Posted on 07/25/2004 2:30:54 PM PDT by wagglebee
TOKYO (Reuters) - There is strong evidence that North Korea and Iran are cooperating on missile development, a senior U.S. official was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily did not name the U.S. official, whom it quoted as telling reporters on Friday during a visit to Tokyo that Iran had given data on launch tests to North Korea.
Iran and North Korea are part of U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil".
"There is very strong evidence indicating that Iran and North Korea are cooperating on ballistic missile development," Asahi quoted the U.S. official as saying.
The comments coincided with a visit to Japan by U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, part of a drive by Washington to breathe life into six-party talks aimed at ending a 20-month-old standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Bolton was scheduled to leave on Saturday after talks with Japanese officials.
North Korea shocked Japan and the world in 1998 when it launched a Taepodong ballistic missile that passed over Japan before splashing into the sea.
Japan is also concerned about North Korea's Rodong-1 missiles, which have a range of around 1,300 km (800 miles), and upon which Iran's Shahab-3 ballistic missile was based.
In a September 2002 summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pledged to extend a moratorium on ballistic missile launches.
I don't give a damn what the 'rats and the UN have to say about it, this is a good enough reason to complete the elimination of the Axis of Evil.
Concur completely. Our national defense (against enemies both foreign AND domestic) takes precedence over all else.
Kerry's promises are empty rhetoric that imply a return to Clinton/Carter era indecision. Americans have all the evidence they need to make up their minds.
FYI
"...FORT GREELY--Against the backdrop of dust devils whipped up by trademark Delta Junction-area winds, a crane operator slowly lowered a 54-foot missile into a launching silo Thursday while senior Army officers and military contract workers watched proudly from about a football field's distance away.
More than two decades after the idea of a missile defense system was conceived during the Reagan administration, workers at Fort Greely installed the first interceptor missile in a launching pad picked for Alaska's strategic location in the globe.
About a dozen Boeing employees dressed in orange and neon green safety vests oversaw the methodical lowering of the missile, the first of six that the military plans to install and have prepared for launch by the end of this year.
Major Gen. John Holly, echoing the sentiments of most of the senior officers Thursday, called the installment of the first missile an important milestone in the nation's effort to defend itself against a missile attack launched at the United States from another continent...." (excerpt from previous article posted 7/23/2004 by ErnestattheBeach)
Missile installed at Greely (Alaska - A First ICBM Defensive Kill Vehicle
Thanks for the ping!
I dunno ... we seem to have a large per cent-age of the elite crowd and many millions of Americans that seem to need to see that MUSHROOM CLOUD first.... the Europeans are hopeless, Russia is now a more reliable ally than they are...even Britain!
Tony Blair isn't out of office yet, and his successor will understand which side his toast is buttered. England and America will share the same fate when history is written. We both know it, deep down in our bones.
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