North Korea’s launch of a long-range Taepo Dong 2 missile would be a direct challenge not just to the United States but to the international community’s resolve to confront threats to regional stability. Pyongyang’s willingness to escalate tensions shows that, despite the change in U.S. leadership, North Korea will not adopt a more accommodating stance. U.N. Resolutions 1695 and 1718 unambiguously prohibit Pyongyang from launching a missile or “satellite.”
The Washington Post has changed the headline on their North Korea story today from “North Korean Nuclear Test A Growing Possibility” to “North Korean Missile Test a Growing Possibility.” At least they didn’t adopt the official North Korea government line and call it a civilian satellite test. But the rest of the WaPo story remains unedited and the highlights underscore how real the threat of a nuclear and ballistic missile empowered North Korea is: While North Korea has been making missiles to intimidate its neighbors for nearly half a century, …
A Direct Challenge Three, Two, One … Launch: North Korea is preparing to launch a long-range Taepo Dong-2 missile in early April, capable of hitting targets in the western United States. A Continuing Threat: A 2001 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assessed a two-stage Taepo Dong-2 could threaten Alaska, Hawaii, and the western United States while a three-stage missile could threaten all of North America with a nuclear warhead. Civilian Satellite? North Korea is characterizing the launch as a civilian satellite to minimize negative repercussion from its provocative act. However, mastering …
North Korea has notified the appropriate international civilian maritime and aviation authorities to warn that Pyongyang will launch a satellite between 4 and 8 April. In the 2006 UN resolutions, the UN cited NK’s lack of a similar notification as dangerous and provocative. Pyongyang is trying to follow the rules this time to minimize negative fallout and to give China and Russia some grounds for pushing back against strong UN Security Council action. The launch itself, as well as the continued existence of the missile program, is a violation of …
The USA Today cites an independent report that questions the effectiveness of the ground-based missile defense interceptors the United States plans to deploy in Europe to counter a potential long-range Iranian nuclear-tipped ballistic missile threat. The report comes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an auditing and investigative arm of the Congress. While GAO reports may be “independent,” that does not mean they provide a fair and credible assessment of Pentagon programs. Last week, Army leaders held a press conference after a GAO report claimed to have identified a $21 …
Pyongyang has accused the U.S. and South Korea of using the ongoing annual joint military exercise Key Resolve/Foal Eagle as preparations to mount a preemptive attack on North Korea. Pyongyang warns that “a war may break out any moment due to the reckless policy of confrontation” pursued by the U.S. and its allies. What has not been mentioned, and is a lost public diplomacy opportunity for Washington and Seoul is that North Korea has also been engaged in its annual Winter Training Cycle. The North Korean exercise typically begins with …
The Obama administration this week again questioned the workability of America’s still-developing defenses against intercontinental ballistic missiles. Only days earlier, though, the U.S. commander in the Pacific said that if North Korea tests a long-range missile, the military not only would track it but could well blow the missile out of the sky. President Barack Obama only had to give the order. “And [if] we hit what we’re aiming at, that should be a source of great confidence and reassurance to our allies and partners,” Adm. Timothy Keating, who heads Hawaii-based …
Last night, at a screening of the missile defense documentary 33 Minutes in Fredericksburg, Virginia the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead announced that the Naval Support Facility at Dahlgren Naval Support Facility will host the new Navy Air and Missile Defense Command. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star reports: Roughead said that with growing missile threats from countries such as Iran and North Korea, the command will serve as the Navy’s lead organization and as a “center of excellence” to address combined air and missile defense concerns. The initial focus …
Despite Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Europe last week, and Secretary of State Clinton’s meeting with the Czech Foreign Minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, this week, we still don’t know whether this Administration will honor U.S. agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic to deploy elements of a U.S. missile defense shield in Europe (known as the ‘third site’ deployment). Obama has successfully–and probably deliberately–provided enough ambiguity to make a decision either way. On the one hand, he has pledged to field defenses against WMD attacks but on the other he …
As the world honors Abraham Lincoln on the 200th anniversary of his birth, it’s worth recalling one of the less well-remembered moments of his career: his letter on January 19, 1863 to “the Workingmen of Manchester,” responding to their earlier address and resolutions in support of the North. This was one of Lincoln’s earliest public letters, an art form he used to increasing effect throughout the remainder of the Civil War. The Manchester letter, though not as well known as his later letter on Clement Vallandigham, the ‘wily agitator’ and …
