Thread: N. Korea aimed missile at Hawaii

N. Korea missile aimed at area off Hawaii - report
Fri Jul 7, 2006 5:44 AM IST10


http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsAr ... News&story
ID=2006-07-07T053653Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-258540-1.xml

TOKYO (Reuters) - A North Korean missile launched on Wednesday was aimed at an area of the ocean close to Hawaii, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday.

Experts estimated the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile to have a range of up to 6,000 km, putting Alaska within its reach. Wednesday's launch apparently failed shortly after take-off and the missile landed in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, a few hundred kilometres from the launch pad.

But data from U.S. and Japanese Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and surveillance aircraft on the missile's angle of take-off and altitude indicated that it was heading for waters near Hawaii, the Sankei Shimbun reported, citing multiple sources in the United States and Japan.

North Korea may have targeted Hawaii to show the United States that it was capable of landing a missile there, or because it is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific fleet, the paper said.

An alternative explanation might be that a missile could accidentally hit land if fired towards Alaska, the report said.

A separate report in the Mainichi Shimbun daily cited U.S. and Japanese government officials as saying a piece of the Taepodong-2 missile fell off immediately after take-off, strengthening the view that the launch was a failure.



This was also reported on Hannity and Colmes today but not on the website.

I recently questioned why this type of missile testing was such a big deal. Now I see what's going on. Testing should involve appropriate targeting. Clearly this is not the case. What if North Korea wanted to test a missile that was supposed to go right over Japan and then land in the sea? The thing could fail somewhere along the way and land ON JAPAN! Of course, there would be no warhead on the missile, so the damage would not be devistational. But any unwanted damage is too much. This whole thing is completely ridiculous. North Korea needs to be immediately disarmed.

Yeah, I was just upstairs and saw it ... on Hannity and Colmes, hehe.

I was wondering when they were going to tell us what the trajectory was.

Japan happens to be Armed to the Teeth and has Tactical Nuclear Capabilities, with a Huge Modern Navy and a dam good Air Force ta boot, if i was N.Korea i wouldn't push my luck too far. The Japanese are just looking for a reason to open up big time on them. Can't say i blame them either .

Hey, just wondering, why is Bush not doing anything about this, but he invaded Iraq? Doesn't N. Korea have consentration camps with his own people in them? Why aren't we liberating those people? Could it be, it is because they do not have oil fields for us to try to control? Things that make you go hummmmmmmmmm.....

Originally Posted by Azmomof2

Hey, just wondering, why is Bush not doing anything about this, but he invaded Iraq? Doesn't N. Korea have consentration camps with his own people in them? Why aren't we liberating those people? Could it be, it is because they do not have oil fields for us to try to control? Things that make you go hummmmmmmmmm.....

Bush was heavily criticised for invading Iraq. His ratings have dropped tremendously since the invasion. He does not want a repeat.

Bush was heavily criticised for invading Iraq. His ratings have dropped tremendously since the invasion. He does not want a repeat.

I think that's a relatively small part of it if you consider the bigger picture.

Gotta realize who the players and the pawns are. North Korea is just a pawn for China. China's been sitting back on a lot of stuff, watching the U.S. and paying attention to our military strengths and weaknesses. They could make North Korea back down if they wanted, but they haven't. They are testing us.

The reason Bush isn't "doing anything" is not only to avoid giving in to North Korea's demands, but also to force China's hand.

Thinking of it in those terms, makes the criticisms for Iraq seem trivial.