Korean Job Discussion Forums

[NAVFC]

Apr 4-8 North Korea will fire its missile, and has stated the trajectory will fly over japan. In response Japan has stated its intent to shoot down the missile:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090325/wl_afp/nkoreajapanmissiledefencepolitics_20090325103452


Do you think North Korea will then fire missiles at Japan in response?

[Gopher]

I think Japan should rearm and kick North Korea's ass.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Countries have territorial waters. At what altitude does a country's 'territorial air' end?

[NAVFC]

[Robot_Teacher]

That's a missile, not a rocket to space. I wonder what the ding dong NORK regime is up to with this Taepodong missile stuff?

[NAVFC]

[caniff]

[NAVFC]

[Kimchi Cha Cha]

On CNN just before they mentioned that US warships are moving into the Sea of Japan ... oh, sorry East Sea, specifically in regards to this missile launch. I presume the US will take it down if needed so as not to promote any further anti-Japanese sentiment. I imagine if it were Japan to take the missile down a lot of the locals in the South, esp. here in Jeolla, would be none to happy and would be inclined to side with the North. I've actually heard some similar sentiments already, other countries have nukes why can't the North? The media and education system has done a dreadful job here of hiding the reality of North Korea and instead seemingly holding the place on some kind of pedestal. It's sickening.

[Captain Corea]

For some reason I doubt anyone will attempt to 'take it down'.

I'm guessing it'll either fly or sink on its own accord.

[Mr Crowley]

This might take out Dokdo.

[caniff]

[Captain Corea]

[ManintheMiddle]

I fervently hope this missile doesn't make it off the launch pad in one piece or, better yet, lands on a military depot in the vicinity.

I doubt the Japanese will try to intercept falling debris but I agree with Gopher that they should rearm and flex their muscles at these monkeys.

The DPRK is perpetually on a war footing because it's the only leverage the failed leadership has with its poor, downtrodden people.

Looks like that unsolicited Carter diplomacy was a waste of breath. Even though the Bush Administration was ably served in the Six-Party Talks, it's a foregone conclusion that theyr'e going to collapse.

Kim Jong-il isn't interested in a lasting agreement; nothing he puts pen to carrys any moral force besides.

I know South Koreans who are personally ashamed at the relentlessly self-serving conduct of the government in the North, although they aren't of course responsible for it. And yet you have countless clueless Commie sympathizers in Seoul at the universities who foment unrest and rail against the current administration for supposedly turning its back on the sunshine policy.

I just hope Clinton has enough good sense not to be under any illusions that she can negotiate in mutual good faith with this regime if only the "right set of conditions are met."

[Rteacher]

Well, under Bill Clinton, the U.S. reportedly came pretty close to launching a preemptive strike against North Korea (without even notifiying South Korea of the plan ...)

... Clinton Pentagon officials call for strike on North Korea ballistic missile facility if Pyongyang "persists in its launch preparations":

Former defense secretary William J. Perry has called on President Bush to launch a preemptive strike against the long-range ballistic missile that U.S. intelligence analysts say North Korea is preparing to launch.

In an opinion article that appears in today's Washington Post, Perry and former assistant defense secretary Ashton B. Carter argue that if North Korea continues launch preparations, Bush should immediately declare that the United States will destroy the missile before it can be fired.

Perry and Carter suggest using a cruise missile launched from a submarine and carrying a high-explosive warhead. "The effect on the Taepodong would be devastating," they write, using the name of the Korean missile. "The multi-story, thin-skinned missile filled with high-energy fuel is itself explosive -- the U.S. airstrike would puncture the missile and probably cause it to explode. The carefully engineered test bed for North Korea's nascent nuclear missile force would be destroyed."

As President Bill Clinton's defense secretary, Perry oversaw preparation for airstrikes on North Korean nuclear facilities in 1994, an attack that was never carried out. He has remained deeply involved in Korean policy issues and is widely respected in national-security circles, especially among senior military officers. He has been a critic of the Bush administration's approach to North Korea.

"We believe diplomacy might have precluded the current situation," Perry and Carter said. "But diplomacy has failed, and we cannot sit by and let this deadly threat mature."

Here's the Bill Perry/Ash Carter oped:
...The United States should emphasize that the strike, if mounted, would not be an attack on the entire country, or even its military, but only on the missile that North Korea pledged not to launch -- one designed to carry nuclear weapons. We should sharply warn North Korea against further escalation.

North Korea could respond to U.S. resolve by taking the drastic step of threatening all-out war on the Korean Peninsula. But it is unlikely to act on that threat. Why attack South Korea, which has been working to improve North-South relations (sometimes at odds with the United States) and which was openly opposing the U.S. action? An invasion of South Korea would bring about the certain end of Kim Jong Il's regime within a few bloody weeks of war, as surely he knows. Though war is unlikely, it would be prudent for the United States to enhance deterrence by introducing U.S. air and naval forces into the region at the same time it made its threat to strike the Taepodong. If North Korea opted for such a suicidal course, these extra forces would make its defeat swifter and less costly in lives -- American, South Korean and North Korean.

This is a hard measure for President Bush to take. It undoubtedly carries risk. But the risk of continuing inaction in the face of North Korea's race to threaten this country would be greater. ...
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/2006_06.html

Of course, the situation is different now that the South Korean government is less friendly - North Korea almost certainly would respond to a premptive strike by full-out attacking Seoul (and probably Japan...)