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N Korea fires barrage of missiles toward eastern waters

18 Comments
By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM

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18 Comments
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It blew up and since it fell outside the Japanese EEZ, has Japan retrieved any debris to verify? How can Japan say that it was a ballistic missile and not as N. Korea claims a vehicle for their satellite? So next time JAXA fires off one of their duds, N. Korea will probably say that it was a ballistic missile as well . Stop all this asinine fear mongering to justify your defense spending. If you're going to lie, make it credible and don't mock our intelligence.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

Was Kim feeling ignored, or was there a more logic behind the timing of his outburst?

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Deflect attention away from their own failure.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also warned of unspecified “overwhelming actions” against South Korea after it staged an aerial exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea attempted to launch its second military reconnaissance satellite.

Tangential to this but a new book deriving from interviews with many defense policy insiders outlines a scenario where all of these missile launches into the sea serve to lower the guard of NK watchers to a sudden ICBM decapitation strike against the Pentagon.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2426549-read-an-extract-from-nuclear-war-a-scenario-by-annie-jacobsen/

Also on Thursday, North Korea hit back at international condemnation of its failed satellite launch,

Followed by an EMP burst over the Midwest by a nuclear weapon hidden aboard a NKorean satellite.

A lot of speculation and leaps of narrative logic but a frightening read.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Dear Leader’s perpetual struggle against his mighty nemesis, the Sea.

a brave assault, attempting to throw back the unrelenting march of the oceans into our heavenly homeland!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

So even Japanese publications have quit saying Sea of Japan?

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Was Kim feeling ignored, or was there a more logic behind the timing of his outburst?

Elections do have consequences.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

@dbsaiya

It blew up and since it fell outside the Japanese EEZ, has Japan retrieved any debris to verify?

EEZ isn't a territory but international water where anything goes. Heck, technically North Korea could detonate a nuclear bomb WITHIN Japan's EEZ and that wouldn't be considered an attack on Japan, nothing can be done about it.

Having said that, Japan doesn't have a missile defense radar precise enough to estimate where the debris has landed. Korea does, and this is why only Korea has been able to fish out North Korean missile debris to date. China too tried but failed because China's missile defense network isn't as robust as Korea's.

@CAPTAIN

So even Japanese publications have quit saying Sea of Japan?

It's not a Japanese press, but an Associate Press article. And yes, the US press is indeed moving away from "Sea Of Japan" terminology, preferring to use whichever name given to them by authorities. With regards to North Korean missile launches it's usually the ROK authorities given their best missile defense network, so "East Sea" is more frequently used nowadays in articles.

Remember, Sea Of Japan is no longer an internationally recognized official name, the IHO's official name has been changed to the 18th sea, with either Sea of Japan or East Sea being referred as local names.

-18 ( +3 / -21 )

dbsaiya

It blew up and since it fell outside the Japanese EEZ, has Japan

retrieved any debris to verify? How can Japan say that it was a

ballistic missile and not as N. Korea claims a vehicle for their

satellite?

The Norks announced it was a ballistic missile, or did you stop reading before it says so in the article?

"North Korea later said it tested a tactical ballistic missile with a new autonomous navigation system."

8 ( +9 / -1 )

North Korea, Russia & China . . . War mongers one and all.

Who needs this?!

9 ( +9 / -0 )

I wonder how the starving NKoreans feel when they see each of these multi-million (billion?) dollar rockets fly into the air to nowhere while they and their family scrounge for roots and berries.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

The Sea of Japan remains the name still widely used by most nations in official documents.

Despite many years of harassmennt from South Korean nationalists, The Sea of Japan is stll the offical name used by the International Hydrograhic Organization. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) does not use the term "18th Sea" to refer to any body of water.

The US Navy calls the waters Sea of Japan. Russia and China which also border that body of water call it Sea of Japan. China calls the East China Sea the "East Sea". The demand by SKorea to rename it the East Sea is bluntly put, stupid, since that name only makes sense to a person standing on the Korean penninsula.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

Samit Basu

The IHA kowtowing to the Koreas' ridiculous and irrational demands is shameful. A body of water is named after the landmass that forms it. If the Japanese archipelago ceased to exit, there still wouldn't be an "East Sea" because it would simply be the Western edge of the Pacific Ocean and not a separate body of water warranting a name of its own.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

With the desperately deranged Kim dynasty trying to hang on to power in his pathetic fiefdom, the South Koreans really need to step-up the leaflet-dropping / balloon project, informing all North Korean citizens that there is massive outside support for them to prepare for the revolution.

This touched a very raw nerve with Kim & Co. yesterday, so the South Koreans should multiply their efforts infinitely. The demise of this despicable regime can not come soon enough.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

North Koreans go hungry, but the Kims waste money on high tech toys.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

spinningplatesMay 30  08:55 am JST

Dear Leader’s perpetual struggle against his mighty nemesis, the Sea.

a brave assault, attempting to throw back the unrelenting march of the oceans into our heavenly homeland!

So your satellite launch was a flop, huh Kimmy? So you send balloons full of stinky trash over SK and shoot some rockets into the sea again. Gotta show 'em you bad, you bad. Uh-huh.

Can it, Kimbo! We ain't buying it. We're not impressed. I know some scream queens on US TV networks will be shrieking their doom + gloom (as always) but we know better, SK knows better and Japan knows better.

Shove them up, fatso!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yeah ol square head kimmy chee is a loose cannon alright.

A whole barrage of missiles is kinda ostentatious

Did it render his desired reaction ?

Blockhead !

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I wonder where the wherewithal of the cost for launching these missiles comes from. Is the U.S. letting North Korea squander the money on purpose until North Korea exhausts all of its resources up and succumbs? But that's a dangerous escapade.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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