Korean Job Discussion Forums

Harpeau · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200303/kt2003030417272311970.htm

This was 2 years ago. I just read about it today. Were you all aware of this? I don't think that it was widely reported in the Western Press.

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Not a peep of that anywhere else that I have been able to see; Could the K Times be the first to report the story? Shocked

I'm thinking when this hits the American media it will make fairly large headlines? "NK missiles capable of reaching the US"?

Harpeau · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

I'm thinking that the Korean National Assembly report is basically leaking material from reports classified American and/or Japanese reports? At least that's the way it reads between the lines to me...

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

The article references "long-range missiles," but does not clarify whether it meant to say "ICBM," so it's not clear what "long-range" means exactly.

Is or was North Korea working on a capability to strike the U.S. with its nuclear weapons?

I don't know. But I'm fairly confident that, given the style of the present administration, if this were indeed true, or even just maybe true, with or without sufficient evidence, Washington would have gone unilateral (forget the five-party talks) and the threats and intimidation would already have begun, indeed, long ago, given that the info is two years old...

Maybe the story exagerrates a random accident (warhead washes up or lands on Alaskan shores)? Why would they have published such a story?

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

There is something fishy about this story.

First, would you put a war head on a test missile and fire it at a country that has thousands of the damn things? I wouldn't. That's tempting fate.

Second, I would be extremely cautious of firing a test missile at that country. The Pacific Ocean is a huge place and there is plenty of room to test missiles without landing one in your #1 enemy's back yard.

Third, an enemy missile found in the US under this or any other president is going to make major headlines. The administration would love it because it backs up their Star Wars (or whatever the new name is) plans. The paranoids would love it because it feeds their fantasies.

Fourth, the peace talks in Beijing were extended a day. Why, if the missile was tested a couple of years ago wouldn't Pyongyang have made a big deal about it then and if it was just found within the last couple of days isn't that just a bit coincidental?

The whole thing sounds somehow off to me. No doubt I'm wrong, but there it is.

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Harpeau · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC

NB. The newspaper article is 2 years old.

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Manner of Speaking · Joined: 09 Jan 2003

Interesting...

Technically there is a bit of wiggle room here. The report says the warhead was found IN Alaska, but doesn't say that it was fired AT Alaska. A few years ago NK fired a test missile that flew over Japan; at the time the Norks claimed it was not a missile, but a "satellite" that went into orbit. Although there was never any evidence of this, it might be possible that the "warhead" had a suborbital flight and ended up in Alaska. But I'm just speculating.