Posted on 08/03/2016 7:55:54 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Latest North Korea missile launch lands near Japan waters, alarms Tokyo
SEOUL | By Ju-min Park and James Pearson
North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The main body of the missile landed in Japan's economic exclusion zone, a Japanese defence official said, escalating regional tensions that were already high after a series of missile launches this year and the decision by the United States to place a sophisticated anti-missile system in South Korea.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the launch as a "grave threat" to Japan and said Tokyo "strongly protested". Japan also said its self-defence force would remain on alert in case of further launches.
A U.S. State Department spokesman condemned the launch, and said it would "only increase the international community's resolve to counter" North Korea's actions.
The U.S. Strategic Command said it had detected two missiles, one of which it said exploded immediately after launch.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
P!
I have this feeling if Kim Jong-un suddenly is off the scene permanently as leader, the North Korea government collapses in no time flat and within one year, the Korean peninsula is unified again--this time under South Korean control. And it could become a tremendous economic opportunity for the South Koreans as they now have a place to use their mighty industrial output to upgrade the infrastructure of the former North Korea.
They gave up the idea of full-scale conventional war. That is why they are obsessed with strategic weapons. With nukes delivered by missiles, they think they can scare away U.S. because those missiles can hit U.S. bases in Japan and Guam, and U.S. mainland. Then they will intimidate S. Korea. They create military provocation and threaten to nuke S. Korea if S. Korea tries to retaliate. They attempt to offset their deficit in conventional arsenal with strategic weapons. Their goal is to intimidate S. Korea enough to become its satellite. Probably an implausible goal, but none the less the one they have been pursing for a long time.
Of course, they also see it as the only way to protect their regime.
They may look intimidating, but while Kim Jong-un it trying to consolidate his power, there may be enough people in North Korea who want to end the Kim dynasty that something has to give sooner or later.
Besides, the majority of South Korea's industrial base is out of range of those guns. I believe the corporate headquarters and main manufacturing facilities for Samsung Electronics are in the central and south parts of South Korea.
NK has plenty of armaments.
They’ve done little else but arm up since 1953.
Their stuff is based on old designs but is still deadly.
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