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North Korea Defies China, Launches Three-Stage Rocket
Defying warnings of punishment from Washington, reports The New York Times,
North Korea launched a rocket on Sunday that Western experts believe is part of a program to develop intercontinental ballistic missile technologies. …
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea called an emergency meeting of top national security advisers on Sunday to address the launch, her office said. South Korea, the United States and Japan also requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry called the launch a “major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean Peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well.” Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, said it was “a flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.” …
With the launch, North Korea was also defying its main ally, China. China has resisted the United States’ move to place tough sanctions on the North since a Jan. 6 nuclear test, fearing that it might destabilize its neighbor. But it has also admonished North Korea not to conduct more nuclear and missiles tests and sent a senior envoy to Pyongyang recently.
Your thoughts?
Published in Foreign Policy, Military
Let me elaborate. We are staying ahead of NK missile capability in our BMD capability. We are doing nothing about are debt crisis. The latter is more threatening to the US, by far than is NK, IMO. Not that we don’t need to stay on our toes still regarding the former…
Manfred,
Again, the new threat is a full ICBM. It’s 6,000 miles from N. Korea to LA. This sounds more than intermediate range. How about we spend a little more for testing.
If they know they can’t do a first strike then they know they will be obliterated when we shoot back. Let them think about that.
Couldn’t hurt.
Regards,
Jim