North Korea Watch: National Scurity Advisor Hadley – North Korea Far Along in Missile Preparation
South Korean protesters shout slogans as they carry mock North Korean missile during an anti-North Korea rally in downtown Seoul, Thursday, June 22, 2006. Japan has sent ships and planes to monitor North Korea amid regional jitters about a possible long-range missile launch, officials said Thursday, but played down the communist nation’s capacity to possibly load a nuclear warhead atop its rockets.
Reuters: US: North Korea far along in missile preparation
North Korea is far along in its preparations for a test of a long-range ballistic missile and the United States hopes the North Koreans will “give it up and not launch,” a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters it remained uncertain if North Korea actually planned to conduct a test-firing of the missile, which Washington has warned would be seen as a provocative act.
“I think what we’ve said publicly is we’re watching it very carefully and preparations are very far along. So you could, from a capability standpoint, have a launch. Now what they intend to do … of course we don’t know. What we hope they will do is give it up and not launch,” he said.
U.S. defense officials in Washington on Tuesday said the United States has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defence system amid concerns over the possibility of a North Korean missile launch.
Hadley said the system is basically a research and development project with a “limited operational capability” and that its purpose would be to “defend the territory of the United States from attack,” a possible indication it would not be used to try to intercept a North Korean missile fired with an expected landing in the ocean.
Hadley repeated U.S. appeals that North Korea stick with its 1999 moratorium against such launches and return to six-party talks aimed at persuading Pyonyang to give up its nuclear programs.
“We think diplomacy is the right answer and that is what we are pursuing,” he said.
The United States is pursuing a diplomatic approach publically while they ready military assets to either preemptively destroy or intercept the missile.
South Korea’s Defense Minister is now stating that a North Korean missile test is not imminent.
The ball is in Kim Jong-Il’s court.
Will diplomacy be successful? Or will North Korea launch?
Ashton B. Carter, assistant secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton and William J. Perry, secretary of defense write, If Necessary, Strike and Destroy
Should the United States allow a country openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons to U.S. soil? We believe not.
David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen writes, An Act of War, Not a Test
By any standard of international law, the launch will be an act of war. The Americans, or anyone else with anti-missile capabilities, would thus be entirely within their rights to shoot it down. Nor would it be provocative to do so. The provocation consists in sending up the missile in the first place.
A commercial satellite photo of North Korea’s Nodong missile launch site taken on by a Digital Globe satellite and annotated and released by analysts at GlobalSecurity.org on May 24, 2006. The United States and Japan warned North Korea on Monday against a missile launch that experts say could reach as far as Alaska and threatened harsh action if the test flight goes ahead.
Stay tuned…..
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North Korea Watch: United States Says “NO†to Direct Talks
North Korea Watch: Direct Talks with the United States?
North Korea Watch: Korea Says it “Is NOT Bound†by Missile Test Ban
North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield – Part 2
North Korea Watch: United States Activates Missile Defense Shield
North Korea Watch: North Korea Threatens to “Mercilessly Wipe Out†US Forces In Case of War
North Korea Watch: Preparing to Launch A Long Range Ballistic Missile?
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Technorati Tags: NorthKorea, KimJongIl, MissileDefenseAgency
One Comment
PoliticalCritic
Diplomacy is the only answer. The U.S. can’t afford to fight another war. They do not have the resources to fight three different wars at the same time.