N. KOREAN LAUNCH OF MISSILE THAT HAS JAPAN 100% IN RANGE, ANTICIPATED (JAPAN NEWS SOURCES)

Yomiuri News (Original in Japanese) ^ | 13 March 2003 | Yomiuri News (Original in Japanese)

[AmericanInTokyo]

YOMIURI SHIMBUN WEBNEWS (from the original Japanese version/"Freepranslation" by "AmericanInTokyo"). Top story (13 March 2003 Japan Time):

--It has been revealed that increasing indications are that the North Koreans are going to lauch a No-Dong missile toward the Sea of Japan, as a test of the rocket's capabilities and in further escalation of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

--This information is confirmed through various sources of the Japanese government to Yomiuri News. The information aligns with satellite intelligence by the US, collected recently, which shows apparant North Korean intents, and the information was passed on to the Japanese government.

--The Japanese AEGIS warship, Myoko, is steaming toward the Sea of Japan. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense force is increasing it's alert level.

--The Japanese government sees this as another ratchet up by Kim Jong il in his game of 'brinksmanship' with the United States. They do not know if it is a bluff, but they are taking no chances based on intelligenc received.

--The USA is strengthening efforts with (redacted) by the USS Invincible from Sasebo Port, as well as increase in RC135-S (Cobra Ball) elint craft from Kadena AFB.

--If such a No-Dong launch takes place in the next few days, it will be serious. It will be a blatant disregard for the 1999 US-North Korean missile launch agreement, and further will be a violation of the 2002 Pyongyang Statement concluded between Kim Jong il and Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi.--This launch could occur within days, or perhaps a few weeks. At any rate, it will be seen as an other escalation by Pyongyang, and probably timed for US action on Iraq. This report follow another report last week on FR: "Kyodo News: USA Is Warning of Possible Launch of NODONG Missile By North Korea (7:20 pm Eastern)" (AIT analysis)

Technical Details: Range (km) 1,350-1,500 CEP (m) 190 (Previously thought to be several thousand meters) Diam. (m) 1.32-1.35 Height (m) 15.852-16 L. W. (kg) 15,852-16,250 Stage Mass (kg) 15,092 D. W. (kg) 1,780-2,180 Thrust (Kg f) Effective: 26,051 (-709) Actual: 26,760-26,600 Burn time (sec.) 110 Isp. (sec.) Effective: 226 - SL due to vains steering drag loss of 4-5 sec. Actual: 230 Vac.: 264

[John Valentine]

My money is on a crash acceleration of this program.

Dawn of the Airborne Laser: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/860620/posts

[Robert_Paulson2]

Posted on 04/06/2002 9:33 AM PST by maui_hawaii

TOKYO (Reuters) - The leader of Japan's opposition Liberal Party, Ichiro Ozawa, said on Saturday it would be a simple matter for Japan to produce nuclear weapons and surpass the military might of China if its neighbour got "too inflated".

Inviting a sharp response from Beijing, which is sensitive to any signs of militarism in Japan, Ozawa told a seminar in the southern city of Fukuoka that "China is applying itself to expansion of military power".

"If (China) gets too inflated, Japanese people will get hysterical," Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

"It would be so easy for us to produce nuclear warheads. We have plutonium at nuclear power plants in Japan, enough to make several thousand such warheads," he said.

Ozawa said his statements, coming just days before Japanese Prime Minster Junichiro Koizumi visits China, were meant to encourage stronger ties between China and Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack.

He said he made similar comments recently to a person he described as being affiliated with the Chinese intelligence agency.

"I told that person that if we get serious, we will never be beaten in terms of military power," he said.

Ozawa said Japan found itself in a difficult position.

"Northeastern Asia, in which both China and North Korea (news - web sites) are located, is the most unstable region in the world," he said.

"China is applying itself to expansion of military power in the hope of becoming a superpower...following the United States."

Koizumi will visit China for three days from April 11 to attend an economic conference on Hainan island, although he is also expected to meet Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

Li Peng, chairman of China's parliament, who is on a visit to Japan, said in an interview published in a regional newspaper on Saturday he was optimistic about Japan-China relations.

Li said Japan and China, long resentful over its treatment at the hands of Japanese invaders, may encounter difficulties on the path to closer ties because the countries were so different.

"Even in such cases, the two nations can solve any problems with effort and foresight," Li said in an interview with the Kitanippon Press, a newspaper in western Japan.

Li's visit is one of several high-level exchanges between China and Japan to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties in September 1972.

Ties have been strained in recent times by Koizumi's visit last year to a shrine honouring Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals, and Japan's approval of a history textbook that China and other Asian countries say downplays Japan's wartime aggression.

[OXENinFLA]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=516&ncid=716&e=5&u=/ap/20030312/ap_on_re_as/us_north_korea

U.S. to Resume North Korea Reconnaissance

WASHINGTON - The Air Force prepared Wednesday to resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea (news - web sites), 10 days after Korean fighter jets intercepted an Air Force plane equipped to monitor missile tests, a senior U.S. official said.

[Robert_Paulson2]

"It would be so easy for us to produce nuclear warheads. We have plutonium at nuclear power plants in Japan, enough to make several thousand such warheads," he said.

I lost the article where the japanese claimed they could have 300 on line by this year's end...

There should be no mistake about the fact that N. Korea is China's lil sock puppet.. and their baiting is part of a likely sun tzu tactic... against the good guys....

[mass55th]

North Korea better hope that one of these missiles doesn't go astray. It's lights out if that happens.

[Ronin]

I agree with you completely AIT. For all the Western culture tacked on the surface, inside they are very Japanese.

Japan could go nationalist and militarist in less time than it would take to say it, and I personally think it is not only likely -- it's inevitable. Just a matter of when.

In fact, I am cynically of the opinion that there are a lot of people in government and private industry that think a shot of good old fashioned nationalism combined with a military buildup would be just the ticket to shake the Japanese economy out of the never-ending doldrums.

All it takes is the proper catalyst. It never ceases to amaze me how fast and how completely Japanese public opinion can shift gears.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

I believe if the trajectory of the missile is toward Japan, over Japan, or near Japan, they or we should knock it out of the sky with whatever we have at our disposal, ie, Aegis, PAC-3, etc. Send 'em a message right back.

[PhilDragoo]

August 1998 North Korea sent a Taepo Dong over Japan.

[GATOR NAVY]

Invincible' Center Of Attention In Japan

The 'USNS Invincible' is one of 11 T-T-AGOS and SWATH surveillance vessels operated for the Navy's Military Sealift Command by Maersk Line Ltd. and manned in all licensed positions by AMO.

      The T-T-AGOS surveillance vessel 'USNS Invincible' drew a lot of attention in Japan recently.
      The ship's arrival at Sasebo Naval Base triggered media speculation about its mission, with most concluding that its assignment was to help monitor missile movements in the western Pacific-specifically, the test flight of North Korea's new Taepo Dong-2, which U.S. intelligence officials said could reach Alaska and Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam.
      The 'USNS Invincible' is one of 11 T-T-AGOS and SWATH surveillance vessels operated for the Navy's Military Sealift Command by Maersk Line Ltd. AMO represents the licensed officers on the vessels.
      The 'USNS Invincible' is fitted with the "Cobra Gemini" intelligence-gathering system developed specifically to monitor electronic signals from short, medium, and intermediate range ballistic missiles.
      Dub Allen, a spokesman for MSC in Yokohama, told Pacific Stars And Stripes that the 'USNS Invincible' called at Sasebo "to take on fuel and give the sailors some rest."
      Allen would not confirm the ship's mission. He said only: "Our ships are forward deployed in the truest sense of the word. They operate where they're needed."
      A sampling of the local news coverage was forwarded to AMO headquarters by Captain Mark Richardson, Master on the 'USNS Invincible'. "You can see that, although small, we're important," Richardson noted.

[B-Chan]

JDS MYOKOH (DDG 175), a KONGOH class AEGIS destroyer currently in service with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). Built at the Mitsubishi yards in Nagasaki, she was laid down on 8 April 1993, launched 5 October 1994, and commissioned 14 March 1996. MYOKOH displaces 7,250 t (9,485 t full load), is 161 m long overall, with a beam of 21 m and a draft of 6.2 m. She is powered by a four-engine gas turbine powerplant based around the LM2500 gas turbine (output: 100,000 hp) and has an official maximum speed of 30 knots. The ship has an effective range of 4500 nm (@ 20 knots) and a crew of 300. As an AEGIS destroyer, MYOKOH mounts the SPY-1D air defense radar system and the OPS - 28c anti-surface radar combined with the Mark 7 AEGIS fire control system. Her main armament is the MK41 VLS missile launcher (90 cells) mounting 74 Standard SM-2MR antiaircraft missiles. She also carries 16 ASROC antisubmarine missiles, dual 4-tube Harpoon SSM launchers, and two torpedo launchers. For close-in defense the ship is equipped with two 20mm Phalanx-type chain gun mounts, and the ship's main gun is the OTO 127 millimeter 54 caliber rapid fire gun.

In August 1998, MYOKOH tracked a North Korean Taepo-Dong missile in flight over Japan but did not have the ability to intercept it.

KONGOH underway (.mov file).

[GATOR NAVY]

Sorry, my source http://www.amo-union.org/Newspaper/Morgue/9-1999/Sections/Feature/invincible.htm

[Ramius]

Maybe we need to arrange the amendment of the Japanese constitution. Maybe an army of a million or so, and a few more aircraft carriers would be a good thing.

I don't think we need to worry about them trying to take the WestPac anymore, except maybe they'd like to own North Korea. That would be just fine.

[dalebert]

If NK strikes anyone I bet its the last thing they hit.

[Bulldogs22]

"outh Korean President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday called for maintaining a strong alliance with the United States"



Perfect liberal. Our soldiers are getting pelted with sticks and stones.

[concerned about politics]

I'm sure Mr Kim feels emboldened by all the anti-American rhetoric coming out of the UN, US press and idiot local protestors. Another potential holocaust made possible by our friends on the left.

Exactly. No doubt about it.
Everything the left has done throughout the eons has been a total failure for the world. Everything.

[concerned about politics]

I believe if the trajectory of the missile is toward Japan, over Japan, or near Japan,

I'm a little concerned about the quakes they have there. The last thing they need is vibrations from exploding missiles.
I'm not a quake expert, but I do know Japan rests or balances atop an under-ocean type mountain.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

As said earlier, and the FR moderators I believe agree, enough of the jokes about the name of the North Korean missile, as silly as it sounds. This joke is way old. Take that to a humor thread if you have to

Teachers...errrrrrrrrr...Moderators Pet

[ellery]

bttt

[ellery]

The Japanese national psyche to avoid any kind of geo-political confrontation and diplomatically be all things to all people is deeply imbedded; has been there for nearly 60 years. But the pissed-off, samurai nationalist warrior spirit also co-exists way down 'in there'. If push comes to shove, it'll roar out and surprise many folks.

Boy, AIT, that sounds like the US, too. Guess Churchill's description of a giant boiler applies to Japan, too? What's your take -- what should be done? What's the take of the majority of Japanese on what needs to happen?