North Korea Launched Missile Over Japan Into Pacific Ocean

[applegrove]

Last edited Thu Sep 14, 2017, 07:53 PM - Edit history (3)

By Shin Shoji and Kanga Kong

Bloomberg

"SNIP...........


North Korea fired another missile over Japan on Friday morning, a fresh provocation that comes shortly after the United Nations approved harsher sanctions against Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Japan didn’t attempt to shoot down the unidentified missile, which was launched at 6:57 a.m. and flew over the northern island of Hokkaido before landing 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away in the Pacific Ocean, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s government spokesman, told reporters that the situation was similar to that when a missile was fired over Japan on Aug. 29, NHK reported. North Korea had called that test a “meaningful prelude” to a threatened launch into waters near the American territory of Guam.

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, and has launched more than a dozen missiles this year as Kim seeks the capability to hit the continental U.S. with an atomic weapon. President Donald Trump has said all options -- including military -- are on the table to stop North Korea from threatening the U.S.


.............SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Trump gets down to Un's level. Or Trump is at Un's level. So they go tit for tat. Other presidents

would be weirded out by North Korea threats and not give them any oxygen. IMHO

[ProudLib72]

2. Honestly, I get confused by all this NK tough talk

They say they have the capability of reaching the continental US, and some of our people concur. Yet, they have a test like this one, and they only go halfway. Plus, this one is claimed to be the "most powerful" test yet. Then they say they have nuclear warheads, but the only thing we get is an earthquake that may have been (probably was) caused by a nuclear test. So do they have any capability at all? Can they actually get a missile with a nuclear payload to the continental US?

There is a lot of uncertainty, and I am beginning to believe that this administration wants it that way. You and I know that our intel has all the data on NK's capability, but we are not going to get assurances.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. Missile tests aren't shot directly the way they would be in a war situation.

These missiles are shot up, not out. It's a ballistic exercise. By looking at the height and flight time of the missile, we can determine the power it has and how far it could reach.

This is the third time NK has tested this particular missile successfully. It should be considered operational. It has the capability to reach Guam; not necessarily the accuracy.

There's really not that much uncertainty at all. They do have weaponized nuclear devices, and are working hard to get them to fit on an ICMB, and are well on their way to achieving a thermonuclear device.

There's actually a lot of information out there in foreign policy magazines, podcasts, etc.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Part of the confusion, I think, comes from the fact that our media narrative and popular culture

tend to treat KJU as an irrational bumbler. He's not. The country said it was going to do these tests, and it's doing them.

[ProudLib72]

6. The "irrational" part might be the issue

I don't think our western democratic culture (including the media) can quite explain Kim Jong Un's rationale for wanting to have nuclear capability and for being so anti-America. Or, if it can explain it, the justification makes little sense to us. I've noticed a few articles about the culture in NK. It's as though NK is and has been a big question mark that most of us disregard (until they conduct missile tests). It's kind of a shame, but I think that any attempt to humanize NK will be met with skepticism because we are trained to dismiss dictatorships outright and wholly.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Well said.

[Turbineguy]

3. It's time for the Chinese

to have Li'l Kim straight up for lunch for a quiet word.

[Lurks Often]

8. China may not have much influence over Fat Boy

Obviously it is hard to get confirmed facts from inside NK, but I've read a number of stories that suggest that one of the reasons Fat Boy has had people killed, including some family members, is because he felt that they were more loyal to China then to him.