North Korea threatens to wipe out US forces in South Korea

[Officer of Engineers]

The sooner you detect it, the sooner you know where it's going.

 

[melb4aust]

I dont think US would be able to destroy it. So it doesnt matter whether they would be able to track it on launch time or after launch.

They can just sit and watch the show

 

[Officer of Engineers]

They know where to attack to stop another launch.

 

[Neo]

So basicaly if detected upon launch, JDAF or RoKAF jets could take the rocket down and prevent second launch if there's one?
Or do the not have the capacity to target high flying objects.

 

[Spring Onion]

can anyone invite any North Korean as member on this forum??


Ok assume if JDAF or RoKAF jets succeeded to take it down than it means any other country should forget about stepping into such programme??? because the US thinks its a threat to her

Had anybody noticed the statment today by South Korea on the launch, if yes can anyone tell me if the SK isnt much concerned about it why US feels threatened.?


and Mel yeh North Korea is day dreaming and this day dreaming of her had disturbed the US sleep:biggrin:

 

[Neo]

Jana Jee,

NK is considered a rogue regime, believe me its not in anyone's interest if they build ICBM's.

 

[Officer of Engineers]

So basicaly if detected upon launch, JDAF or RoKAF jets could take the rocket down and prevent second launch if there's one?

Highly doubtful that they could take out the 1st rocket unless they have birds already overhead.

Or do the not have the capacity to target high flying objects.

By the time the rocket reaches Korean or Japanese weapons free range, it would already be hypersonic speeds. No anti-missile is going to catch it. At least none on that side of the Pacific.

 

[Neo]

Deleted due messing with the format.

 

[master_fx]

so whats the point of missile defense network? and North America Missile Defense?

 

[A.Rahman]

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is weighing responses to a possible North Korean missile test that include attempting to shoot it down in flight over the Pacific, defense officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday

Because North Korea is secretive about its missile operations, U.S. officials say they must consider the possibility that an anticipated test would turn out to be something else, such as a space launch or even an attack. Thus, the Pentagon is considering the possibility of attempting an interception, two defense officials said, even though it would be unprecedented and is not considered the likeliest scenario.
The officials agreed to discuss the matter only on condition of anonymity because of its political sensitivity.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he could not say whether the unproven multibillion-dollar U.S. anti-missile defense system might be used in the event of a North Korean missile launch. That system, which includes a handful of missiles that could be fired from Alaska and California, has had a spotty record in tests.
Although shooting down a North Korean missile is a possibility, the Pentagon also must consider factors that would argue against such a response, including the risk of shooting and missing and of escalating tensions further with the communist nation.
Even if there were no attempt to shoot down a North Korean missile, it would be tracked by early warning satellites and radars, including radars based on ships near Japan and ground-based radars in Alaska and California.
Robert Einhorn, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a U.S. shootdown of a North Korean missile on a test flight or a space launch would draw "very strong international reaction" against the United States. He saw only a small chance that the U.S. would attempt a shootdown.
Signs of North Korean preparations to launch a long-range ballistic missile, possibly with sufficient range to reach U.S. territory, have grown in recent weeks, although it is unclear whether the missile has been fully fueled. U.S. officials said Monday the missile was apparently fully assembled and fueled, but others have since expressed some uncertainty.
Bush administration officials have urged the North Koreans publicly and privately not to conduct the missile test, which would end a moratorium in place since 1999. That ban was adopted after Japan and other nations expressed outrage over an August 1998 launch in which a North Korean missile flew over northern Japan.
At the time of the 1998 launch, the United States had no means of shooting down a long-range missile in flight. Since then, the Pentagon has developed a rudimentary system that it says is capable of defending against a limited number of missiles in an emergency — with a North Korean attack particularly in mind.
The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, says the Pentagon has spent $91 billion on missile defense over the past two decades.
The 1998 event turned out to be a space launch rather than a missile test; U.S. officials said the satellite failed to reach orbit.
U.S. and international concern about North Korea's missile capability is heightened by its claims to have developed nuclear weapons. It is not known whether they have mastered the complex art of building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit a long-range missile, although in April 2005 the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, told Congress that North Korea was capable of arming a missile with a nuclear warhead. U.S. officials have since called it a "theoretical capability."
No administration official has publicly raised the possibility of bombing the North Korean missile before it can be launched. Jan Lodal, a senior Pentagon policy official during the Clinton administration, said in an interview Tuesday that he would not rule out a pre-emptive strike. He said it would be the surest away of eliminating the threat of being surprised by the launch of a Taepodong-2, an intercontinental ballistic missile that some believe has enough range to reach U.S. territory.
David Wright, a senior scientist at the private Union of Concerned Scientists, said he strongly doubts that the Bush administration could back up its claims of having the capability to shoot down a North Korean missile.
"I consider it to be rhetorical posturing," Wright said. "It currently has no demonstrated capability."
The last time the Pentagon registered a successful test in intercepting a mock warhead in flight was in October 2002. Since then, there have been three unsuccessful attempted intercepts, most recently in February 2005.

Rick Lehner, chief spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, said the next intercept test is scheduled for the August-September period, to be followed by another before the end of the year. Lehner said that beginning about a year ago, the system has periodically been placed in "operational status."
Baker Spring, a Heritage Foundation analyst and strong advocate of U.S. missile defenses, said he believes that "in theoretical terms" the U.S. system is a capable of defeating a North Korean missile. And he thinks that if the North Koreans launched on a flight pattern that appeared threatening to the United States, the administration "would be well within its rights" under international law to shoot down the missile. The Washington Times reported Tuesday that the Pentagon has placed its missile defense system in an active status for potential use.

 

[melb4aust]

So far no one has done this, not even US itself. Missile is a missile, not a joke, if its that easy to shoot down, whats a purpose of having that much of a headache bulding it.

They can try though.

 

[A.Rahman]

U.S. SHOW OF STRENGTH
Ryan Parry, Us Correspondent, In New York

FIGHTER jets and B-2 bombers fly in formation above three aircraft carrier groups with dozens of warships.

This was the scene as the US launched the largest war games in decades amid the threat of a North Korean missile launch.

The massive show of strength in the western Pacific saw more than 30 ships, 280 aircraft and 22,000 troops on manoeuvres.

It was the first time three aircraft carriers have lined up in the Pacific since the Vietnam war.

The daunting presence of the USS Kitty Hawk, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups on a five-day exercise off Guam was seen as a warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Officials in the US, Japan and South Korea fear Jong-il is preparing to test launch a long-range ballistic missile - a move which has sparked international concern.

The missile is believed to be able to reach the west coast of America. President Bush yesterday warned the North Koreans against test-firing their missile. Speaking in Vienna, he said: "They have made agreements with us and we expect them to keep to them."

BUSH yesterday said he wanted to shut the Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba and send the 460 inmates home. But he wants some "cold-blooded killers" put on trial. He warned: "They will murder somebody if they are let out on the street."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=1...-name_page.html

 

[A.Rahman]

http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/june-2006/22/latest.php



US should be ready to destroy NKorean missile: William Perry

The US should be ready to destroy NKorea's missile if it is not taken off the launch pad, former defense secretary William Perry and his deputy Ashton Carter said Thursday.

Preemption, while "unwisely ballyhooed" by the White House and wrongly applied in Iraq because it lacked weapons of mass destruction, "is surely a prudent policy," the two officials who served under former President Bill Clinton (1992-2000) said in a letter to The Washington Post.

"Therefore, if NKorea persists in its launch preparations, the US should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the NKorean Taepodong missile before it can be launched," they wrote. NK for several weeks has been preparing to launch a multi-stage Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 6,700 km, raising international concern and threats of "severe action" from Washington

 

[kingkong]

The U.S. cannot shoot down
North Korean missiles.