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Category: Missiles

August 25, 2009

We Have Lift-Off

I didn’t think President Lee would actually go through with this. Although I’m not sure this launch is a wise move in the broader context of attempts to disarm the North Koreans — who will seize on this to justify their own banned program — it’s almost gratifying to see a South Korean president so unconcerned about what North Korea says. And while I reject most of the comparisons to the North Korean Taepodong II launch last spring, both launches...
Categories Missiles
August 19, 2009

Is This Really The Time or the Place to Launch Rockets?

For a variety of reasons, apparently not. Look, I’m the last person on Earth to subscribe to the morally equivalent view of the Koreas as a north-going zax and a south-going zax. South Korean leaders don’t profit politically from international extortion and provocations — well, OK, there is this — but objectively, the world isn’t threatened by South Korea launching satellites or making advances in the nuclear fuel cycle, something President Lee’s people have personally told me they’re keen to...
Categories Missiles/Proliferation/South Korea/WMD
July 20, 2009

Sanctions Upates

The big headline this week is the U.N.’s agreement on a list of entities to be sanctioned under UNSCR 1718 and 1874 (see links on my sidebar for the texts).  Frankly, I think that’s a story that’s getting a great deal more attention than it merits.  The sanctioned entities have largely been sanctioned under Executive Order 13,382 for years.  I doubt that the U.N. imprimatur is going to fend off many of North Korea’s WMD clients that the Treasury Department’s...
Categories "United" Nations/Axis of Evil/China/Missiles/Money Laundering/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
July 7, 2009

Fireworks

Not that I paid much attention, but North Korea did in fact live up to expectations that it would test missiles on the 4th of July.  So often, our media get excited about the testing of anti-ship missiles which probably aren’t nuclear capable and probably couldn’t do much damage to ground targets in Japan or South Korea.  This time, however, the North fired off seven short-range missiles.  They were SCUD-C’s or Nodong’s, which could do serious damage to a South...
Categories "United" Nations/Missiles
June 19, 2009

In Other News, North Korea Plots Attack on Hawaii

Tora! Tora! Tora! The missile, believed to be a long-range Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan’s top-selling newspaper. The report cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.  [AP] Satellite imagery of the Dongchang site here.  This is a new site, whose construction apparently continued in flagrant violation of U.N. Security...
Categories Missiles/U.S. Military
June 18, 2009

Missile Shell Game

The North Koreans appear to be trying to wrong-foot our satellites, and may be about to do a multiple ICBM launch: A special North Korean train which transported a long-range rocket or intercontinental ballistic missile to a launch site in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province in May recently moved from a missile research center in Sanum-dong, Pyongyang to another launch site in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province, a South Korean government source said Tuesday. South Korean and U.S. authorities believe the North...
Categories Missiles
June 12, 2009

Plan C: Disarm Kim Jong Il Just by Pissing Him Off!

U.S. intelligence officials have warned President Obama and other senior American officials that North Korea intends to respond to the looming passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution this week — condemning the communist country for its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests — with another nuclear test, FOX  News has learned.  [Fox News] Could we be just six U.N. resolutions away from the complete nuclear disarmament of North Korea?  And you say the U.N. is worthless! If only it...
Categories Missiles/Proliferation/WMD
June 10, 2009

Sun Rises, Flowers Bloom, U.N. Fails to Pass Effective N. Korea Resolution

[Update:   I should clarify that this isn’t final and passed by the Security Council. This is leaked draft language from the agreed text.] My hopes that a long negotiation would mean tougher language were not realized.  China was more determined to shield North Korea from consequences than we were determined to impose them. Excerpts below the fold, with many thanks to a reader and friend. How is this weak?  In a nutshell, the language on sanctions and interdiction is...
Categories Missiles/Proliferation/Sanctions/WMD
June 5, 2009

Missile Test Update

North Korea’s launch pad on its west coast is ready for a first launch: Photographic images show the launch tower and what appears to be construction materials on the launch pad, Tim Brown, a senior fellow with GlobalSecurity.org, said Thursday. He speculated that the debris may be there to make the pad appear as though it is still under construction. “The launch pad appears to be operational,” Brown said.  [AP, Pamela Hess] Compare my photo from Google Earth to the...
Categories Missiles/NK Military
May 20, 2009

Allison Kilkenny vs. John Bolton

Kilkenny may not like John Bolton, but she looks pretty foolish bashing him in her “Unreported” piece which was published today – especially since Bolton’s Wall Street Journal article accurately predicted nuclear intentions coming from Iran. To add to Ms. Kilkenny’s dismay, Bolton is also anticipating another North Korea nuclear test, something she feels Bolton is foolish for simply suggesting. Kilkenny writes: Experts on North Korea say Kim Jong-il’s motives center around receiving aid, and fear of the United States,...
Categories Media Criticism/Missiles/Proliferation
May 4, 2009

N. Korea: Obama Just Like Bush!

Someone still isn’t feeling the hope and change: North Korea blasted U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday as no different from his predecessor in trying to “stifle” countries that are uncooperative with the U.S., referring to Washington’s move to punish Pyongyang’s rocket launch.  [….] “With nothing can the U.S. justify such illegal provocation as forcing the UNSC to table the issue of the DPRK’s (North Korea) launch of a satellite for peaceful purposes and issue ‘a presidential statement,’” the North’s...
Categories "United" Nations/Diplomacy/Japan/Missiles/Proliferation/U.S. Politics
April 19, 2009

Joining the Great North Korea Debate

I’m gratified to see that my latest New Ledger article has picked up so much linkage and circulation, including at Instapundit, Real Clear World, the Memeorandum, Pajamas Media, Rantburg, Google News, and even the Puffington Host.  I doubt that I’ve done much harm to Chris Hill’s chances of being confirmed, but it’s gratifying to see my ideas debated by people not necessarily predisposed to agree (which must be nearly everyone, given that I’ve been highly critical of Presidents Clinton, Bush,...
Categories Appeasement/Diplomacy/Missiles/Six-Party Talks
April 13, 2009

“United Nations,” “International Community,” and other oxymorons

“This provocation underscores the need for action–not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons,” Mr. Obama said. “Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something. [Barack Obama, April 6, 2009] It will soon be official: the rules are not binding, violations will not be punished, and our words mean nothing. It seems incredible that any American statesman still needs one more object lesson in...
Categories "United" Nations/Diplomacy/Missiles
April 11, 2009

China’s Fingerprints Are All Over North Korea’s Missiles

Not long before the United Nations went limp in the face of North Korea’s missile launch, our own high priest of Smart Diplomacy called on our friends the ChiComs to do their part to restore the rule of law we know them to treasure as we do: “China could do a great deal more,” [Vice President Joe] Biden said, without elaborating. [AFP] On the contrary, according to this report, it appears that China has done quite enough: The rocket launched...
Categories China/China & Korea/Missiles/Proliferation
April 10, 2009

Video: Kim Jong Il Greets the Rubber Stamps; Taepodong Launch

In the video, His Porcine Shriveled Majesty is noticeably gaunt as he shuffles stiffly onto the floor of the Supreme Peoples’ Assembly. He’s aged ten years in the last year. The video also appears to show North Korea’s most recent missile test, which is interesting, but not as interesting as the system of hillside pipes shown at 1:38. Google Earthers will recognize them instantly; contraptions like these are a common sight along North Korea’s east coast, but I’ve never figured...
Categories Kim Jong Il/Missiles
April 8, 2009

More Nork Missile Stuff

A DUMMY SATELLITE? That’s what some South Korean scientists speculate about the payload of last weekend’s missile. Not being a rocket scientist myself, I wasn’t personally overwhelmed by the scientists’ basis for that conclusion, but I’d think that if the whole thing went down in the Pacific, it should be possible for us to recover the thing and resolve the issue conclusively. I wonder what the psychological impact would be if photographs of the recovered payload make their way into...
Categories Anju Links/Missiles