MANFREDEYE NEWS AND OPINIONS

South Korea reports that the North has fired 7 scud missiles off the east coast. This comes two days after the 4 test missiles.

This is surely a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday, a fourth around noon and three more in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said that the missiles were ballistic and are believed to have flown more than 250 miles (400 kilometers).

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted military officials as saying the missiles appeared to be a type of Scud missile. North Korea’s Scuds are considered short-range, the South’s military said. But Yonhap also said it is possible they could have been longer-range Rodong missiles fired a shorter distance.

North Korea is not allowed to fire Scuds, medium-range missiles or long-range missiles. They are banned under U.N. resolutions, including Resolution 1874 passed after North Korea’s May 25 nuclear test, that prohibit any launch using ballistic missile technology.

Thursday’s launches, on the other hand, did not violate the resolution, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said it was believed North Korea launched cruise missiles Thursday.

Ballistic missiles are guided during their ascent out of the atmosphere but fall freely when they descend. Cruise missiles fly low and straight to their target. The North has a record of timing missile tests for the U.S. national day, which fell on Saturday. “The missiles were seen as part of military exercises, but North Korea also appeared to have sent a message to the U.S. through the missile launches,” a senior official in South Korea’s presidential office said, without elaborating.

The official told The Associated Press that North Korea could fire more missiles in coming days, but said there was little possibility it could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it threatened in April. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said both political and military reasons were behind the launches. “I think it’s a demonstration of their defiance and rejection of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, for one thing, and to demonstrate their military power capabilities to any potential adversaries,” Pinkston said. He also pointed out that July 4 is not only U.S. Independence Day but also the anniversary of a 1972 joint communique in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula.

During the U.S. Independence Day holiday in 2006, Pyongyang fired a barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 that broke apart and fell into the ocean less than a minute after liftoff. Those launches, which occurred on July 5 in North Korea, also came amid tensions with the U.S. over North Korea’s nuclear program.

North Korea’s state news agency carried no reports on the launches. But the North had warned ships to stay away from its east coast through July 10 for military exercises — an indication it was planning launches.

The chief of U.S. Naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, said Saturday the American military was ready for any North Korean missile tests. “Our ships and forces here are prepared for the tracking of the missiles and observing the activities that are going on,” Roughead said after meeting Japanese military officials in Tokyo before news of the launches. South Korea and Japan, which are within easy range of North Korean missiles, condemned the launches as a “provocative” act that violates the U.N. resolution.

South Korea “expressed deep regret over the North’s continuous behavior that escalates tensions in Northeast Asia by repeatedly defying” the resolution, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a statement that the launch of missiles “is a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan, and is against the resolution of the U.N Security Council.” In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said he had no immediate comment. China is the North’s closest ally.

Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008, is stepping down from her elected job as Alaska’s governor. She will not be finishing her term and will not run for re-election. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take over.

US and South Korean troops are currently on high alert after the North said it was no longer bound by the truce that ended the Korean war in 1953.

The hardline North, under President Kim Jong-il, has threatened military action against the South after Seoul’s decision to join a US-led security initiative under which North Korean ships could be stopped and searched.

Hosting a summit of South-East Asian leaders in Seogwipo, South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak warned the North against further provocative acts.

Monday’s newspaper reports said North Korea’s construction of the new launch site at Dongchang-ni was now near to completion.

Previous long-range missiles have been fired from a site on the country’s north-east coast.

The missile is believed to be a version of the Taepodong-2 rocket which was fired on 5 April.

It has a range of up to 6,500km (4,000 miles), the JoongAng Ilbo reported, which would put Alaska within striking range.

According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, the missile has been moved to the Dongchang-ni launch base, about 65km (40 miles) from the Chinese border.

The Chosun Ilbo added that North Korea had also designated a large area off its west coast a “no-sail” zone until the end of July.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said there were signs of work being done on a long-range missile, but he said the North’s intentions were not yet clear.

At 5am EST, an earthquake registering 6.7. An earthquake with a 6.7 magnitude is capable of causing significant damage, especially in areas of poor construction. However the distance of the quake from major populations and its depth 38 kilometers or 36 miles means its is unlikely to have caused much damage.

There are no official reports of structural damages or casualties as yet.

Taken from the KFA Forum. Official Webpage of The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).  Rodong Sinmun (“Newspaper of the workers”) is a North Korean newspaper and the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, published by the Rodong News Agency.

Pyongyang, June 28 (KCNA) — It was none other than the United States that spawned the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula in the light of its root cause and background against which it surfaced and from the viewpoint of the responsibility for the present situation. Rodong Sinmun Sunday observes this in a signed article.
The nuclear issue surfaced on the Korean Peninsula is due to the U.S introduction of nukes into south Korea, the article notes, and goes on:
The DPRK government has not ceased even a moment the struggle for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula against the U.S. introduction of nukes into south Korea, regarding the issue of removing the U.S. nuclear threat from the Korean Peninsula as a vital issue related to the destiny of the nation and an inevitable requirement for ensuring peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world.
However, the U.S. has reacted to the sincere efforts of the DPRK by pursuing undisguised moves for a nuclear war.
The nuclear issue on the peninsula festered after the appearance of the Bush administration.
The U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK and its nuclear war moves compelled the DPRK to have access to nuclear deterrent for self-defence and bolster it up.
The U.S. made much fuss, expressing “deep concern over north Korea’s access to nuclear weapons,” taking issue with the nuclear test for self-defence conducted by the DPRK to cope with its ever-increasing nuclear threat and its evermore undisguised moves for a nuclear war. It is working hard to create the impression that the DPRK has a “nuclear ambition” in a bid to label it a “nuclear criminal,” keeping mum about the background against which it came to have access to nukes and its purport and seriously falsifying the essence and truth about it. But this proved futile.
The DPRK’s accession to nuclear weapons is not aimed at threatening and pressurizing other countries and mounting preemptive attacks on them unlike the U.S. The DPRK’s nuclear deterrent is, to all intents and purposes, of self-defensive nature and has an aim and mission to champion peace. The Korean people are highly proud and honored to defend the peace and security of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia as it has the full-fledged status of a nuclear weapons state in view of the U.S. moves for a nuclear war.
The DPRK will bolster up its nuclear deterrence for self-defence in the future, too, in order to cope with the U.S. undisguised nuclear threat and moves for a nuclear war.
The U.S. would be well advised to stop kicking up a harmful extreme confrontation racket against the DPRK, cogitating about the nature and essence of the present serious nuclear crisis and its aftermath. This would do the U.S. good.

In lieu of the July 4 2009 missile launch, being aimed towards Hawaii, we should be justified in boarding that ship.

Scary but I think I agree with John McCain! Board it and find out what is going on! From what the past tells us no matter what the United States does North Korea claims its an act of war, so we might as well be safe and know what their cargo is.

Robert Gates, the US defense secretary, sitting alongside Mullen, told reporters he was taking seriously the possibility of a North Korean missile launch in the direction of the US. “We’re obviously watching the situation in the North, with respect to missile launches, very closely. And we do have some concerns, if they were to launch a missile to the east, in the direction of Hawaii,” Gates said.

Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper, citing a Japanese defense ministry analysis, said North Korea may fire a long-range missile over Japan towards Hawaii between July. Gates ordered the deployment of anti-ballistic missiles to the islands group. The Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missiles do not carry warheads but are intended to collide with incoming missiles.

North Korea has been responsible for secret nuclear proliferation, including the export of information and material to Libya, which has since voluntarily given up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Defense analysts question whether North Korea has a missile capable of reaching Hawaii or Alaska. Its Taepodong-2 missile in April managed to reach only half the distance required to reach Hawaii.

But defense analysts are also skeptical about whether, if the missile was to approach Hawaii, the US is capable of intercepting it.

I’m obviously not an expert by any means but it does look to me like we have cause to board that ship.

Michael Jackson dies at the age of 50 at LA hospital of a heart attack. He was found unresponsive at his home and brought to the hospital where he finally is now at rest.

His music and talent will surely be missed.

Probably no celebrity has been as revered and reviled over the past 40 years as Jackson, 50, who died Thursday in Los Angeles. The troubled, reclusive star was rushed to UCLA Medical Center by paramedics responding to a call from his home at about 12:30 p.m.

Jackson had been scheduled next month to begin the first of 50 sold-out concerts at London’s O2 Arena, a testament to his enduring popularity with fans around the world, a love affair that reached a peak on that March evening 26 years ago.

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.
Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii’s main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.
Details of the launch came from the Japan’s best-selling newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun.
Both Japanese intelligence and U.S. reconnaissance satellites have collated information pointing to the launch, according to the report.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service – the country’s main spy agency – said they could not confirm it.

Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen markedly since the North, led by Kim Jong-il, conducted two nuclear tests this year in defiance of repeated international warnings

The first rocket, fired in April, was widely seen as a disguised long-range missile test. A second launch came on May 25.

U.S. satellite intelligence has shown that a missile launch pad had been erected at Dongchang-ri on North Korea’s north-west coast.

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.

The UN Security Council last week authorised member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy goods shipped that violate the sanctions against arms export.

On Saturday, in response to this declaration Pyongyang said it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war.

Growing tensions come as arms-watchdog the International Crisis Group (ICG) claimed North Korea has several thousand tonnes of chemical weapons it could mount on missiles.

The report from the non-government organisation said they believed the North’s army have about 2,500 to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons which include mustard gas, sarin and other deadly nerve agents.

ICG also also warned South Korea may become a target.

‘If there is an escalation of conflict and if military hostilities break out, there is a risk that they could be used. In conventional terms, North Korea is weak and they feel they might have to resort to using those,’ said Daniel Pinkston, the ICG’s representative in Seoul.

The North has been working on chemical weapons for decades and can deliver them through long-range artillery directed on Seoul which is home to about half of South.

If the globe were Kim Jong Il’s parents we would be accused of enabling him to act in such a manner. I’m sure you have heard of the parent that says to the child. “One more time! and your in big trouble!”. Well thats all we have been doing is threatening ‘one more time’. Its about time Kim Jong is put over the proverbial knee and spanked like the destructive spoiled brat he is!

He may not be a danger now, but neither were the infamous insane people in history before they gained steam. why are we allowing him to gain steam?!

With his chemical warfare intelligence, he is far too dangerous to himself and others to be allowed to get away with his defiances. (notice I pluralized)