This feels like North Korea’s semi-annual “pay attention to me” move. Problem for them is that we have our own crazy Great Leader to focus on right now.
It hardly seems fair their crazy leader launch missiles at other countries. Our crazy leader colludes with our greatest adversary to drop bombs on our country.
Couldn’t our crazy leader at least threaten to nuke North Korea if they launch another missile.
What the hell good is it to have 10,000 nukes, great weapon delivery systems, and wildly chaotic President if we can’t even terrify North Korea, geez. Makes you wonder what kind of blackmail photos Kim Jong Un has on Trump tossing reporters to hungry dogs while having sex with 12 year old boys?
North Korea has banned Malaysians inside its country from leaving, in a growing diplomatic row over the killing of Kim Jong-nam.
In response, Malaysia has banned North Korean embassy officials from leaving, saying it “needs to be done”.
The tit-for-tat actions come amid North Korean fury at Malaysia’s investigation into Mr Kim’s death.
Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader, was killed in Malaysia last month.
While Malaysia has not directly blamed the North Korean government for the attack, there is widespread suspicion Pyongyang was responsible.
North Korea has fiercely denied this and has accused Malaysia of mishandling the investigation and colluding with its enemies.
The row over the killing - and over who has the right to claim Mr Kim’s body from the mortuary where it is being held - has rapidly escalated over the past two weeks.
Both Malaysia and North Korea have already expelled each other’s ambassadors, when on Tuesday North Korea announced it was temporarily banning any Malaysians currently in its country from leaving, citing security reasons.
[…]
The four ballistic missiles fired Monday morning were launched by the elite Hwasong ballistic missile division “tasked to strike the bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces in Japan,” KCNA said. The United States has numerous military bases and about 54,000 military personnel stationed in Japan, the legacy of its postwar security alliance with the country.
Three of the four missiles flew about 600 miles over North Korea and landed in the sea, within Japan’s exclusive economic zone off the Oga Peninsula in Akita prefecture, home to a Japanese self-defense forces base. The fourth fell just outside the zone.
North Korea did not say what kind of missiles it had fired, but after poring over photos released by state media, analysts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California said they were extended-range Scuds capable of flying more than 600 miles.
North Korea has tested these types of missiles before, so the point of Monday’s launches was not to see if the rockets would fly, but to test how quickly the unit could set them up and deploy them — classic training for a wartime situation, said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute.
“They want to know if they can get these missiles out into the field rapidly and deploy them all at once,” Lewis said. “They are practicing launching a nuclear-armed missile and hitting targets in Japan as if this was a real war.”
The plans to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, within this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China and Russia, which see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat.
China responded quickly, saying it will take “necessary measures” to protect itself and warning that the U.S. and South Korea should be prepared to bear the consequences.
Washington and Seoul say the system is defensive and not meant to be a threat to Beijing or Moscow. The U.S. military said THAAD can intercept and destroy short and medium-range ballistic missiles during the last part of their flights.
“Continued provocative actions by North Korea, to include yesterday’s launch of multiple missiles, only confirm the prudence of our alliance decision last year to deploy THAAD to South Korea,” Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a statemen
Well, China, you could, you know, do something about North Korea firing missiles and developing nukes.
Which, let’s be honest, is the kind of thing you’ve seen a competent and staffed State Department be able to use diplomatic channels to lean on China to actually do.
Which is to say that under a President Clinton I think we have more methods of modifying Korean behavior positively. Pretty sure China would have come out and said something to their leashed rabid dog by now in that case. The odds of cooperating with dickhead are far lower.
This is an interesting piece about N. Korea’s missile failure rate.
That was the beginning of an eight-month-long investigation into public and not so public evidence that the United States was experimenting with a new form of missile defense, one that didn’t rely exclusively on trying to hit a warhead in midflight with another warhead. It was a fascinating journey that took us from defense-contractor conferences to the inner sanctum of cyber experimentation to, in the end, the Trump White House.
“One potential immediate response would be to strengthen existing South Korean missile capabilities or to provide Japan with new offensive missile ability. Japan’s defense chief told parliament this month that he would not rule out “first strike” capability, which would be a major departure from Japan’s postwar pacifist traditions.”
“North Korea has boasted of an intercontinental ballistic missile, and experts on Asia security generally agree that such a capability is within Pyongyang’s reach. Preventing it outright would probably require a military strike on North Korean facilities, something the United States has considered an option of last resort because it would almost certainly result in an attack on South Korea and U.S. forces stationed there, perhaps with chemical or biological weapons.”
"Tillerson made a version of Trump’s argument that the United States will demand clear benefits for its diplomacy and foreign aid and will walk away when necessary. Tillerson scoffed at the U.S. expense for trying to entice North Korea to drop its nuclear program — $1.35 billion by his count.
“That encouragement has been met with further development of nuclear capabilities, more missile launches,” including this month and last, Tillerson said. “In the face of this ever-escalating threat, it is clear that a different approach is required.”"
None of that is good, right? This is why Trump worries me - he will destabilise my area of the world! Heck, the above is evidence that he already has!
PS, I care about all you peeps actually in the US too…
I really get antsy when people who seem to not know their ass from a hole in the ground (and yes, that’s our new cabinet in general, not to mention the president) start speaking glibly about taking military action. In this forum we’ve discussed the reasons why using force on North Korea isn’t a very good option, even if in the long run it becomes necessary. There is simply nothing really effective than can be done that wouldn’t require a massive expenditure of blood and treasure (our treasure, mostly South Korea’s blood), and even then it’s unlikely that any military action short of the utter destruction of the North Korean regime would have the effects we desired in terms of terminating their nuclear program. And if anyone thinks Beijing would sit back and allow the US and the ROK to wipe out the North Korean state, they’re nuts.
It’s obvious that military action against NK is totally out of the question, even for the morons in charge right now. A zillion artillery pieces waiting for the order to fire on Seoul make these fools’ blustering media claims idiotic. Since no military action will actually come no matter what provocation (short of war) NK offers, claims to the contrary merely undercut diplomacy while at the same time making us appear to be weak and stupid.
Well, I hope you are correct, but I’m a bit more pessimistic about the sagacity of our dear leaders. I fear some of them might actually believe the crap they spew. But yeah, it is doubly bad because it’s yet another boast/brag/threat that we can’t deliver on.
I guess the idea of not making threats, only promises, and damn few of those escapes people in Washington.
Asked if he meant “one-on-one” unilateral action, Mr Trump said: “I don’t have to say any more.”
“…and also I have no idea…”
For pity’s sake. Either you’re willing to sacrifice Seoul to North Korean artillery or you’re not. And if you’re not, they’re pretty much 100% sanctioned as far as the US is concerned. There’s nothing more you can do to them within the bounds of international law that doesn’t involve daring them to attack you.
All the NK’s need to do is offer to turn Ryugyong Hotel into the biggest Trump Hotel ever and Donald is in their pocket for ever more.
The rhetoric from Trump’s administration is not particularly reassuring. I’m as big a hater of North Korea as you can find, but, um, I prefer actions that are actually practical, have a reasonable chance of success, and are not worse than the problems they purport to solve. I seem zero evidence in this administration of any ability to do anything on this issue other than make it worse.
That is one of the worst “press releases” I’ve ever seen.
“We’re tired of talking about it, no comment.”
What? Are we going to war or are you literally tired of talking about it so you’re just going to not say anything? Good lord how hard is it to throw literally anything in there. You know, talk about our allies and destabilization… ANYTHING.