Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to reporters about the launch of a North Korean missile, at his official residence in Tokyo on Monday morning. Photo: Reuters
politics

N Korea fires ballistic missile that falls into Japan's EEZ

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They really seem to be asking for trouble don't they.

14 ( +17 / -3 )

........and for UN to step up and arrange placement for fleeing refugee around the western world ......

Why only the "western world"? Is your eastern world full? The western world has enough refugees of its own.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Difficult situation. One problem is it is so hard to get any meaningful intelligence on what is really going on in North Korea due to the difficulty or near impossibility of penetrating their regime.

One one hand, if military action is taken it could potentially be disastrous for South Korea and potentially Japan.

On the other hand, if action is not taken Kim may do something stupid and actually initiate a first strike (especially if things in NK turn bad and he sees he may lose control). The potential for an EMP strike cannot be ruled out either.

To me, Kim Jong Un seems much more unhinged and dangerous than his predecessors.

I still believe the best bet is to bring China to the table to help bring things under control. The whole world agrees something should be done about NK but no one is willing to jump on board and help out (seems to be the U.S., South Korea, and Japan left alone on this one).

12 ( +15 / -3 )

What has he got against the sea and the fishes?

10 ( +10 / -0 )

its time to test Japans and its allies missiles to waters of north Korea ,daily

How will that help?

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Ok, if you "cannot tolerate repeated provocations" then just what do you suggest that the government do about it? Something concrete this time, the rhetoric is a broken record!

Why don't you tell us all then Yubaru

Tokyo-Engr makes good and valid points

China would just love Japan to take military action, then they could step in and be the "hero". All we would here after that from China is "see we told you Japan was aggressive and did not learn from WW2, we fixed it" conveniently ignoring the reasons for action in the first place.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Kim is obviously asking for troubles, maybe it is time to eliminate his bloody regime and unite both Koreas into one democratic nation.

And how's that going to pan out, exactly?

Who is going to carry it out?

Are you prepared for the inevitable intense conflict in the region?

8 ( +9 / -1 )

"We cannot tolerate repeated provocations. We sternly protested against North Korea and condemned it (the launch) in the strongest terms," Suga told a press conference.

Ok, if you "cannot tolerate repeated provocations" then just what do you suggest that the government do about it? Something concrete this time, the rhetoric is a broken record!

6 ( +14 / -8 )

Are you prepared for the inevitable intense conflict in the region?

This is what I keep wondering. I suspect some of these desktop warriors live far away. Others probably don't have very deep ties. If you have kids in school here, if you own property, if you have older in laws that you care about deeply, it's as simple as packing your flyjin kit.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Sometimes a child needs a good kick in the pants.

Which is child abuse. And, we aren't talking about a petulant 3 year old that won't stop using his toy hammer. Not only is the DPRK armed with nukes, its conventional forces are quite sizeable. They are driven by fanaticism on the scale of the Japanese in WWII.

All this means the following is delusional:

With three carrier task force, it should end in a week, if not earlier.

For those of you advocate the destruction of Seoul and hundreds of thousands of thousands of casualties and fatalities, I trust you are prepared to donate cash and volunteer.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for gathering information on the missile launch, steps to ensure the safety of airplanes and vessels, and keeping alert for any unexpected contingencies, Suga said.

Oh another thing....push rewind, hit play...again, and again, and again, and again.

4 ( +11 / -7 )

The West and its Allies are becoming the laughing stock of this crisis. Little fat man is proving to have b@lls of steel. Everybody knows the U. S. could shatter that country in a matter of minutes. All the talk of the 1000's of missles pointed the South and Japan is to provide a fear factor for the masses. There is something much bigger at play than the destruction of NK. What is it? Maybe it has something to do with Japan herself? A new and stronger alliance? Only time will tell, but that day is coming.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Given the fact that N Korea has been warned on several occasions, and the blatant fact that all warnings have been ignored, strong and swift actions should be taken. A great example should be made of them.

Or maybe we (japan, the us, sk etc) should stop issuing threats and warnings bs as we are clearly not ready (and rightly so) to kick it up a notch and attack them. When you're not ready to backup your words with actions I think it's better to defuse the situation and not show you're worried/upset/ready to attack.

KJU is playing with Abe &co's nerves all too happy to watch him lose face every time he comes back with his "we won't tolerate any further threat" bs.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

strong and swift actions should be taken. A great example should be made of them.

Strong and swift actions like what, exactly?

What would a "great example" entail?

Are you prepared for the inevitable deadly conflict that would arise from "swift action", if it's force you're proposing?

My apologies for riffing on a theme here but I've yet to read a clarification from the action crowd here, as to what it is they propose and whether they live in the region.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I believe Donald is shortly going to pound NK's nuke and missile facilities, kill the fat Kid, and start a rebellion in North Korea. With three carrier task force, it should end in a week, if not earlier. Hopefully the Koreas will be united soon.

You're that confident or are you just larking about?

If the former; are you not at all concerned for the region or do you live thousands of miles away?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

China has done nothing to solve the NKorean crisis. And I don't believe they will either. North Korea is holding Seoul hostage to pursue it's nuclear and ballistic missile aspirations. Xi knew very well at the meeting what caliber of President Donald Trump really was, and they are probably watching how long he will remain in office. All Xi wanted was an assurance that Trump wouldn't slap  huge customs on Chinese imports. The day China actually makes a serious effort to shut NKorea down is the day the world agrees that the entire South China Sea has been inherent Chinese territory since ancient times.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Of course North Korea is not going to give up its nuclear deterrent, any more than America is, so rather than empty threats, how about normalizing relations with them.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

It would be interesting if Japan announced plans to retrieve North Korean missile remnants from Japan's EEZ (if technically feasible). Kim's reaction?

John-San wrote: "The only way to end this problem is for China to open its borders with NK and for UN to step up and arrange placement for fleeing refugee around the western world with no red tape BS delay."

Keep the borders as closed as they are now.

I doubt that opening the border with China would promote an exodus of North Koreans "yearning to breathe free" or would weaken the regime, but would just allow Kim to cull his population of extra mouths to feed and perhaps allow him to reenact the 1994 Mariel Boatlift from Cuba. Even if China "opened" its border - very doubtful - the North Koreans would still have the ability to filter those leaving. Would you expect them to cooperate?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

When DPRK loses China's backing, she switches over to Russia, which is what is happening now. Easy. That game has happened frequently back and forth over the years.

When Russia and China work together and both block DPRK, then that would send cold shivers and stop them right in their tracks.

Is such a scenario in Russia's interests, though? No, not they way things are at the moment, I guess. So, what could be in it for Russia to close off the taps?

3 ( +3 / -0 )

It's foolish, provocative, insolent. But it's really just for show.

The minute they actually aim one of those things at a real target will be the end of them. They appear to know this, too.

Because they never do.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Final score

NK: 10 / Poseidon: 0

1 ( +2 / -1 )

J-alert was not activated this time, either. I suppose Japanese government could not catch the launch information this time either.

AgentX Today  10:13 am JST

Yet, when the U.S. or Japan tests weapons it's all good, right? Because they have never used them on civilian populations, have they...

North Korea promised to abandon its nuclear and missile programs in August 1994 when Jimmy Carter visited there. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/dprkchron

1 ( +4 / -3 )

My girl with a JP PP moved to a small island off Kagoshima with me in '86. We lived together well 6 plus 6 years until our daughter finished elementary.

After that I still feel like living in N K. She took the children to Hokkaido and being mother without father, working for a hotel chain, living with apool attendant, and while being over 2k km away the child plus her unknown brother, means my fatherhood is questionable and should be settled with a born age of 1989, which is age of four as they said at the time, but doubting fatherhood myself, so far nothing as been looked into or concerning identity has come to me. Also I took my child for a month to Duesseldorf Japanese school at the age of 14 for a month. As there was no half nation student in the school of over 600 the girl felt aligned. At the 運動会 I can confirm no half as you call mixed children to be seen . As the longest foreign inhabitant on the Kagoshima island by now, please tell me if there is N K influence in this family.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's just the EEZ, not Japanese territorial waters. Japan also has a history of ignoring requests to stay out of other country's EEZ (citing freedom of passage), so although there is a slight added danger here from the falling rocket, Japan should practice what it preaches. And Abe's rhetoric might mean something if he actually had the slightest intention of following through on it.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

What I find funny in all of this is that on Twitter, Trump said NK disrespected China for this missile launch.......while it landed in Japan's EEZ. Just think about that for a minute.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I agree with Yubaru on this. Abe is just saying the same thing over and over again. He sounds like a broken record, and I doubt if his comments get more than a smirk from the insane despot with the bad hair (the one in NK), I mean. 

Having said that, there are ALOT of advantages that the west has. 

We do know that there has been a huge falling out between china and NK over Kim's execution of his uncle Jang Sung-taek. 

North Koreans are not all brainwashed as we were told. The truth is that Kim's grandfather is revered tremendously there, but neither the father Kim Jong-il, nor Fat Boy Kim are.  This is a key factor that many people don't know but is constantly being reiterated by various defectors.

Un has made an already unstable regime even more unstable. Honestly, with Kim and Trump- Kim under sactions now from China and Trump under investigation over his Russia ties, both leaders are going to be looking for distractions. Kim is extremely volatile and dangerous, but so is Trump. This has the makings of a very ugly conflict.  Here is what the US should say to China: you help us with an invasion to to topple Kim and reunite the Korean peninsula under the democratic leadership of SK and in turn we will close our bases in Korea. The main reason China doesn't want to put an end to NK is the fear of having the US military at its doorstep. Remove that threat and they might cooperate. Not to mention that a double invasion from both sides would probably see fewer casualities as NK would be overwhelmed very quickly.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Whilst they had Abe there did any of the "journalists" ask him about the latest school scandal? I thought not. Instead, all we get is the usual whining of Abe and Suga about North Korea.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Abe is saying stuff to scare voters into changing Article 9.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Attacking North Korea (without agreement with China) would just re-start the Korean war; assinine. However intercepting the missiles over international waters (as soon as they leave the 12 mile limit) might start to send a message fat boy would understand.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Not as long as the establishment politicians and the left would rather use Russia as a cudgel in domestic politics. They seem happy to risk both Korea and Japan for a little domestic political game.

Does the Russian meddling in the US elections not seem a bit of a risk to you?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Abe Shinzo is trying to change the Japanese Constitution to allow aggressive 'proactive' attack upon other countries. It is the first tiny (but enormous) step in a new 'Asian Co-prosperity' drive ala 1931. That central psychopathy has not gone away, the roots of culture do not fade over just a few generations. Look at what Nihon claims as its EEZ, more than halfway across the Japan Sea. This is trumpoid B.S. designed to scare nonthinking Nihonjin into allowing the generals to gain power and the pathological elite to once again dream dreams of conquest and genocide. The JDF must stay the JDF and not once again become the Japanese Imperial Army.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

"However intercepting the missiles over international waters (as soon as they leave the 12 mile limit) might start to send a message fat boy would understand."

EXACTLY! The moment it is launched blow it up. Would do quite a lot if things mostly positive. Would give training to our troops. Show we will not tolerate more weapons fired. Shows other countries our power as well and uses some of that surplus of military funds. Shows our allies what we can do and that we care.

Although I see a few negatives... Maybe our defenses really does not work and would show the world. One of the interceptors go rogue (if that is even possible) and hits NK (civilian population) or hits SK or China. Or this all becomes an even more dangerous game with NK and they fire just to see how they can over come what we have to block them.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Given the fact that N Korea has been warned on several occasions, and the blatant fact that all warnings have been ignored, strong and swift actions should be taken. A great example should be made of them.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

I like Ron Johns Idea:

Park (no pun intended) the 7th Fleet off the coast of Pusan, and fire stuff into the waters off the coast of the "DRPK"...that should be interesting.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

North Korea should stop to exist, and devided by.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Perhaps it is finally time to deal with the fatso once and for all?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Believed to have fallen? It is or it isn't. How many more minutes away from reaching Japan coast? Is the defence system not working? Because I'd just set an example and take this missile out in the open.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Sometimes telling a child to stop just doesn't work. Particularly if they know the only consequence is another "stop that." Sometimes a child needs a good kick in the pants.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

With the insecurity in 2017 he might even bomb Jingjinji

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

One of the highlights of today's evening news, rather than the urban middle aged ladies saying "kowai-neeee" was a mid 20s looking fisherman. He was apparently fishing in the area where the missile landed and had this to say; "just do it already, war. Let's have a war. Is that what they want?"

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The only way to end this problem is for China to open its borders with NK and for UN to step up and arrange placement for fleeing refugee around the western world with no red tape BS delay. It time for China,s trading partner to pressure China. Let face it China has only played lip service.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

@OssanAmerica Today 09:16 am JST

If China did nothing, then Japan should stop wasting time to talk to China.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Is such a scenario in Russia's interests, though? No, not they way things are at the moment, I guess. 

Not as long as the establishment politicians and the left would rather use Russia as a cudgel in domestic politics. They seem happy to risk both Korea and Japan for a little domestic political game.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

China has two mad dogs. N. Korea & Pakistan.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Yet, when the U.S. or Japan tests weapons it's all good, right? Because they have never used them on civilian populations, have they...

-4 ( +9 / -13 )

AgentX asks, "Yet, when the U.S. or Japan tests weapons it's all good, right?" Because the plane for NK leaves very soon for anyone who prefers to leave there. Japan and USA is only trying to preserve the right to travel freely.

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

Kim is obviously asking for troubles, maybe it is time to eliminate his bloody regime and unite both Koreas into one democratic nation.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

The only way to end this problem is for China to open its borders with NK and for UN to step up and arrange placement for fleeing refugee around the western world with no red tape BS delay.

Around the western world? Sorry chum, no can do. Dump them in Japan.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

Yes the west need to gang up on China over the NK. I am drawing a very long bow. But this what I actually thinking. China is aiding NK in fooling the world that they are nuclear able. I assume China is using their own weapon and controlling these tests giving world the impression NK are building a nuclear arsenal. China is gaining very good intell from this latest tests. By giving Trump lip service and allow the battle group into their waters ( In China eyes ) . China want to know about USA missile defence capability. There is no better way then the game China is playing. Like I stated I am drawing a long bow but I believe in pressuring China into opening it borders like I suggested above.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

its time to test Japans and its allies missiles to waters of north Korea ,daily

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

I believe Donald is shortly going to pound NK's nuke and missile facilities, kill the fat Kid, and start a rebellion in North Korea. With three carrier task force, it should end in a week, if not earlier.  Hopefully the Koreas will be united soon.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

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