North Korea Test Launches Missiles

[8:17am]

Today North Korea test launched 3 missiles, one of which was a long range missile that the US had been monitoring, according to CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/04/korea.missile/index.html

This could lead to Iraq, Part II, except North Korea actually has WMDs.

[8:17am]

U.S. official: North Korea tests long-range missile

From Elise Labott and Justine Redman
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea launched a long-range Taepodong-2 missile early Wednesday in an apparently unsuccessful test that failed in flight, a senior State Department official said.
North Korea also tested at least two smaller missiles, U.S. sources told CNN.
Both missiles were launched from a site other than the one intelligence officials have watched for weeks ahead of the long-range missile test, a senior State Department official said.
The United States, Japan and other countries have warned North Korea against a long-range missile test, saying such a move would be considered a provocation.
Washington and North Korea's Asian neighbors -- South Korea, China, Russia and Japan -- have been trying to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program since 2002, but those talks have stalled in recent months.
President Bush warned last week that the isolated Stalinist state would face even further isolation if it launched the Taepodong-2, which U.S. analysts fear is capable of reaching the western United States. (Full story (http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/29/us.japan.ap/index.html))
"The North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past, and we expect them to keep their agreements," Bush said last month at the end of a European Union summit.
"It should make people nervous when nontransparent regimes, that have announced that they've got nuclear warheads, fire missiles," Bush said. "This is not the way you conduct business in the world. This is not the way that peaceful nations conduct their affairs."
The senior State Department official said the launches were timed to coincide with the launch of the space shuttle Discovery from Florida, calling it "a provocative act designed to get attention."
The North Koreans fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan in 1998, but declared a moratorium on future tests in 1999.
Two senior State Department officials said Tuesday that fuel trucks had departed the site where the Taepodong-2 sat on a launch paid, indicating that a test may have been near.
On Monday, Pyongyang's state-run media carried a report accusing the United States of harassing North Korea and vowing to respond to any pre-emptive attack "with a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war with a mighty nuclear deterrent." (Watch why North Korea is talking about annihilating the U.S. -- 2:04 (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:cnnVideo%28%27play%27,%27/video/world/2006/07/03/todd.north.korea.threat.affl%27,%27 2006/07/10%27%29;))
The White House has dismissed that threat as "hypothetical." (Full story (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/03/north.korea.ap/index.html))
Meanwhile, the Pentagon took steps to be ready for a possible military response to a North Korean missile launch.
The U.S. Northern Command recently increased security measures at its Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a military official confirmed.
In other planning measures instituted in the past several days, Northern Command, along with the Federal Aviation Administration, has put standby commercial flight restrictions into place over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Fort Greely, Alaska, where the U.S. interceptor missiles are based.

[thebestkylever]

Today North Korea test launched 3 missiles, one of which was a long range missile that the US had been monitoring, according to CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/07/04/korea.missile/index.html

This could lead to Iraq, Part II, except North Korea actually has WMDs.

and a lot of those little fighting dudes.

[8:17am]

and a lot of those little fighting dudes.

I'm more worried about a bomb that can destroy Alaska. Although I've never been there.

We probably shouldn't make light of this, but if North Korea does destroy Alaska, Bush will probably be pissed that he never got to drill for oil up there.

[thebestkylever]

I'm more worried about a bomb that can destroy Alaska. Although I've never been there.

We probably shouldn't make light of this, but if North Korea does destroy Alaska, Bush will probably be pissed that he never got to drill for oil up there.

yeah, i really hope they can work this out diplomatically... if we really did get into it with these guys soooooo many people would die.

[8:17am]

yeah, i really hope they can work this out diplomatically... if we really did get into it with these guys soooooo many people would die.
I honestly see it as being another Vietnam. We don't have the troops to support the conflict in Iraq and another was on top of that. I don't think that there would be an end in sight if this war were to happen.

And it would likely end in nuclear warfare, which no one wants, except North Korea.

[thebestkylever]

I honestly see it as being another Vietnam. We don't have the troops to support the conflict in Iraq and another was on top of that. I don't think that there would be an end in sight if this war were to happen.

And it would likely end in nuclear warfare, which no one wants, except North Korea.

oh i think it'd be a lot worse than viet nam.

[8:17am]

oh i think it'd be a lot worse than viet nam.

For sure, but I was speaking of the fact that we were in that war for a very long time. I believe it was the longest war in our nation's history. There will be a ton more casualties and this will just drag on and on.

[thebestkylever]

For sure, but I was speaking of the fact that we were in that war for a very long time. I believe it was the longest war in our nation's history. There will be a ton more casualties and this will just drag on and on.

yea, it'd be a very very dark period for the world. but hopefully unlike viet nam, there'd be more support from other nations.

[cal1082]

perhaps the technological threat of N. Korea is more overblown than we think like that of the former soviet union? just considering the test was a failure.

[Mitch]

The test failing could just provide N.K. with even more motivation to make a successful missile.

[8:17am]

The test failing could just provide N.K. with even more motivation to make a successful missile.

Maybe I should finally get around to building that bomb shelter...

[fifi_lykewhoa]

The Government is just looking to the sky and seeing that North Korean missle fail, and their like... "Umm. Okay then."

I dont see it as much of a threat myself, because the Government has always been monitering Korea - you just dont see it in the news. They never get the other side of the story, you know?

Bush is pretty stupid, but I hope he's not that stupid.

[FarPastGone]

The failure of the missle has just shown NK's lack of technological advancement, since they created the Taepodong-1 (the inter-mediate range missle) some where in the mid 90s. Through the failure of the missle NK is under increased pressure to have a succesful test of the Taepodong-2 while the world watches. However Kim Jong-il is not stupid he knows that if he were to put militaristic pressure on anyone unnecessarilly his people who have been and still are desimated by starvation will just be the ones feeling the effects of further sanctions economically and in terms of aid support by more nations then just SK and Japan.

[xvszero]

I honestly see it as being another Vietnam. We don't have the troops to support the conflict in Iraq and another was on top of that. I don't think that there would be an end in sight if this war were to happen.

And it would likely end in nuclear warfare, which no one wants, except North Korea.

You think North Korea WANTS nuclear warfare? What do they have, a handful of barely tested nukes that can maybe reach our coast? We could obliterate their entire country and they would maybe get one of our cities.

Nah, he is doing all this so we DON'T go in and take him out. Like we should. Now if anyone mentions war against North Korea it will freak everyone out way too much.

[x togepi x]

perhaps the technological threat of N. Korea is more overblown than we think like that of the former soviet union? just considering the test was a failure.

didn't it stay up for a whole...48 or so seconds? at least that's what I heard, probably not something ot be too worried about yet.