It's a missile test, not a reason to panic.

Joseph <jamsolo20032000@...> wrote:

THIS MAY BE OFF TOPIC TO ALEXANDRA STEELE BUT WE CAN'T IGNORE THIS
TIME. NORTH KOREA MAY NOT LET US SEE ALEXANDRA STEELE AGAIN IF WE GET
HIT BY NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

NORTH KOREA HAS BEEN LAUNCHING MISSLES. THEY MIGHT START A NUCLEAR
WAR AGAINST THE UNITED STATES & PRESIDENT BUSH DOESN'T SEEM TO CARE

http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/ 2006/07/05/ world/main177445 8.shtml

North Korea: Missile Tests Our Right

TOKYO, July 5, 2006
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(CBS/AP) A North Korean foreign ministry official defended North
Korea's missile tests as a matter of national sovereignty, a Japanese
TV report aired in South Korea said. Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador
to Japan says the United States reserves right to defend itself and
its allies.

The Japanese TBS network, broadcast by South Korea's YTN, showed Ri
Pyong Dok, a researcher on Japanese affairs at the North's Foreign
Ministry, saying no one can interfere in Pyongyang's missile program.

"The missile launch is an issue that is entirely within our
sovereignty. No one has the right to dispute about it,'' he said. "On
the missile launch, we are not bound by any agreement.''

The report did not name the official or provide further details.

The confirmation would be the first by the North, which is believed
to have launched at least six missiles, including a long-range
Taepodong 2, early Wednesday morning.

About 35 seconds after the launch, officials say the ICBM either
failed outright or was aborted by plan, reports CBS News
correspondent Wyatt Andrews. It did not reach deep space and posed no
danger to Japan or the U.S.

The North also tested five smaller missiles in an exercise the White
House called "provocative" but not an immediate threat.

In Japan, the U.S. ambassador said the United States reserves right
to defend itself and its allies
.
Ambassador Thomas Schieffer said he hopes the dispute over the six
missile shots will be resolved diplomatically, but also told
reporters ``we are prepared to take measures to protect the U.S., our
allies and our friends.''

The world also needs to speak with "one voice'' in response to the
missile tests, Schieffer added.

"We are seeking an international community response, not just from
the U.S. or Japan or the nations in the six-party process,'' he
said. "We believe the entire international community has a stake in
this.''

The isolated communist nation carried out the tests as the U.S.
celebrated the Fourth of July and launched the space shuttle.

Joseph Cirincione, an arms expert at the Center for American
Progress, tells CBS' Dan Raviv that there's a reason this happened on
the Fourth of July.

"They know this is our national holiday. They want to remind us that
they're still there."

None of the missiles made it as far as Japan, all crashing into the
Sea of Japan separating the island from the Korean Peninsula,
officials said.

The U.S. administration made it clear that its response would not
involve military action as President Bush consulted with National
Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The State Department said
Rice conferred with her counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea
and Russia.

"It wasn't that he (the president) was surprised because we've seen
this coming for a while," Hadley said. "I think his instinct is that
this just shows the defiance of the international community by North
Korea."

"We do consider it provocative behavior," Hadley said.

Later the White House issued a statement condemning North
Korea's "unwillingness to heed calls for restraint from the
international community" and accusing North Korea of trying
to "intimidate other states."

The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting for Wednesday
morning.

Tuesday night U.S. Ambassador John Bolton was in urgent consultations
with Security Council members and on a conference call with the
United Kingdom and France — the "P3" — in order to gather information
to determine next steps, reports CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst
Pamela Falk.

"The challenge for U.S. negotiators will be to determine how to both
protect the American public and to get the North Koreans back to the
6-party talks in light of the dangerous provocation that was caused
by the July 4th launch of missiles," said Falk. "The next step is
likely to be diplomacy and all hands on deck at the U.N. Security
Council on Wednesday morning, if not before."

"The reason that the launch is so threatening is because of North
Korea's nuclear capability and because they pulled out of the Non
Proliferation Treaty three years ago and, as a result, there is no
confirmation of what they are up to," added Falk.

Japan lodged a protest with the North Korean Embassy in Beijing on
Wednesday over the North's missile launches, calling them a problem
for regional security, a Japanese Embassy official said. The protest
accused Pyongyang of violating a joint 2002 declaration that called
for improved ties between the North and Japan, which have no
diplomatic relations, said the official, who spoke on customary
condition of anonymity.

"It is a great problem that North Korea launched missiles in spite of
warnings by Japan and other countries. This is a problem for Japan's
security and international peace and stability," the official said,
reading from the formal protest letter.

Japan also stopped chartered flights from North Korea and banned a
North Korean ferry from entering its waters for six months, chief
government spokesman Shinzo Abe said. The North Korean ferry is a
major conduit of trade between the two countries, which have no
diplomatic relations.

South Korea said the launches would further deepen its neighbor's
international isolation, and Australia and Russia denounced the tests
as provocative.

Australia's foreign minister said he expected North Korea would
conduct more such tests before the end of the week.

"We think they probably do intend to launch more missiles in the next
day or two," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said after phoning
North Korea's ambassador to Australia to lodge a protest.

The North has been in a standoff with the West over North Korea's
nuclear program. And the rhetoric has grown increasingly strident
with the North vowing Monday to respond with an "annihilating"
nuclear strike if it is attacked pre-emptively by the United States.

Talks on the issue — held between North Korea, South Korea, China,
the United States, Russia and Japan — have been stalled since last
year over Pyongyang's insistence that Washington drop financial
sanctions against it.

"North Korea wants to get the U.S. to direct bilateral negotiations
by using the missile card," said Paik Hak-soon, a North Korea expert
at the Seoul-based Sejong Institute. "Timing the launch date on July
4 is an attempt to apply maximum pressure on the U.S. government."

U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill was to leave Washington for the
region later on Wednesday.

Hadley said the long-range missile was the Taepodong-2, which failed
35 seconds after launch. Experts believe the missile — North Korea's
most advanced with a range of up to 9,320 miles — could reach the
United States with a light payload.

The State Department said the smaller missiles include Scuds, which
could target South Korea, and Rodongs, which has a range of about 620
miles and could target Japan.

The launch came after weeks of speculation that the North was
preparing to test the Taepodong-2 from a site on its northeast coast.
U.S. and Japanese officials said six missiles were fired in all,
launched over a four-hour period beginning about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday,
or 2:30 p.m. Tuesday ET.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command — which monitors the
skies for threats to North American security — said it has been on
heightened alert for about two weeks and not because of the latest
tests.

If the timing is correct, the North Korean missiles were launched
within minutes of Tuesday's liftoff of Discovery, which blasted into
orbit from Cape Canaveral in the first U.S. space shuttle launch in a
year.

Hadley suggested the tests might have been an attempt to grab the
international spotlight.

"It's very difficult to know what the North Koreans think they are
doing this for," Hadley said. "Obviously, it is a bit of an effort to
get attention, perhaps because so much attention has been focused on
the Iranians."

North Korea's missile program is based on Scud technology provided by
the former Soviet Union or Egypt, according to American and South
Korean officials. North Korea started its Rodong-1 missile project in
the late 1980s and test-fired the missile for the first time in 1993.

North Korea had observed a moratorium on long-range missile launches
since 1999. It shocked the world in 1998 by firing a Taepodong
missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan have taken
quick steps over the past week to strengthen their missile defenses.
Washington and Tokyo are working on a joint missile-defense shield,
and South Korea is considering the purchase of American SM-2
defensive missiles for its destroyers.

The U.S. and North Korea have been in a standoff over Pyongyang's
nuclear weapons program since 2002. The North claims to have produced
nuclear weapons, but that claim has not been publicly verified by
outside analysts.

While public information on North Korea's military capabilities is
murky, experts doubt that the regime has managed to develop a nuclear
warhead small enough to mount on its long-range missiles.

Nonetheless, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency, told U.S. lawmakers last week that officials
took the potential launch reports seriously and were looking at the
full range of capabilities possessed by North Korea.

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The
Associated Press contributed to this report.

Take it easy, take it easy

Don't let the sound of your own wheels

Drive you crazy

- Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey

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