Defcon 1

[antoninus]

Wary of N. Korea, U.S. activates defense system
Officials fear Pyongyang is preparing test of long-range missile

• NORTH KOREA: Maps, facts and figures
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 81 a.m. PT June 20, 2006
SEOUL, South Korea - The United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, a U.S. defense official said Tuesday.

“It’s good to be ready,” the official told Reuters news agency. The step was first reported late Monday by NBC News and was reported in Tuesday's Washington Times newspaper.

U.S. officials say evidence such as satellite pictures suggests Pyongyang may have finished fueling a Taepodong-2 missile, which some experts said could reach the United States.

“There’s real caution in how to characterize it so as to not be provocative in our own approach,” the defense official said of the move to activate the system.

INTERACTIVE

• N. Korea’s arsenal
Longer-range missiles pose a growing threat

The Pentagon and U.S. State Department have said a North Korean missile launch would be seen as “provocative.”

While military officials also note the United States has a limited missile defense system — 12 interceptor missiles in Alaska and California — they have so far declined to comment on any details about the capabilities or potential use of the system to intercept a North Korean missile.

International warnings
The news comes as North Korea declared it is free to conduct missile tests despite a self-imposed moratorium, saying it is not bound by prior agreements and that outsiders have no right to criticize its actions.

Before the latest statement, North Korea’s apparent moves toward test launching a long-range ballistic missile already spiked tensions in the region and drew warnings of serious repercussions from the United States and others.

Australia on Tuesday strengthened its warning to North Korea, saying Canberra could downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang if the launch goes ahead.


In Paris, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said any North Korean missile test must draw “firm and just” international response. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged North Korean leaders for restraint.

“I hope that the leaders of North Korea will listen to and hear what the world is saying. We are all worried,” said Annan, who was in Paris to attend the inauguration of a new museum.

Earlier Tuesday, North Korea lashed out at the United States over its plans to build a missile defense shield but did not directly address concerns that it was preparing to test-fire a missile capable of reaching the United States.

Timing of launch
There were conflicting reports about whether a missile launch was imminent.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said Tuesday that satellite images showed fueling vehicles still positioned around the suspected launch site in the country’s northeast, but workers spotted near the head of the missile Monday weren’t visible Tuesday.

The launch site appears to be guarded by about 1,000 troops, the report added.

U.S. officials in Washington said Monday the missile was apparently fully assembled and fueled, but Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Jinen Nagase said Tuesday he could not confirm that fueling had been completed.

South Korea’s spy agency also believes North Korea hasn’t yet completed fueling the rocket because the 40 fuel tanks seen around a launch site weren’t enough to fuel a projectile estimated to be 65 tons, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting lawmakers who attended an intelligence briefing.

Bad weather over the purported launch site also dimmed chances of an immediate launch. The area was cloudy, with rain expected through Wednesday morning, said South’s Korea Meteorological Administration.

N. Korea: Not bound by treaty
Kyodo News quoted an unidentified official from the North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying that Pyongyang did not regard itself as bound by prior agreements to refrain from missile testing.

“Our actions are not bound by the Pyongyang Declaration, the joint declaration made at the six-party talks in September last year or any other statements,” Kyodo quoted the official as telling Japanese reporters in North Korea.



Experts say that North Korea's muscle-flexing is well calculated — partly to compete with Iran for world attention and partly to take advantage of political weakness in South Korea's government and encourage further concessions from President Roh — which in turn could widen a rift between the U.S. and South Korea.

The U.S. has few economic levers to pressure North Korea — sanctions are already comprehensive. And North Korea ended up gaining after its previous missile test eight years ago in terms of securing a summit with South Korea and the resumption of negotiations with the six party talks.

But those talks have gone nowhere and North Korea has yet to get its two key demands — security guarantees from the West and resolution of the Korean War armistice.

— Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent


The official said his remarks represented Pyongyang’s official line on the matter, Kyodo said.

There was nothing in Tuesday’s Kyodo report to explain Pyongyang’s declaration.

An agreement reached at six-party nuclear disarmament talks in September does not specifically address missile tests by the North. However, negotiators pledged to work toward establishing peace in the region. The six countries participating in the talks — the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States — also agreed to work toward normalizing relations.

Three years earlier, North Korea and Japan agreed to a moratorium on missile tests. Signed by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the Pyongyang Declaration said the two countries agreed on cooperation to maintain and strengthen the peace and stability of Northeast Asia. It also stated that North Korea “would further maintain the moratorium on missile launching in and after 2003.”

On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned the North that it will face consequences if it launches a missile, calling it a “very serious matter.”

Pyongyang lashes out at U.S.
North Korea responded Tuesday by saying that U.S. moves to build a missile shield are fueling a dangerous arms race in space.

“The world is not allowed to avert its face from the grave situation in which it is facing the danger of a nuclear shower from the blue sky,” the North’s Minju Joson newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country’s Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea also criticized a Japanese move to buy missiles and associated equipment from the U.S. to upgrade its missile defense system, claiming it showed an intent to become “a military giant” and mount “overseas aggression,” the North’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in commentary carried by KCNA.

As tensions grew, meanwhile, the U.S. staged war games in the western Pacific on Tuesday with 22,000 troops, 280 aircraft and three aircraft carriers.

U.S. officials have said the missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, has a firing range of 9,300 miles and could reach as far as the U.S. West Coast. Most analysts, however, say North Korea is still a long way from perfecting technology that would make the missile accurate and capable of carrying a nuclear payload.

The North’s missile program has been a major security concern in the region, adding to worries about its pursuit of nuclear bombs. North Korea shocked its neighbors when it test-fired an earlier missile version over northern Japan in 1998.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC's Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report.

[antoninus]

Gli Stati Uniti si cominciano a mobilizzare contro Nord Korea.

Anche il Giappone si prepara.

[bluedanube]

Gli Stati Uniti si cominciano a mobilizzare contro Nord Korea.

Anche il Giappone si prepara.

Ma il senso del ridicolo non c’è l’avete proprio?

[Squalo]

Gli Stati Uniti si cominciano a mobilizzare contro Nord Korea.

Anche il Giappone si prepara.

Voi americanisti potete inserire i post anche in lingua italiana così chi non sa l'inglese può partecipare ugualmente all'argomento?

Grazie.

[antoninus]

Ma il senso del ridicolo non c’è l’avete proprio?

Si`, certo. Il mondo intero e` ridicolo.

E` la natura dell'esistenza umana.

Altrimenti, come si spiega l'attacamento di tutti noi a questi "grandi dibatitti" sul POL?

[antoninus]

Voi americanisti potete inserire i post anche in lingua italiana così chi non sa l'inglese può partecipare ugualmente all'argomento?

Grazie.

Ho tradotto il senso dell'articolo. Non basta?

Cerca di impararare la nuova lingua franca del mondo allora.

P.S. Sono un americano, non un americanista.

[Squalo]

Ho tradotto il senso dell'articolo. Non basta?

Cerca di impararare la nuova lingua franca del mondo allora.

P.S. Sono un americano, non un americanista.

Guarda, per poter tirare un giudizio migliore servirebbe la traduzione di buona parte dell'articolo, non due righe.

Se vengo su un forum italiano si presume di trovare anche notizie italiane o in larga parte tradotte.

Parlo in francese e tedesco e non sogno lontanamente di mettere notizie in queste due lingue, soprattutto per rispetto degli altri utenti che non le conoscono.

Non mi va di imparare la lingua dei colonizzatori, quindi anche voi americani cercate di adeguarvi nel non postare roba nella vostra lingua con la pretesa che gli altri la devono capire perchè dominate il mondo.

Grazie.

[antoninus]

Guarda, per poter tirare un giudizio migliore servirebbe la traduzione di buona parte dell'articolo, non due righe.

Se vengo su un forum italiano si presume di trovare anche notizie italiane o in larga parte tradotte.

Parlo in francese e tedesco e non sogno lontanamente di mettere notizie in queste due lingue, soprattutto per rispetto degli altri utenti che non le conoscono.

Non mi va di imparare la lingua dei colonizzatori, quindi anche voi americani cercate di adeguarvi nel non postare roba nella vostra lingua con la pretesa che gli altri la devono capire perchè dominate il mondo.

Grazie.

Purtroppo di notizie italiane su li ultimi manovri missilistici americani ci sono poche o niente..........

[Ragioniamo!]

Per me si sono accordati.
Tu spara così fai vedere che hai i missili e sei contento, e io provo il mio sistema antimissile. Soldi spesi: un sacco. Generali contenti: tutti.

[audace12]

Addio Corea del Nord,hai oltrepassato il segno