North Korea Said to Be Preparing Long-Range Missile Launch
Happy Groundhog day. I don’t know if His Porcine Majesty emerged from his palace and saw his shadow today, but it certainly looks like we’re in for four more years of extortion:
North Korea appears to be preparing to test-launch its longest range ballistic missile, media reported on Tuesday, just days after Pyongyang warned that the Korean peninsula was on the brink of war.
North Korea, which typically launches missiles in periods of political tension, last week said it was scrapping all agreements with South Korea in a move analysts said was aimed at pressuring Seoul and grabbing the attention of new U.S. President Barack Obama. [ID:nSEO206792]
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and Japan’s Sankei Shimbun cited unnamed government sources as saying the North had been moving equipment used in the launch of its Taepodong-2 missile, which the North last test-fired in July 2006.
A train carrying a large object has been moved from a factory and has headed to the site of a newly constructed missile launch site on the North’s west coast, Yonhap quoted an unnamed South Korean government source as saying.
“The object is suspected as being a Taepodong-2,” he said. [Reuters]
For the first time in recorded history, Joe Biden stands on the precipice of being right about something.
A missile launch would flout U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1695 and 1718. Recall that the previous July 4, 2006 attempt to launch a Taepodong II failed, although the North Koreans successfully launched five shorter-range missiles that day.
The 2006 test took place at Musudan-ri on the East coast, near North Korea’s nuclear test site and one of its larger concentration camps.
The new activity is being observed in a different location, a new site on North Korea’s northwest coast. Judging by the apparent new construction, the North Koreans plowed right along with building the site despite two U.N. resolutions clearly prohibiting it (but that is now the stuff of household parody). Here are some Google Earth images of the massive complex. In the bottom image, the launch gantry is clearly visible.
Click the images for full size.
Note the concrete ducts for the exhaust flames, just to the left of where the gantry shadow is pointing.
Hat tip and thanks to James.
3 Responses
-
Pingback: The Dawn Patrol
If Netanyahu wins the election in Israel, things could get extremely interesting…
Pres. Obama could easily find his administration jerked into foreign policy as its primary focus and with that focus also drastically limited by events outside his control – just like Pres. Bush went from wanting to be the education president to dealing with global terrorism after 9/11.
Whether or not Netanyahu does strike Iran’s nuclear capability, his being the leader in Israel will force Obama to dedicate even more of his time to those issues than the recent battles in Gaza already have. If he does strike at Iran, all bets are off and who knows where it will lead…
And it would be highly tempting for North Korea to do even more than an ICBM test if the US is rolled up in hot Middle Eastern issues.
Since my last big prediction failed with the dawning of 2009 — I’ll go out on a limb to make another one:
If Netanyahu is elected the leader of Israel – North Korea will test both an ICBM and nuke this year.
I think Iran’s testing of an ICBM capability – with its satellite launch this week – makes it a little more likely North Korea will do the same.
At least India-Pakistan has cooled down from the terrorist blast — but is still an open wound.
And now there is talk that Obama’s military leaders are starting to balk at a Iraq pullout.
…..Not a great time to get your feet wet in global policy making….
I don’t think 2009 is going to be a good year — all the way around….