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| Korea |
| North Korea Test-Fires Missile |
| 2003-03-09 |
| North Korea test-fired a missile into the sea off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said. There had been indications that North Korea was planning to fire a missile. The Pentagon had earlier cited a North Korean warning to ships to stay out of a sector of the Sea of Japan from Saturday to Tuesday. Maj. Kim Ki-Beom, a spokesman at the Defense Ministry, said the missile was believed to be an anti-ship missile similar to one that North Korea test-fired on Feb. 24. That launch came on the eve of the inauguration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and amid escalating tensions over Pyongyang's refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programs. In Tokyo, the chief of Japan's Defense Agency, Shigeru Ishiba, said the missile didn't appear to target Japan. Well that seems like an odd journalistic silly question. It was an Anti-Ship Missle, not an anti-island archipeligo missle. "We don't think this will have any significant impact on our national safety, but we are monitoring it closely," he told a parliamentary session.Dial 1-800-Raytheon for your nearest Patriot anti-missle system distributor. Meanwhile, South Korea was trying to determine whether the new test was successful. It had said the earlier one was a failure it appeared to have exploded in midair due to defects. U.S. officials had sought to minimize the significance of the earlier missile test, saying it involved a small weapon and not one of North Korea's stockpile of long-range ballistic missiles. North Korea has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting an attack, and says its military maneuvers are defensive. The nuclear dispute flared in October, when U.S. officials said Pyongyang admitted having a covert nuclear program in violation of a 1994 deal. Washington and its allies suspended fuel shipments; the North retaliated by expelling U.N. monitors, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting a nuclear reactor. Congratulations boys, you hit the ocean. You do realize of course that lurking just under the surface of that very same ocean is atleast two United States Navy Nuclear Ballistic Submarines, just watching and waiting for the chance to shoot back, right? |
| Posted by:Frank Martin |