N. Korea Fires Missile Into Sea of Japan

[deez nuts]

N. Korea Fires Missile Into Sea of Japan

By SOO-JEONG LEE

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - 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.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...ea&floc=NW_1-T

[ahsingjai]

The 6 Party talks is bullshit. IF U.S wants to take care of North Korea "threat", it wouldn't be rejecting so many offers from N.K and pressuring China to help us.

N.K even offer their nukes for food cuz their people are starving!

[Napoleon Chynamite]

^ If the North Korean government cares so much about its people, it doesn't really make sense why the people are enduring so much hardship in the first place to meet basic needs, why resources continue to be misallocated, why 70% of the budget is spent on the military rather than social programs or services which at least will put the lives of citizens a step above a living hell, and why Kim Jong Il is so fat and well-fed.

[yoMAMA]

Time for China to do some regime change....!

[ahsingjai]

Originally Posted by Gumby

^ If the North Korean government cares so much about its people, it doesn't really make sense why the people are enduring so much hardship in the first place to meet basic needs, why resources continue to be misallocated, why 70% of the budget is spent on the military rather than social programs or services which at least will put the lives of citizens a step above a living hell, and why Kim Jong Il is so fat and well-fed.

That's cuz N.K is still at war with S.K.

If N.K is push to its lowest of the low limits, they would have to start war again.

[yoMAMA]

Originally Posted by ahsingjai

That's cuz N.K is still at war with S.K.

If N.K is push to its lowest of the low limits, they would have to start war again.

that should spell the death of the kim jung II regime, though.

[Chu Chi]

Im about 5 or 6 missile launches away from getting really, really angry.

CC

[SunWuKong]

again?

[yoMAMA]

I say, China+South Korea [no Japan cauz the Koreans don't like the Japanese ;) ] should launch a commando team together to take out the dear leader and free the North Korean people!

[deez nuts]

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

I say, China+South Korea [no Japan cauz the Koreans don't like the Japanese ;) ] should launch a commando team together to take out the dear leader and free the North Korean people!

we need the japanese. their ninjitsu skills will be of vital importance to the success of the mission.

[yoMAMA]

Originally Posted by Chasiubao_Boy

we need the japanese. their ninjitsu skills will be of vital importance to the success of the mission.

LOL

plus they are so sneaky

[Faithless]

U.S. intelligence detects N.Korea test work-daily

Tue May 3, 2005 06:09 AM ET * By Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence has detected the movement of heavy equipment in North Korea that points to possible preparations for an underground nuclear test, a South Korean newspaper said on Tuesday.

The influential Chosun Ilbo, quoting a government source, said U.S. spy satellites had captured frequent movements of trucks in the north-eastern region of Kilju, as well as the movement of cranes and other heavy equipment into the area.

"U.S. intelligence authorities believe the images and other information point to preparations for a possible underground nuclear test," the source was quoted as saying.

U.S. and Japanese news reports last week said Washington had warned some governments and agencies that North Korea could be preparing for a test, which would represent a serious escalation of tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.

U.S. and South Korean officials have since denied there were definitive signs of an imminent test. On Tuesday Seoul shot down the latest report, with Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung telling reporters before a cabinet meeting there were no unusual indications in the area.

A Defense Ministry official told Reuters there also was no foundation to the Chosun Ilbo report that the U.S. intelligence was passed on to the South Korean government.

He said a project to dig a tunnel had been detected in the same area in the late 1990s and the two countries had been watching it closely, without any sign of preparations for a test.

"It is not clear what the purpose of the tunnel is," the official added.

A CONSTANT WORRY

A South Korean official told Reuters on Monday that although there were no indications of an imminent nuclear test, the possibility was constantly in the minds of regional powers trying to put a stop to Pyongyang's nuclear programs.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China have met for three rounds of talks on the issue but without making substantive progress. A fourth round planned for September 2004 never took place.

North Korea announced in February that it had nuclear weapons. U.S. officials have said they believe North Korea has already amassed enough fissile material to make six to eight bombs.

A nuclear test would prove the existence of the weapons conclusively and put the world's nuclear powers and North Korea's neighbors in a huge quandary over how to respond.

In another development, North Korea test-fired what appeared to be a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday. U.S. officials are concerned that Pyongyang may now be able to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead.

Officials in Asia and Washington played down the significance of the launch. North Korea has test-fired such missiles before, and arms experts say it is not clear whether Pyongyang has the technology to build warheads small enough to mount on missiles.

Conservative media said Seoul was wrong to play down the significance of the missile test.

"South Koreans are enraged, questioning if the Defense Ministry would react the same even when a missile dropped on the South," the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday.

South Korean defense analysts said Seoul's reaction was alarming.

"There appears to be a conscious attempt to underestimate the North's missile threat," said Kim Tae-woo, an expert on North Korea's mass weapons program at the Korea Institute of Defense Analyzes. "That's despite the fact that South Korea is a hostage in the situation."