NEWS: Reports of North Korean Missile Launch.

The U.S. military has informed the Japanese Defense Agency of a possible missle launch by North Korea. Confirmation is not possible at this point. The missle reportedly travelled 65 miles into the Sea of Japan after being fired from the east coast of North Korea.



If true, this will be seen by the West as a major provication and will be dealt with high priority. North Korea has nothing to gain and everything to lose.

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Why would this be seen as a provocation? Japan is 400-500 miles away from North Korea at it's closest point and 65 miles is well within most countries' territorial waters. The only other directions they could testfire a missile would be into South Korea, Russia or China. Now THAT would be provocation.

[edit on 5/1/2005 by mythatsabigprobe]

Thats a pretty good point but i personally think the testing itself is provocation enough for some governments no matter of the direction it was fired.

[edit on 1-5-2005 by Hangover]

It's provocation because they did not know how far the missile was going to go or what it was armed with and with the recent situation with north korea, what would you think? we dont have computers that can magically tell you the make,range, and capabilities of an incoming missile.

Of course this is provocation and one of these days a NK missile could hit Japan and kill people, that would be an act of war that would precipitate a major Asian conflict.

North Korea is in no position to just fire a missle to see if it works. Imagine if that missile had a radioactive warhead, say a 'dirty bomb' warhead which contaminated the area of ocean where it landed. That could cripple a major source of food.
Live Internet Seismic Server is spiking at the moment.

On the eastern shores, the continental shelves of the Sea are wide, but on the western shores, particularly along the Korean coast, they are narrow, averaging at about 30 kilometres. The warm water in the Sea contributes to the mild climate in Japan.
The areas in the north and the south east are rich fishing grounds. The importance of the fishery in the Sea is well illustrated by the mutual claims on the Liancourt Rocks by Japan and South Korea. The Sea is also important for its mineral deposits, particularly magnetite sands. There are also natural gas and a few petroleum fields. Since the growing of the East Asian economies, the Sea is an important commercial waterway.

Source

North Korea did test-fired a multi-stage rocket over Japan in 1998.

www.inesap.org...

North Korea have proven themselves with multi-stage missiles capable of hitting Japan, Alaska or perhaps as far as the Hawaiian Islands. They may be closer to developing missiles capable of hitting the western United States.

Update

Japanese officials say they are checking reports that North Korea has test-fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the missile had flown about 100km (62 miles) into the sea.

Japan has been monitoring North Korea after US warnings that it is close to testing its first nuclear warhead.

North Korea has already developed long-range missiles that reach Japan and has pulled out of nuclear talks.

In March the government said it was no longer observing a self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile testing which had been in place since 1999.

BBC

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It appears North Korea has conducted a test of a short-range missile, White House chief of staff Andrew Card told CNN Sunday.

"I got the report this morning, so 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," Card said in a pre-taped interview with "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"We're not surprised by this. The North Koreans have tested their missiles before. They've had some failures.

CNN

The White House is not surprised! That comment floored me.

US denounces 'bullying' N Korea after missile test

Asked what North Korea hoped to achieve by testing the missile, Mr Card said: "I think they're looking to kind of be bullies in the world. And they're causing others to stand up and take notice."

Source

North Korea can only pretend to be a bully in the world today. If they try anything more provocative than this latest incident they will be warned and/or flattened.

talk about rash
N Korea is asking for trouble arent they

how stupid can a nation be?

the rest of the world sees this too!

In Iraq; everyone says "they werent asking for it!"
but in N Korea; everyone sees that they are definatly asking for it

Bush is just waiting for the right time to strike....and N Korea is giving him plenty of oppurtunitys...

plus; how do you Know for Sure that we dont have computers sophisticated enough to tell us the make, range and warhead of a incoming missle
ya i dont really think we have that type of equipment either but...
we never know
it could exist....

Missile launch 'inappropriate': White House
May 02, 2005

Later, the US State Department added: "It appears that North Korea on May 1 conducted a launch of a short-range missile in the Sea of Japan. We are continuing to look into this.

Source

Originally posted by muzzleflash
plus; how do you Know for Sure that we dont have computers sophisticated enough to tell us the make, range and warhead of a incoming missle
ya i dont really think we have that type of equipment either but...
we never know
it could exist....

It's not really about the computers, it's about the complete system of detection. Ground-based missile detection systems detect missile flares. That information coupled with radar data is enough for analysts to determine the size, speed, and general capabilities of the missile. Analysts can then say, "Hey, this looks like a BRAHMOS missile (or whatever)."

In the future, space-based missile detection systems will be able to multispectrally analyze detected missiles and determine probable targets and, I believe (though I'm not certain), whether or not the missile has nuclear components.

Zip

Originally posted by sanctum
Asked what North Korea hoped to achieve by testing the missile, Mr Card said: "I think they're looking to kind of be bullies in the world. And they're causing others to stand up and take notice."

Ha! Now thats the pot calling the kettle black. How Andy Card can say that with a straight face is beyond me. The Worlds biggest bully calling North Koreans bullies.

When the United States flexes its military muscle its in the nations national security interests. When any country hostile to the United States does it its provaction and bully tactics.

[edit on 1/5/05 by subz]

Man, there's some scary closed mindedness going on here. North Korea has been manufacturing and testing missiles for years. They only have one place to test them safely and that's off their east coast into the sea of Japan. Japan doesn't own all that water, part of it belongs to North Korea and they DO have a right to use it. All this outrage and suspicion is ridiculous, they've tested dozens of missiles in the past and nobody said a word but now it suits the agenda it's suddenly one step short of an act of war.

Last month, the US and South Korea played WAR GAMES in the same area. Do you think they stood on the deck and yelled "BANG" or do you think they fired some missiles then? That wasn't provocation, but this is?

God, no wonder it was so easy to fool everyone over Iraq, and we still haven't learned.

?????05-13-05??????
What Will Happen?

"I'm ronery, oh so ronery..."

Seriously though, I doubt we will attack North Korea unless they make a serious offensive move first. Any premptive attack we make on North Korea will set the entire Korean Peninsula ablaze and decimate our friends in the South. While the South has the ability to defeat the North in any conflict with our assistance, it's civilian population would likely take massive casualties. Nobody in South Korean or US Government wants that.

I think we need to be working with China more to put pressure on the North to give up their nuclear weapons program and their long-range missles. If North Korea continues at this pace they will become a threat to Japan who may decide to turn away from their modern tradition of maintaining only a self-defensive military force. Japan may develop more offensive capabilities including their own nuclear weapons. There is nothing that would concern China more or threaten it's desired role as the leading power of the Asisa region than a well armed Japan. It's in China's best interests to get North Korea to play ball. We have to convince them of that.

Japan threatens N Korea with UN

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has again warned North Korea to return to nuclear talks or face being taken to the UN Security Council.
He was speaking on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe meeting (Asem) being held in the Japanese city of Kyoto.

BBC

Somehow i don't think NK will take this threat seriously at all. They have proven that repeatedly
in the past.