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ARTICLE: N Korea defends nuclear programme, BBC, 22 June 2009
Rather than fanciful declarations of defending Hawaii (like North Korea could hit it), I like this take from Obama.
And what I'd really like to see is the U.S. shooting down the next missile tested.
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Comments (4)
It was interesting that US was moving missile defense systems to Hawaii. In the absence of not knowing what is going on behind the scenes between the US and China, a shootdown would focus everyone's attention more. A bigger attention getter would be Japan drawing a line in the sand in regards to what will trigger their announcement of a Japanese nuclear deterrent.
Posted by Jeff J | June 23, 2009 7:36 AM
Why shoot down lil' Kim's missile when it can't go very far in the first place? Isn't that simply unnecessary provocation? And even worse, provocation that could be viewed as hostile by China/Russia? You advocated for not having the ABM system in Poland I thought?
Is there still time to offer this jerk-off the 'good, bad and the ugly'? I think it may be too late. And why are the Chinese so afraid of instability, they must understand that Kim's demise is inevitable, and in this economy, the ensuing instability will only be that much stronger in the future.
Posted by Thomas Conrad | June 23, 2009 12:35 PM
Sure it would provide a nice sugar-high to shoot down a NK missile. But it doesn't seem like a good strategy in the big picture. Firstly, if we fail to take out the missile, this will encourage even more saber rattling from N. Korea.
And secondly, if we are intent on provoking (which I am not necessarily against) why would we do it on their time-table? We could use blockades / naval inspections, strategic pullbacks from the DMZ, etc etc. And do it on our own schedule rather than being forced to respond to each little N Korean action.
Posted by cogmeyer | June 23, 2009 2:13 PM
We've invested a lot on ship's with ability to shoot down long range missiles on launch, with the implication that any future missile launch nuke or WMD material would fall back on the launch nation.
Unfortunately, some material would likely drift to South Korea or China, but downing a test missile would make a point.
We should also be ready for N. Korea to launch a lot of short range missiles at the same time as a fireworks highlight, and to make it more difficult to hit the long range one. I would guess we could handle their level of technology and skill.
Posted by Louis Heberlein | June 23, 2009 4:29 PM