest mess--along with Somalia, 9/11, and many more messes left for the grownups to clean up.
Chicago bump.
Anyone know if an Environment Impact Report on the sea of japan was filed by the North Korean government prior to the launch test?
My nephew lives in South Korea and had just taken a flight from Los Angeles back to SK on the 4th, that pattern!!!! This is SCARY!!!
I reserve about 80-90% of this blame to the Clinton Administration, re: how it handled it, yes.
the pot-bellied pig, dog-eating great leader is a retard.
Time to put em on UN Double Secret Probation - that'll fix em.
/sarc
This is damning. I hope they pay.
bttt
Still not very settling, is it.
Admitting that I know very little about these missiles that are being launched, and that I know very little about Space Shuttle & its trajectories, descent patterns, etc., is there any chance the N. Koreans would try to mess with the shuttle's return to the atmosphere?
BUMP
The chance of one of Mr. Ronery's various Dongs hitting a passenger plane or fishing boat in that large area is just about nil--the old "hitting a bullet with a bullet." But, it's a chance that doesn't need to be taken. If that one-in-a-million chance DID happen...
Asiana's a Taiwanese carrier? Or South Korean?
}:-)4
Absolutely 100% correct...BTTT
The missiles being fired are all surface-to-surface missiles. The Nodongs (or Rodongs) are uprated versions of the semi-famous Scud; I don't know what kind of guidance they have, if any, but they're considered short-range (under 1,000 miles). The Taepodong-2 is a very different animal. It's basically a guided ICBM, with a range of several thousand miles. One can assume it's capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, since there's not much use in putting a conventional warhead on a missile that can hit western Alaska from North Korea.
So I don't think there's a threat to the shuttle here.
}:-)4
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