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North Korea Launches Missiles, Land in Japanese Waters
North Korea has launched four ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan.
Three of them fell into Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after flying some 1,000km (620 miles), in what PM Shinzo Abe called a "new stage of threat".
They were fired from the Tongchang-ri region, near the North's border with China, the South Korean military said.
The type of missile is unclear but the North is banned from any missile or nuclear tests by the UN.
The United States' Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles
The U.S. has been operating a "Stuxnet"-like program against North Korea to hinder its ability to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads:
Three years ago, President Barack Obama ordered Pentagon officials to step up their cyber and electronic strikes against North Korea's missile program in hopes of sabotaging test launches in their opening seconds.
Soon a large number of the North's military rockets began to explode, veer off course, disintegrate in midair and plunge into the sea. Advocates of such efforts say they believe that targeted attacks have given American antimissile defenses a new edge and delayed by several years the day when North Korea will be able to threaten American cities with nuclear weapons launched atop intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But other experts have grown increasingly skeptical of the new approach, arguing that manufacturing errors, disgruntled insiders and sheer incompetence can also send missiles awry. Over the past eight months, they note, the North has managed to successfully launch three medium-range rockets. And Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, now claims his country is in "the final stage in preparations" for the inaugural test of his intercontinental missiles — perhaps a bluff, perhaps not.
An examination of the Pentagon's disruption effort, based on interviews with officials of the Obama and Trump administrations as well as a review of extensive but obscure public records, found that the United States still does not have the ability to effectively counter the North Korean nuclear and missile programs. Those threats are far more resilient than many experts thought, The New York Times's reporting found, and pose such a danger that Mr. Obama, as he left office, warned President Trump they were likely to be the most urgent problem he would confront.
Additional articles about the NYT investigation and "left-of-launch" strikes.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:05PM (7 children)
I think sending in a THAAD is the best thing to do. Won't stop lil Kim, but it will royally piss off China. China can put pressure on lil Kim, which could put an end to both the nuke and missile problems.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:10PM
That's what we are doing - deploying THAAD to S. Korea. China is super pissed, and is putting all kinds of pressure on S. Korea. S. Korea is ambivalent since the system doesn't actually help protect itself, but gets all the brunt of China's ire.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:11PM (4 children)
THAAD is a terminal phase interceptor, US interests on the ground in the region are limited, unless you are counting Guam, which probably already has a THAAD installation, or something more effective that they're not telling us about.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:18PM (3 children)
It's not the missiles China is worried about, it's the radar. It can cover a lot of Chinese territory and the Chinese would like to keep their air movement secret.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 07 2017, @09:36PM (2 children)
Yeah, and South Korea is a perfect excuse to install it.
I see us (probably already) having such capability in the area, but not running 24-7 high def radar coverage on China to appease them. It is kind of convenient, though, locating it in South Korea so we "have to" look North to see what's going on with Kim.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:19PM (1 child)
"but not running 24-7 high def radar coverage on China to appease them."
Do you really think the US Intelligence community is not surveilling a competitor's military movements to the maximum extent possible out of respect?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 08 2017, @06:19PM
"but not running 24-7 high def radar coverage on China to appease them."
Do you really think the US Intelligence community is not surveilling a competitor's military movements to the maximum extent possible out of respect?
Actually, yes. We are passively surveilling everything we can to the maximum extent practical, but you don't do things like actively scan radar over a sovereign state without good reason - it's an invitation to the other side to ramp up their posturing - and who wants to have the whole world at DEFCON 1 all the time?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:00AM
China can put pressure on lil Kim, which could put an end to both the nuke and missile problems.
If only the real world were that simple.
The DPRK thinks it is still at war with the US. And it is true, we only signed an armistice.
They don't see things the way we do.
But they sure did see what we did to Iraq which had no means to strike back.
China threatens to starve them and they won't just see it as China, they'll see it as the US and S Korea pushing China to act as a proxy.
And then there are the internal politics of the DPRK. Kim is a dictator, but that doesn't mean he's not vulnerable to a coup - that's the reason he's been killing all those people, including his brother in exile. So his motivation to hold on to power (and thus his own life) and the motivations of potential coup plotters change the calculations. Somebody in their military might decide its actually worth bombing a foreign city in order to provoke a chain of events they think will cause Kim to be overthrown. And after China has starved them for a few months that option might start looking pretty good.
Shit is complicated. There are no good answers and it isn't even clear which answers are the really bad ones.