Video

By Hyung-Jin Kim
Associated Press Writer / June 18, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.


The missile, believed to be a 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. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.

While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service –– the country's main spy agency –– said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.

U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

In Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho told a forum Thursday that the North's moves to strengthen its nuclear programs is "a very dangerous thing that can fundamentally change" the regional security environment. He said the South Korean government is bracing for "all possible scenarios" regarding the nuclear standoff.

The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.

It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."Continued...

"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.

In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.

The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.

After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.

The comments –– contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues –– included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.

South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.

"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.

Page 2 of 2 ––"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.

In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wednesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.

The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.

After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.

"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.

The comments –– contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues –– included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.

South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.

"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.


––––––

Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa in Tokyo, Jae-soon Chang and Ji-youn Oh in Seoul and Mike Eckel in Moscow contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/06/18/report_nkorea_plans_to_fire_missile_toward_hawaii/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed5

Oh yeah.

This is going to end VERY well.

_MaH

And so the clock begins to tick...

oh and what is considered a "blood agent">?


Blood Agent: Hydrogen Cyanide (AC)

Blood Agent: Cyanogen Chloride (CK)

call me demented but i  think this is hilarious that all this is happening under obama's watch

North Korea might want ot take a clue from Japan as to what happens when you screw with Hawaii.

News flash: Bush isn't president anymore.

This will be interesting.

Wonder what would happen after a warhead full of sarin fell on Honolulu?


I bet Obama would send NK reparations for our evil ways, what do you think?

Hope and Change!



I wish Obama would quit being such a pussy and stand up to these assholes.

Obama should challenge that ronry fucker to a game of basketball to settle this!

They will launch it on July 4th...(they always launch on our holidays)....big news stories...Obama files protest with UN...again......and again nothing will come of it.

*yawn*

we have quite a few AEGIS BMD capable ships (USN and JMSDF) sitting in the Pacific (aka Pearl Harbor) just WAITING for the opportunity to prove themselves...

the best thing for my bank account would be for N. Korea to do this, and for our ships to successfully engage and intercept their ICBM...

How would it help your piggy bank?

I have a vested interest in the success of Lockheed Martin MS2 and our AEGIS/BMD weapon systems...

This isn't going to end well!

NOPE!!

Obama nees to issue an apology to North Korea.  That will make everything better.

Someone really needs to put that "me so ronery" fucker in his place.  Unfortunately there is about a .00001% chance of that happening with the president we have in office right now.  

Meh I dont see what the big deal is??

I think NK knows we got a pussy in the oval office....

So if its a ballistic missile, and it goes toward hawaii and the third stage actually works unlike last time, should it not have close to the range?


also:
How many patriot and goal keeper systems would be needed to defend Seoul from NK arty and missile fire before counter-battery fire could return fire?

How well are the NK arty positions protected, do they fire and roll them into a cave or are they in open positions?

The big deal is NK, specifically Kim Jong Il, will keep pushing us until he actually ends up killing a few hundred, or thousand, or tens of thousands of our people.  The time to prevent such a catastrophe is now.

Maybe oblahblah can send them a sternly worded letter.  Maybe having tea with kji will keep us safe.

No, you are not demented. There is a reason all this is happening under the Obama administration.

He is weak. Has proven himself to be weak and is making the US look weak.



The school yard bullies always want to take out the weak. It is a bigger polus when the school yard bully takes out what used to be the baddest mother fucker around and makes them look like a bitch.



Thanks Obama, we fucking hate you.





 

Don't their missiles usually crash and burn on the pad anyway? I seriously doubt it would even make it to Hawaii.

If I remember right, we fired a couple of missiles into this guys pup tent one night for getting too uppity.








Provided a much needed attitude adjustment pretty quickly...

in a perfect world, the ICBM wouldn't leave N Korean air space

Yeah I would love to see the ABL escorted offshore with a dozen Raptors fly by and toast it on the launch pad.

I hope it goes better than the Patriot system did in Desert Shield.

Yes it will.





Patriot has had some major upgrades and improvements since 91.  Lets just hope THADD gets it first.  If Patriot has to take it out, its going to be ugly.  IIRC, Patriot is the last line of defense.



ETA: Merlin should be along shortly to school us on these things...






 

The same way the GWOT was kicked off. It takes a huge loss of life or tragedy to get the whole of public opinion in behind the idea of another war.

I agree with you completely about intervention/ preemptive strike, before he gets the first strike, but Obama would probably be considered a bully in the international community and by his main base of supporters here.

I think even if Obama somehow secretly wanted to bomb the fuck out of NK right now, he probably has his hands tied politically until there is a Pearl Harbor/ Lusitania/ 9/11 type moment.

Do we have our hydrogen peroxide laser gunships in the air yet?

Does North Korea have any subs?



One scenario I can't get out of my head is them parking a sub as close to a major west coast city then just detonating the whole damn sub.

Hell, Obutthole  probably won't even do anything and he will forbid any of our ships to intercept it, then when it strikes Hawaii he will forbid anyone to say he gave the order, then he will launch an all- out assault on NK and say he is doin this for us. Hoping that all the sheeple will come stand behind him united and he will be worshipped and re-elected in 2012.     Ofcourse if i was president i would send in serious firepower and melt that motherfucker on the launch pad the day before they plan on launching and then Pound his WW1 era military back into the fucking caveman days, where the only thing they can do to SK is throw some rocks and smack people with sticks. I am sick of this demented fuckstick and its about time we deal with him through SUPERIOR FIREPOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he's just apologize for Bush's whiteness and let it go at that.

Look...we have the most gutless, empty-suited dipshit in the WH we've ever had.  This POS can't even speak without a teleprompter.  The world has seen enough of his fucker that they're laughing, knowing they can pull any stunt they want to and this dickless fuck won't do anything about it.

I hope you fuckers that voted for this POS are happy.

HH

QTF!!!!!

schadenfreude

Agreed, and what is even better is that its a blue state. True karma would be if it was Kalifornia or New York. Hell I would even take one here in Chicago.

Actually, even in those blue states, there are a lot of non blue voters.  Unfortuately, there are a few LARGE metro areas with huge libtard populations making liberal leftisit decisions for us all.

I think if NK pulled off a successful attack on Hawaii or the US there would be people storming the white house.

There has been ample warning over months of this and the majority of the US knows about it. I couldn't imagine the people taking too kindly to us having done nothing then being attacked on his watch while he stood by.

Then again maybe that is the nork's plan. Maybe Obumfuck wants it to happen.

While they may not land a direct nuke all I can keep thinking is bio, chem, dirty bomb, or even an EMP type attack. Anyone know the range on a high altitude burst just west of Hawaii? Would EMP hit the west coast?

They start launching shit at us and I'm telling you, I'd kick somebody's ass and good.  I don't know about you all, but I'm sick of tiny-dick dictators talking shit.  They need the hammer and I mean hard!

   sad but true husker

isnt that like OPSEC 101..


pppssssttttt...  if you gonna attack someone..  dont tell them its going to happen..  

Uh, Neville Chamberlain is in charge now.

Somewhere in DC a strongly worded letter of concern is being drafted.  Just in case.

Vote democrat, for North Korea's children

The world is indeed laughing at the hapless amatuer. uh, uh, uh, uh,

Depends what your definition of "well" is.  I can think of several scenarios where the end result is positive.

If all fairness, the Patriot system was originally designed for fighters, not projectiles.