Posted on 02/07/2003 8:13:45 PM PST by HAL9000
North Korea may test-fire longer-range missile this year: expert
TOKYO, Feb 7 (AFP) - North Korea may test-fire this year a long-range Taepodong-2 missile which could be capable of reaching parts of the continental United States, a Japanese defence analyst said Friday.
Hideshi Takesada, a professor at the National Institute for Defence Studies, said the hardline Stalinist state had conducted new missile tests every five years.
"There is a possibility it may launch a Taepodong-2 this year," said Takesada, one of Japan's leading analysts on North Korean military affairs. His institute is a main research arm of Japan's Defence Agency.
"If a new missile is test-fired, it means that the US mainland is likely to be placed within its range," he told a seminar at the Japan National Press Club.
A Taepodong-2 missile has a range estimated between 3,500 and 6,000 kilometers (2,190 and 3,750 miles).
Pyongyang shocked the world in 1998 when it test-fired a suspected Taepodong-1 missile, part of which flew over Japan's main island of Honshu and into the Pacific.
In 1993, North Korea test-launched into the Sea of Japan a Rodong-1 missile with a range of 1,300 kilometers (810 miles) after earlier testing two types of crude Scud missiles.
According to South Korean defence ministry data, North Korea is currently testing Taepodong-1 missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) and is also developing longer-range Taepodong-2 missiles.
"The Taepodong-2 mounts a Rodong on a new-type booster, meaning that North Korea's technology has advanced so far," Takesada said.
Pyongyang declared a moratorium on missile tests in September 1999 and in May 2001 extended the moratorium until 2003.
In a historic summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il pledged to extend the moratorium beyond its original expiry date of 2003.
North Korean ambassador to China Choe Kim-Su said last month Pyongyang might resume missile tests after Washington cut off fuel shipments late last year over North Korea's secret nuclear weapons program.
Good idea if we had anything left to trade.
Oh, wait, we can still export porn movies, and I bet we're tops on the "Paycheck Advance" marketplace!
"...fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life." Dean Wermer, from the movie "Animal House"
In this case, I'd have to recommend a precision strike. A covert raid in the Soviet Union would have been cake compared to North Korea. Since they'd almost certainly be able to catch any infiltrator that deep in the country (as the whole place is a prison camp anyway), why give them the chance?
"It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union" -- President Kennedy (1962)
"It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any missile launched from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea against any other nation in the Northeast Asian and Pacific Region as an attack by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea upon the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea" --(hopefully) President Bush (2003)
It is simply unsustainable to have the desperate North Koreans moving fuel rods and plutonium around, creating 8-16 nuclear weapons per-annum, and at the same time perfecting the range and trajectory accuracy of their multi-staged intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Taepodong-2.
We must announce the Bush Doctrine for Northeast Asia IMMEDIATELY, and move to protect Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Alasaka. With a rather possible launch of a Taepodong-2 from coastal Hwadai County, North Korea, at this stage of regional tension, how could we even confirm in time whether such a payload included nuclear, chemical or biological weapons (all of which we KNOW North Korean possesses and we don't need UN inspectors to confirm)?
Yes, Freepers, lurkers, Americans and citizens of the world reading this site today, the clear ultimatum must now courageously be made specific and the North Koreans told clearly through public and private channels 'the ball is in your court'. We have multiple assets and resources at our command to detect such an ICBM launch (which they will call 'an orbital satellite for peaceful purposes' as in 1998), and the greatest military upon the face of the Earth can respond upon Pyongyang with unmerciful force within several minutes.
And, most of all, the little man with the bouffant hairstyle and elevator shoes knows it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.