The French Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and the Armed Forces recently released a report called “Ballistic Missile Defense: Military Shield or Strategic Challenge?” This report urges France to take a strong role in the NATO missile defense program and to develop a space-based (exoatmospheric) ballistic missile defense interceptor. This would be a great step in the right direction for NATO and the French defense industry—one the United States should learn from. Space-based interceptors present the best option for a boost-phase missile defense. In the boost phase, ballistic missiles …
What does it take to keep a small ruling elite in power, living a life of luxury, all while blackmailing the world into sending food to keep a servant population from starving to death? North Korea has figured out the formula—a combination of intimidation via nuclear weapons and outright armed attacks on its neighbor to the south. Heritage’s James Carafano explains in The Washington Examiner that Pyongyang’s methods—which of late have included the unprovoked sinking of a South Korean naval vessel and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island—are expected to continue: Most Korean …
According to unconfirmed reports, two missile warheads capable of being armed with a nuclear weapon have been acquired by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Reza Kahlili, a former member of the Revolutionary Guards who became a spy for the CIA before defecting to the United States, charged in an article posted on FoxNews.com that the missile warheads were produced by a “joint military-industrial project” that included Iran, Pakistan, China, and Ukraine. According to Kahlili, “The Ukrainians provided the design for the warheads, while the Chinese and Pakistanis delivered the technology, …
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s visit to China this week has again raised questions about the nature of their relationship. A recently leaked U.N. report described suspected ballistic missile technology exchanges between North Korea and Iran. The technology transited through an unnamed neighboring country, which several U.N. diplomats, under the condition of anonymity, have identified as China. Not surprisingly, China is apparently blocking the public release of that report.
By further cementing the positive relationship between South Korea and the United States, the pending South Korea–United States (KORUS) free trade agreement will further weaken the oppressive North Korean regime’s strategic position and help disabuse the regime’s leaders of any hopes they might have had of flagging U.S. support for the South. Ironically, opponents of KORUS have hyped the possibility of economic benefits to North Korea as a reason to oppose or delay the pact. The Kaesong Industrial Complex, a rather dormant and ill-fated economic development zone between South and …
Some critics of the proposed South Korea–U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) have expressed concerns about imports from North Korea, specifically goods originating from the Kaesong Industrial Region. This should be a non-issue. The chart below compares how imports from North Korea are treated today and how they will be treated if KORUS is approved. With or without KORUS, the U.S. government will continue to control imports from Kaesong and the rest of North Korea.
The book Ballistic Missile Defense: Its Past and Future by Jacques Gansler is yet another contribution to the ongoing debate on the role of ballistic missile defense (BMD) in the U.S. strategic posture. Unfortunately, a middle path to ballistic missile defense proposed in the book stems from incorrect premises about the effects of BMD systems and their role in the protection of the U.S. homeland. The author argues that it is necessary to negotiate a new Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty that would allow only limited defenses against rogue states but …
News sources are reporting that North Korea is confronting a major outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. This virulent disease can be dealt with only by destroying infected stock and quarantining farms that are suffering the outbreak. Given the condition of North Korea’s food stocks, which have remained low, this additional disaster suggests that the North Korean situation may soon become even more dire. At the same time, the potential for this disease spreading to China—and beyond—offers an opportunity for Sino-U.S. cooperation. When the disease hit South Korea, beginning late last fall, …
According to a report in The New York Times, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Tuesday that North Korea is becoming “a direct threat to the United States” and was within five years of developing a missile with the potential of hitting Alaska or the West Coast. The Times adds: “Mr. Gates’ new assessment on North Korea is a significant shift for the Obama administration, which until now has viewed Pyongyang as a proliferation threat, fearing that it might sell its existing missiles and nuclear devices to other countries, …
On December 15, the Missile Defense Agency conducted an unsuccessful test of Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD), a long-range ballistic missile defense system designed to protect the U.S. homeland against a missile threat from North Korea or Iran. The initial review suggests that the failure occurred because an undetermined problem with the newest kill vehicle configuration. A more detailed review of why the GMD system failed to intercept and destroy the target has been initiated. However, it is important to note that while the intercept itself was a failure, the first …
