Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
April 3, 2009
Pg. 11
By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, April 2 -- Amid reports that it is fueling a missile for launch as soon as this weekend, North Korea escalated threats on Thursday against a worried neighbor, warning that it would attack "major targets" in Japan if Tokyo shot the missile down.
North Korea has shifted MiG-23 fighter jets to its east coast, near the missile launch site, according to South Korean media reports.
President Obama, in London for the Group of 20 summit, criticized the launch Wednesday as a "provocative act" that would violate a United Nations resolution and trigger a response from the U.N. Security Council. The leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed in London that the launch, if it occurred, should be addressed by the Security Council.
The three countries have dispatched ships with antimissile systems to monitor the launch, which they describe as a test of a long-range ballistic missile that could fly as far as the western United States. North Korea is trying to miniaturize nuclear warheads to fit atop its growing arsenal of missiles, U.S. intelligence officials have said.
North Korea says the missile is part of a peaceful research effort to put a communications satellite into orbit.
Based on satellite photographs, experts say the missile appears to be carrying a satellite payload. No country has said it would try to shoot it down, unless it poses a threat.
But North Korea, judging from its near-daily warnings of retaliation and war, is growing increasingly agitated -- at U.S. surveillance flights, foreign ship movements and threats of U.N. sanctions.
In what it called an "important report," North Korea's official news agency said Thursday that "Japanese reactionaries, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, are perpetrating the most evil doings over North Korea's projected satellite launch for peaceful purposes."
Last week, Japan ordered land- and sea-based antimissile systems to destroy debris from the North's missile if it failed in flight and fell on Japan. The announced flight trajectory of the missile will take it high over northern Japan, but the likelihood of anything dropping from the sky and hitting the country is remote, Japanese officials say.
North Korea, though, says Japan is being reckless. In its warning Thursday, it said that if Japan intercepts the missile, "the Korean People's Army will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets."
North Korea has about 200 midrange Nodong missiles that are capable of striking nearly every part of Japan, according to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
Citing U.S. military officials, CNN said Wednesday that the North has begun to pump fuel into the missile, a process that means it could be launched within three or four days. Officials in Japan and South Korea would not confirm the report.
Among the many threats that it has issued in recent days, North Korea has said it would walk away from talks with the United States and four other countries over ending its nuclear program if its missile launch was criticized in the U.N. Security Council.
Although it is one of the poorest countries in Asia, North Korea has made itself into the "greatest supplier of missiles, missile components and related technologies" in the developing world, according to a 2008 report for the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute.
It has sold missiles to Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Yemen -- and received hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif.
North Korea warned Monday that it will interpret as a "declaration of war" any move by South Korea to join the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, a multination effort begun during the Bush administration to intercept shipments of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction by countries such as North Korea.
The warning could backfire. South Korean government officials said Thursday that they were leaning toward joining the anti-proliferation group. For nearly six years, South Korea has declined a U.S. invitation to participate.
April 3, 2009
Pg. 11
By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, April 2 -- Amid reports that it is fueling a missile for launch as soon as this weekend, North Korea escalated threats on Thursday against a worried neighbor, warning that it would attack "major targets" in Japan if Tokyo shot the missile down.
North Korea has shifted MiG-23 fighter jets to its east coast, near the missile launch site, according to South Korean media reports.
President Obama, in London for the Group of 20 summit, criticized the launch Wednesday as a "provocative act" that would violate a United Nations resolution and trigger a response from the U.N. Security Council. The leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed in London that the launch, if it occurred, should be addressed by the Security Council.
The three countries have dispatched ships with antimissile systems to monitor the launch, which they describe as a test of a long-range ballistic missile that could fly as far as the western United States. North Korea is trying to miniaturize nuclear warheads to fit atop its growing arsenal of missiles, U.S. intelligence officials have said.
North Korea says the missile is part of a peaceful research effort to put a communications satellite into orbit.
Based on satellite photographs, experts say the missile appears to be carrying a satellite payload. No country has said it would try to shoot it down, unless it poses a threat.
But North Korea, judging from its near-daily warnings of retaliation and war, is growing increasingly agitated -- at U.S. surveillance flights, foreign ship movements and threats of U.N. sanctions.
In what it called an "important report," North Korea's official news agency said Thursday that "Japanese reactionaries, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, are perpetrating the most evil doings over North Korea's projected satellite launch for peaceful purposes."
Last week, Japan ordered land- and sea-based antimissile systems to destroy debris from the North's missile if it failed in flight and fell on Japan. The announced flight trajectory of the missile will take it high over northern Japan, but the likelihood of anything dropping from the sky and hitting the country is remote, Japanese officials say.
North Korea, though, says Japan is being reckless. In its warning Thursday, it said that if Japan intercepts the missile, "the Korean People's Army will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets."
North Korea has about 200 midrange Nodong missiles that are capable of striking nearly every part of Japan, according to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
Citing U.S. military officials, CNN said Wednesday that the North has begun to pump fuel into the missile, a process that means it could be launched within three or four days. Officials in Japan and South Korea would not confirm the report.
Among the many threats that it has issued in recent days, North Korea has said it would walk away from talks with the United States and four other countries over ending its nuclear program if its missile launch was criticized in the U.N. Security Council.
Although it is one of the poorest countries in Asia, North Korea has made itself into the "greatest supplier of missiles, missile components and related technologies" in the developing world, according to a 2008 report for the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute.
It has sold missiles to Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Yemen -- and received hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif.
North Korea warned Monday that it will interpret as a "declaration of war" any move by South Korea to join the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, a multination effort begun during the Bush administration to intercept shipments of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction by countries such as North Korea.
The warning could backfire. South Korean government officials said Thursday that they were leaning toward joining the anti-proliferation group. For nearly six years, South Korea has declined a U.S. invitation to participate.