North Korea launches rocket; SDF makes no attempt to intercept it

Sunday 05th April, 08:34 PM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 100 Total Comments Show All

KingRat at 08:37 AM JST - 6th April

Sarge: You think there are any country in the world who wants to invade NK? Why cry for aid if rice is not an issue.
apecNetworks at 09:10 AM JST - 6th April

Except for the trace signal error, Japan did the best that could be done under the circumstances. Now, if they were able to get a fix on the rocket, accurate read on speed and flight path as well as other factors, they now have some idea of what they are dealing w/. It has been reported that the DPRK will consider a UN response as a "hostile act", and showed disdain for the opinion of the "international community. That is nooooo good. I did not feel the abduction issue was a high enough priority in the 6way talks, BUTTTTTT violation of Japan's territorial integrity is a high priority. as it would be to all participants. Japan now has a more prominent issue w/ the DPRK. From my sources, 2009 is going to be REALLY interesting, and the importance of what APEC does or doesn't do loooooms large.

I could be wrong, but Pres. Obama used a phrase that I repeated during this incident, "clear violation". People in his Administration doesn't read JT, do they? I really am w/ APEC, soooooo they might read my posts. Someone in the Bush Administration definitely did.
likeitis at 09:13 AM JST - 6th April

30061015: likeitis, Why do you defend the actions of a regime that has been the aggressor since the start of the Korean war?

What interest have I in another country's internal conflict? I cannot say that starting a civil war is any worse than interfering from outside.

Now, I do not defend NK as much as I am attacking the response to NK. Go back to 1998 when NK launched a rocket with no warning. They were roundly condemed for NOT GIVING A WARNING, and rightly so. Now come back to 2009. This time NK gives a warning, yet they are still ROUNDLY CONDEMNED. NK should at least be given acknowledgment for giving the warning. If our side plays like this, we probably won't get one next time.

Dealing with nuts takes patience. But anytime a nut goes backwards, it should be because of the nut, and never because of the people around the nut. Coaxing them out of their nuttiness will take time, and we have to maintain our consistency and our fairness, otherwise, we justify their nutty behavior.

They have nukes (thanks to Bill Clinton ) and they are testing a delivery system to drop them on your head. You need to wake up.

No. You need to relax. Nutty enough that you blame Clinton for NK trying to obtain nukes. But let me assure you that the North Koreans are not going to be able fit their alleged nuke on a rocket any time soon.

Second, they have no reason whatsoever do drop one on my head or anyone else's. And if they do, I rest assured they will be annihilated. I lived through the Cold War, and let me assure you, the threat from the U.S.S.R. was about 100 times more real and palpable. Getting all antsy over NK is extremely oversensitive. It could even be called cowardice. Have you seen night time photos of NK? Pitch black, unlike everything around them. If they tried anything, they might be able to get in a couple good shots, but then it would be nothing but death for them. I expect little difference in the score even if we attacked them first. But at least by not doing the attacking first, we maintain the moral high ground.
likeitis at 09:19 AM JST - 6th April

apecNetworks: BUTTTTTT violation of Japan's territorial integrity is a high priority.

Japan's territorial integrity was not violated. If it were, it would have been on par with worries about getting hit by chunks of Skylab.

NK pointed the rocket in the only feasible direction, proven to be the feasible direction by the fact that nothing violated Japan's territorial integrity. This is a simple fact. I am not defending NK. I am just laying down the fact.
apecNetworks at 10:05 AM JST - 6th April

To Likeitis:

Don't worry about it, APEC deals only w/ high finance, economics, and the nuts and bolts involved. Not rocket science.
mukamo at 10:55 AM JST - 6th April

NK aiming their move to cross Japan and potentially reach Hawaii was a brilliant dama, nevertheless. It was the second offensive by NK, who is playing a rogue knight within its queen China's support. Look at the board, US and Japan's inter-dependence actually got them stuck to their squares. Put the economy into equation and you have a China-US interdependence. The queens cant move, only the knights. NK definitely controls this game.
30061015 at 12:58 PM JST - 6th April

by not doing the attacking first, we maintain the moral high ground

likeitis: N Korea is pissed because S Korea finally woke up and isn't giving aid to subsidize Kim's nuke and missile program. NK will only implode when nations act to boycott NK the way they did S Africa over apartheid. But that wont happen as long China is Kim's greatest enabler. China will continue to maintain the status quo only because it doesn't want the refugee mess on its border. However, Japan is in a strategic position to cut off shipping to NK.(Forget about playing global pirate chaser, Japan. This would destabilize the status quo and eventually force China to act responsibly. THIS would be taking the "moral high ground".

"...are not going to be able fit their alleged nuke on a rocket any time soon....Getting all antsy over NK is extremely oversensitive. It could even be called cowardice"

So, likeitis YOU think letting them get a deployable nuke *anytime later *is reasonable? At what point would you take action against this inevitability? Id rather be extremely oversensitive now rather than see LA go up in a mushroom cloud because of hostilities on the Korean peninsula.(N&S Korea are still in a suspended state of war) Doing nothing in the face of a threat, as you advocate, is cowardice because it only emboldens the aggressor.
Coolasapool at 02:56 PM JST - 6th April

didnt even make it into orbit.. nothing to see here. they are still muppets. moving on.
threedogs at 05:24 PM JST - 6th April

Funny... they didn't launch their rocket over sovereign Chinese air space territory, nor Russian air space? Launching over Russian territory of all their options would have made more sense for putting a satellite in space. I wonder why,hmmmm...Kim Il knows exactly what he is doing!

NK is the 500lb gorilla in the room...Japan hands are tied by article 9 and it's underling status with the US....South Korea only reacts and is incapable of handling them...China is not going to destabilize them or they adopt the mess of NK's fall...Russia isn't going to condemn them unless they directly wrong Russia, out "political precedents" that could come back to bite them on the ass, besides not assisting UN sanctions occupies 2.5 of their 4 main rivals time (US, Japan, and .5 of China)...less interference on their global plans. Kim Il (i.e. military leadership he's suffered a stroke and I doubt is making many decisions despite the propaganda) knows exactly what is going on...

Solution: make a deal with the devil give China what it wants...Taiwan and eliminate the cancer of political brinkmanship that is spreading to Iran...a nation driven not only by political survival but a divine need to right the wrongs of a sinful world...

Think Pakistan and India were scary...wait for Iran and Israel to start duking it out....
likeitis at 10:19 PM JST - 6th April

30061015: Id rather be extremely oversensitive now rather than see LA go up in a mushroom cloud because of hostilities on the Korean peninsula.

I sincerely feel for you dude. Everyday must a terror knowing that Russia and China already have this capability and maybe even Pakistan. I cannot tell you how glad I am that no one decided to be oversensitive and make absolutely sure those countries did not get nukes, because L.A. still has not had a mushroom cloud over it despite many decades of potential.

Doing nothing in the face of a threat, as you advocate, is cowardice because it only emboldens the aggressor.

But I do not advocate doing nothing. I advocate removing tensions and preventing nuclear poliferation. I advocate doing a lot of what we have been doing for many years that has resulted in no nuclear mushroom clouds over L.A.

Further, you seem to be really over-exaggerating what threat there is to us. Like I said earlier, NK has had 60 years to do something, yet they have done next to nothing.
30061015 at 11:23 PM JST - 6th April

likeitis: "Ineffective American diplomacy has only given the world’s most militarized state the one thing it needed most to develop the world’s most destructive weapons—time". From; "A Missle Shot for Iran" JT.
zurcronium at 11:49 PM JST - 6th April

as predicted, nothing of consequence. Even SK said it was not a threat of any kind.

The tired and out of touch LDP whipped up public opinion over nothing, just like the blatantly ridiculous 70s kidnapping issue. Will the LDP ever grow up? No.
usaexpat at 01:48 AM JST - 7th April

Well my wife summed up the mood pretty well. "someone should just nuke North Korea but they won't, in 6 months after they're all done condemning the rocket launch everyone will be back sending them food and energy aid" Wow, A Japanese from Nagasaki said that (although only figuritively I'm sure). See some people still have there heads screwed on straight. An invasion would be foolish as Kim has brainwashed his whole population. Let's try a new game called no more. No more headlines for the regime, no more recognition for the regime and most imprtantly no more aid for the regime. If they want to play the game then the international community needs to simply and once and for all cut them off completely.
30061015 at 10:02 AM JST - 7th April

the international community needs to simply and once and for all cut them off completely.

Amen!
mshimusa at 10:32 PM JST - 7th April

So why did North Korea fire a rocket into space? Is North Korea so desperate for attention from U.S.A.'s Obama Administration??.. I think North Korea is going on the wrong path..They should be more concerned about feeding their own people who are starving to death..Plus North Korea probably doesn't have much time to stay longer before its collapse..The country who propped up North Korea during the Korean War was China..Although U.S.A. and Soviet Union are resposible for Korean division it wasn't Americans who started Korean War..It was North Korea's Kim IL Sung's fault who misread U.S.A. intentions that they won't fight for South Korea..So Americans fought Korean War and pushed North Korea all the way through until China intervened..South Koreans call that infamous day January 4th 1951 retreat..I really don't understand why China helped North Korea but after Korea reunifies I am certainly sure that China feels heat and vulnerable from American presence in future united Korea..But war between China and U.S.A. seem unlikely although there will be a great deal of tension betwen those 2 powers..

As for rocket launch I think Japan is deliberately trying to be hostile towards North Korea..North Korea's chief foe is South Korea and secondary enemies are Japan & U.S.A. It's rather surprising why North Korea's rocket was fired in eastward direction overpassing Japanese airspace..I can understand as a U.S.A.-born Korean citizen that North Korea is mad at Japan for not showing enough remorse for its horrid behaviour in Korea during WWII but ordinary Japanese people aren't responsible for the plight of Kim Jong IL and his nation..Tojo Hideki and other Japanese responsible were tried in court and hanged right after WWII..It was Emperor Hirohito whom Japanese soldiers fought for and gave up their lives in Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War who is truly responsible for the deaths of millions of Koreans,Chinese and South East Asians and the brutal treatment of Allied troops in Asia..Douglas MacArthur even took a photo with Hirohito after 2 A-bombs were dropped on Japan by U.S.Air Force planes..

Anyway back to North Korea's firing a rocket was a show of power that North Korea doesn't want to be treated lightly by either Japan or U.S.A. They want those 2 Pacific Allies to pay great deal of attention from them just as Obama was in Europe..North and South Korea are one people with two opposite political camps and Koreans were forced to hate each other by Japan,Russia & China..I think the best way to keep peace in Asia is for reunited Korea to possess nuclear weapons which U.S. might not accept and if so U.S.A. should have permanent military garrison in Korea.

North Korea has always sought attention from U.S.A. only and Obama is no exception to this..IF North Korea is so desperate for U.S.A. attention then why not just ask for a dialogue rather than flashy display of weapons..It's not a hard task for either Kim Jong IL or Barack Obama to take the initiative to re-start the U.S.A.-North Korea political and military dialogue..It's never too late to start a dialogue now and please no more firing of any kinds of weapons be it long-range missiles or satellites.You take only one shot in life!!!