N. Korea Fires Missile Into Sea of Japan

[Vance]

I got this link from one of Nas' relatives via email. Here it is:


SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea test fired a short-range missile that plunged into the Sea of Japan Sunday, the White House chief of staff said, adding he wasn't "surprised by this," noting Pyonyang had conducted similar tests in the past.

The U.S. military told the Japanese government of the suspected missile launch, which was believed to have traveled some 65 miles off the east coast of North Korea, according to media reports in South Korea and Japan.

Card told CNN's Late Edition he had heard about the test Sunday morning.

"I don't know an awful lot about it. It appears that there was a test of a short-range missile by the North Koreans and it landed in the Sea of Japan. We're not surprised by this. The North Koreans have tested their missiles before. They've had some failures."

Japanese officials expressed concern last September that North Korea was preparing for a test launch, but later backed off those assertions.

The missile launch came on the eve of a critical conference at the United Nations to reassess the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, with U.S. negotiators urging action against suspected atomic weapons programs in North Korea and Iran.

North Korean test launches are often considered moves to strengthen its hands in dealings with critics. It test-fired short-range land-to-ship missiles into the ocean on at least three occasions in 2003 during an international standoff over its nuclear weapons program.

Japanese and military officials in Tokyo said they could not comment on the reports. An official at South Korea's National Intelligence Service, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were signs of a launch from North Korea, but Seoul was still trying to confirm it.

Word of the test came just days after a top U.S. military intelligence official told a U.S. Senate committee that North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear weapon, a potentially significant advance for the communist state.

Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, in testimony on Thursday, did not specify whether he was talking about a short-range missile or a long-range one that could reach the United States.

Two defense officials later said that U.S. intelligence analysts believe North Korea is several years away from being able to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile that could reach the United States from the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea's missile development program has spurred Japan to join the United States in putting together a joint missile-defense system. North Korea startled Tokyo in 1998 by launching a long-range ballistic missile over the Japanese archipelago and into the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese Cabinet in February approved legislation that would allow the defense chief to order the military to shoot down incoming missiles.

Six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions have been stalled since last June. Washington's top envoy on the issue, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said on Thursday in South Korea that the North's refusal to return to the talks is a problem but they are still the best way to resolve the matter.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050501/ap_on_re_as/japan_north_korea

More about North Korea and their plan: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/30/AR2005043000590.html

North Korea declared in February that it had produced nuclear weapons and refused to return to six-nation disarmament talks. Yesterday's statement appears to signal the end of that diplomatic process, heightening the stakes in the impasse. The Bush administration has warned Asian allies in the past week that satellite images suggest North Korea is preparing its first underground nuclear test.

But some partners in the talks, especially China and South Korea, have balked at tougher measures. Rather than isolating Pyongyang, China has increased trade with North Korea by about 20 percent in the past year. North Korea appears to be gambling that divisions among the United States and its allies will eventually yield to acceptance of its status as a nuclear power.

Last week, the top military intelligence official told Congress that it was unlikely Pyongyang would ever give up its nuclear weapons because the arms gave it leverage in its relations with other nations. "Our assessment has been that it's unlikely that they would negotiate away completely that capability or associated ambiguities because of their concerns about changing world events, regional dynamics and so forth," said Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

U.S. intelligence analysts believe North Korea has harvested enough plutonium for about nine weapons. North Korea's nuclear facility at Yongbyon was shut down last month, indicating officials planned to extract more plutonium from the fuel rods.

 

[tegumi]

N. Korea is one crazy ass country... and I am going to Japan this summer, and I was worrying about my city here in the US being safe? Last week near Osaka a inexperienced train conductor ran a train off the tracks and killed 100 or so people, and now today N. Korea is pulling this crap? And I will be staying in Sasebo on Kyushu, about 100 miles from N. Korea..... oh god....

 

[Vance]

N. Korea is one crazy ass country... and I am going to Japan this summer, and I was worrying about my city here in the US being safe? Last week near Osaka a inexperienced train conductor ran a train off the tracks and killed 100 or so people, and now today N. Korea is pulling this crap? And I will be staying in Sasebo on Kyushu, about 100 miles from N. Korea..... oh god....

I understand how you feel but honestly, I feel bit more safer when I was in Japan than in here, America (as in 'terrorism-issue' speaking and there are not many religious beserkers in Japan as there are in America). That's how I felt and that's my opinion. I stayed in Japan for two weeks at Nas' relatives' places and travelled to different cities & places. Nas and I will go to Japan this few last weeks of summer too. [edit] Right now, I feel bit uneasy about going to Japan but I am not going to let them to stop us from going there anyway unless they declare a war on us. [/edit]

North Korea and its PM is more angry at Bush & Admin than they do to Japaneses or Americans (second link covers bit more about that). But of course, once in war, no one is safe.

 

[Beowulf]

Ummmm, let us not let the media distract us.
There are thousands upon thousands of children dying every day in Afghanistan. You put you hand on the belly of one of 30,000 a day and you can feel worms crawling inside. No one cares about that.
Oh nooooo, N. Korea shot a harmless missile into the sea, that is BIG news!
I am so disgusted.

 

[sequoias]

That missle isn't a big deal, because it's only 65 miles. Short range missles won't go far, so nothing to worry about. They're probably testing on their self defense at their country, who knows.

 

[Vance]

Beowulf & sequoias, historically, one small ripple from a small stone leads to biggest ripple. That's why I tend to not dismiss or shrug off these kind of things. I am trying to remember where I found the information... but I believe it was World War I or something... which lead from simple food fights or pie-throwing in national meeting or something... I read about it in "E" magazine with numbers of references several years ago so I cannot remember what it said.

PM of North Korea is a person that we shouldn't take lightly... especially Bush.

Beowulf, speaking of these people that you mentioned... I never, never let myself distracted by any kind of entertainment or media. However I can understand your point.

Edit:

International efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons programme were in danger of unravelling yesterday amid reports that it has launched a short-range conventional missile into the Sea of Japan.

"It appears that there was a test of a short-range missile by the North Koreans and it landed in the Sea of Japan," the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, told CNN.

US agencies were still assessing the information to determine exactly what took place.

It appears that it is just a test.

Japanese media had earlier quoted government sources as saying that the missile, launched at around 8am Japanese time, had a range of about 60 miles and was most likely to have been an anti-ship or small ballistic missile. It was not immediately clear whether the launch was a test.

There have been US warnings that Pyongyang has been preparing to conduct an underground nuclear test, possibly within two months.

The launch of a missile would almost certainly damage the prospects for the multi-party nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, China, the US, Russia and Japan, which have been stalled for almost a year.

But analysts say such launches are part of a familiar negotiating tactic - that of creating a minor crisis which could force concessions.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1474671,00.html (there is more in that article)

 

[tegumi]

Shot a harmless missile? Since when is a missile harmless? What are missiles made for? Even if it was only a short range missile, do you realize that we have Americans stationed in Japan who are barely over 100 miles away from N. Korea? I too would feel much safer in Japan than the US anyday. Walking through the "worst" parts of Tokyo at midnight are safer than walking through my own town which only has 20,000 people in broad daylight. Not only to mention, anything wrong with people in Afghanistan cannot be helped, because their leaders have put them in that situation, just as we are put into situations by Bush.

 

[Vance]

Shot a harmless missile? Since when is a missile harmless? What are missiles made for? Even if it was only a short range missile, do you realize that we have Americans stationed in Japan who are barely over 100 miles away from N. Korea? I too would feel much safer in Japan than the US anyday. Walking through the "worst" parts of Tokyo at midnight are safer than walking through my own town which only has 20,000 people in broad daylight. Not only to mention, anything wrong with people in Afghanistan cannot be helped, because their leaders have put them in that situation, just as we are put into situations by Bush.

Here's latest article:

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea's reported missile launch yesterday may be an effort to force the U.S. into direct talks over the communist country's nuclear program, said Professor Paik Jin Hyun at Seoul National University.

The missile flew about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from North Korea's east coast toward Japan and fell into the sea, Japanese broadcaster NHK said. North Korea leader Kim Jong Il's government has refused to resume talks with the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and South Korea to disarm its nuclear program and has instead insisted on bilateral negotiations with the U.S.

``The timing is very sensitive,'' said Paik, a professor at the School of International Area Studies at Seoul National University. ``North Korea obviously wants to keep tensions raised to prod the U.S. to negotiate seriously.''

The latest missile launch took place on the eve of a meeting in New York aimed at stemming the spread of nuclear weapons. Officials from some 190 nations will attend today's seventh review conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which went into effect 35 years.

The North has accused the U.S. of planning a nuclear attack and said it won't return to talks unless the U.S. ends its ``hostile'' policies and provides guarantees that it won't invade the North. The U.S. has had troops stationed in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to help guard the demilitarized zone, one of the world's most hostile borders.

``The U.S. has deployed ultra-modern military hardware, including Patriot missiles, Apache helicopters and Shadow 200 drones in South Korea,'' North Korea said through its official Korean Central News Agency after the missile test yesterday. It ``clearly indicates the U.S. moves to mount a pre-emptive nuclear attack.''

North Korea has been boycotting six-nation talks on its nuclear program since September, accusing the U.S. of maintaining a ``hostile policy.'' Three rounds of talks in Beijing failed to achieve any breakthroughs in a standoff that began in October 2002, when the government in Pyongyang said it was enriching uranium, a bomb ingredient, in violation of a 1994 international agreement.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ajX3W0w3DEYU&refer=top_world_news

 

[Tousi]

Does anyone know if that missle was weaponized/armed? I would guess it was not......

 

[Beowulf]

Nawwww, Tousi, it wasn't armed.
Anyway, ironically enough. we can thank Bush for this mess in large part.
http://www.mahablog.com/id34.html
We must keep in mind that having nuclear weapons is a strong deterrent to invasions, and how soon we have forgotten that we have recently rattled sabers at N Korea and threatened to strike at them.
Oh well.

 

[Nusentinsaino]

North Korea is another Stalinism... Those assholes are silly.