Posted on 07/06/2006 5:06:10 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Taepodong-2 pointed at waters near Hawaii: report
(Kyodo) _ The Taepodong-2 long-range missile recently test-fired by North Korea was pointed at waters near Hawaii, the Sankei Shimbun reported Friday in its online edition.
Citing government sources in Japan and the United States, the report said Japan's Defense Agency and the U.S. military reached the conclusion after analyzing the missile's path from data collected by Aegis-equipped destroyers and RC-135S electronic reconnaissance aircraft.
The missile was test-fired from its launching site in Musudanri in northeast North Korea early Wednesday local time before landing into the Sea of Japan about several hundred kilometers away.
The authorities decided that the missile was pointed at Hawaii from the angle of its nose cone immediately after the launch and the altitude it has reached, the report said.
The distance between North Korea and Hawaii is about 7,000 kikometers. While Taepodong-2 was widely believed to have the firing range of 3,500-6,000 km, its actual range can be longer, the report said.
It is not clear why North Korea targeted areas near Hawaii, but the sources believe North either wanted to show that the missile's firing range includes the United States, or because Hawaii is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, or because the missile could mistakenly hit a land area if fired toward Alaska, the report said.
I hope they come in boats...I need the target practice.
New Stealth Tech....
The settlement for him to give up his nukes from the six party talks is all negotiated. He has been stalling. Maybe he got all he could from the thret of his program and he was hoping for an edge. Or maybe he's just shooting them off in defiance because he knows he's done. Or, maybe only Mad Albright can save the day LOL
Thank you Cal
bump
We are not going to play games with testing missiles.
That's what he wants!
Chavez is showing up shortly to expound some kind of united front. Maybe he should talk to castro first!
These idiots are playing games because of our political divide at home.
AmericanInTokyo posted that somewhere.
Pilot error.
Maybe the Iranians wanted some proof that their money was being well spent. I can't imagine that their observers in NK were too impressed with the launch. I'd hate to be the NK engineer in charge of the project right now (if he's still among the living).
Thanks for the link.
Where are our hackers? It would be a blast if someone could hack their system and change the launch coordinates.
Thanks for pinging bitt, reagan_fanatic's post is really good!!
North Korea would not do this if Nixon were still in the White House!
Go ahead, yank that smoke wagon.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.