Liftoff II: North Korea Test-Fires Several Missiles
by Pamela LeaveyAccording to reports by Reuters, The Associated Press, CNN and other agencies North Korea has “test-fired several missiles in the early hours of Wednesday, July 5 (Tuesday afternoon Eastern time), apparently including the Taepodong-2, the long-range missile at the heart of diplomatic tensions with the United States and its allies.”
The long-range missile seems to have malfunctioned less than a minute into its flight, CNN and Reuters reported, citing American officials they did not name.
“Today’s launches were done despite advance warning by the relevant countries,” the top spokesman for the Japanese government, Shinzo Abe, told reporters early Wednesday in Tokyo, Reuters reported. “This is a grave problem in terms of peace and stability, not only of Japan but also of international society,” Mr. Abe was quoted as saying. “We strongly protest against North Korea.”
A White House spokeswoman said staff were urgently consulting on North Korea’s move but had no comment yet. “We have absolutely nothing at this point,” the White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told Reuters.
AP reports, “If the timing is correct, the North Korean missiles were launched within minutes of Tuesday’s liftoff of Discovery, which blasted into orbit from Cape Canaveral in the first U.S. space shuttle launch in a year,” making the “test-fires” the second liftoff of the day.
…the first missile was launched at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, or about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday EDT. The two others were launched at bout 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., he said.
Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command — which monitors the skies for threats to North American security — went on heightened alert, said NORAD spokesman Michael Kucharek.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I sure as hell don’t feel safer, with the Bush cabal running the show. The White House termed the test-fires “a provocation” but not an “immediate threat.” One has to wonder if they will tell us if there is an immediate threat…
Filed under: Bush Admin, In The News, International | Get Permalink or trackback |
Good grief, Just give those idiots a reason to start something will you.
Good grief is right! My daughter was totally freaked out about this… so was I.
Clinton did his best to negotiate a way out of this ,but the North Koreans took what we gave them and went about their merry way building nukes.Now many Clinton folks want to bomb the launch pads.It’s so hard to keep up!
Kim il Jong is like a five year old with a 3 57 magnum,sure he can fire the gun,but he can’t aim.When I was doing my tour in Korea the NK Army troops would come across the DMZ looking for food.They were not defecting per say,just hungry.
Not good news. Where is Jimmy Carter to ‘negotiate’ when we need him?
Kman,when Clinton was trying to deal with the North Koreans,Carter thinking he was still president jumped in and forced a “deal”.We can only have 1 president at a time !
Darth
Would take Clinton and Carter anyday over the fool and his puppetmaster.
Why is anyone surprised about this? If you call a country part of the axis of evil or whatever, you’re asking for it. If, in addition, you stop talking, you’ve also asked for it. Madeleine Albright had it right when she went and spoke to Kim Jong Il; talk costs nothing and one might learn something about the person to whom one is talking. Equally, they might learn something about you even if, in the case of Kim Jong Il, the chances of that are limited.
To add to the problem, from the pespective of the North Koreans, we are paying loads of attention to Iran and not a whole lot to them. And like it or not, it’s their perspective that determines what they will do.
The North Koreanswanted attention. They choose a way that was absolutely certain to get them attention. There’s an old saying, to wit: Positive attention is best. But negative attention is better than nothing at all.
We needed to negociate from a possition of strength. Now that is all lost. This is very scary, especially in light of the leadership (or lack thereof) the US has right now.
As Winston Churchill always said, “Jar-jar is better than war-war.”
Especially in a nuclear age.
This is also really should show the US that we need to “jar-jar” from a possition of STRENGTH in Iran NOW, before we let Iran turn into another Korea.
Yours from the UK,
Hally
Darth,
When Bubba ran the place, North and South Korea were talking about runification. Now NK is lobbying rockets trying to piss people off.
Too bad BushInc doesn’t believe in talking to people.
Realisticly, the NK leader is a bigger nutcase then Bush and talking maybe a waste of time.
So let’s see if I got this…
Iraq which had no WMDs and was not a threat was invaded while North Korea who is a threat and can at least nuke Japan now and us later is ignored.
Welcome to Bizarro World.
This whole thing actually scares me. Iraq?? Nope–was never scared of Saddam but this!! And we are still dinking around in Iraq wasting troops, money and time. You are right, battlebob. Bizarro World.
From the beginning of this administration, they’ve wanted perpetual war waged somewhere, anywhere, in the world to ensure that this military-industrial-corporate government has a steady stream of money and power accruing to them so as to dominate the world. They targeted the three countries they wanted to take down early on and are taking the steps necessary to complete their plan. Not negotiating with Korea, as has been said, was part of their strategy. Stir the people up, fill them with fear, and get whatever they ask for. We just better not fall for it. I too think that Kim Jong Il wants attention and acknowlegement more than he wants war. Kerry’s response, I’m sure, will be a wise and well-thought out one.
From what I remember from listening to John Kerry’s campaign speeches, we had things under control concerning North Korea until George Fucking Bush and his clan got in office and mucked everything up.
sandra,Under control? They were building their nukes just fine before GW….Now I think the Republicans at the time should have been Clinton more.We need to be more united……Pamela in many ways I did not mind Clinton,Dole was a horrible candidate,had to shower after I voted for him.
Kim Jong’s regime desperately needs foreign aid to survive. This whole nuke thing (and there still is no hard evidenct that he has a nuke)is about getting aid from the U.S. Unfortunately the Republican administration would rather let things escalate and bring up the fear level and thus increase military spending. They’re already screaming for increased missle defense spending.
“It’s time to wake up America, our economy’s based on war, they keep us in constant fear, and the rich get more and more” AD
Kim Jong’s regime desperately needs foreign aid to survive. This whole nuke thing (and there still is no hard facts that he has a nuke) is about N. Korea getting U.S. aid. Unfortunately, the Bush administration, rather than negotiate, wants to let the situation escalate and the fear factor go up so they can increase their control over ignorant America and increase military spending. They’re already screaming for increased missle defense spending.
“It’s time to wake up America, our economy’s based on war, they keep us in constant fear, and the rich get more and more” AD
Oops, sorry about the double, but the first one didn’t post.