At 0557 local time (GMT +9), North Korea launched a missile that traveled over the Japanese island of Hokkaido. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/28/jap...headed-toward-northern-japan-report-says.html http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/28/politics/north-korea-launch-unidentified-projectile/index.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/world/asia/north-korea-missile.html https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/6wmgdx/japanese_government_warns_north_korea_missile/
does Japan have a well developed missile defense? You don't hear much about their military, so I'm just wondering.
Yes. They field the MIM-104F (PAC-3) version of the Patriot on the ground and the RIM-161 (SM-3) from their Kongo class and Atago class AEGIS equipped DDG's at sea. They're also in talks with the US about buying either the THAAD system or AEGIS ashore. However, "NHK also reported that Japan took no action to shoot down the missile." https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/28/jap...headed-toward-northern-japan-report-says.html
Well that's not good....wonder if they meant to do that or it was yet another malfunction or some sort of problem with the missile.
They shoot and hit it, a good chance lots of the debris falls on Japanese territory. Not your biggest worry if it happened to have a nuclear warhead but of course no one would've expected this missile to be carrying one.
I'm assuming it was an intentionally provocative act. I will also note that the distance this missile flew (1,678 miles) is only 437 miles shorter than the distance from Pyongyang to Guam. Here's everything that's within the range of the missile they launched today:
Nothing, but it does point out that one of the reasons for voting Trump over Hilary has turned out to be utter crap. Instead of a face-off with Russia, looks like it'll be a face-off with China. Hopefully the useless cunt will drag his sorry arse away from Twitter and golfing long enough to read up on how to lead.
One of the theories is that NK is actively looking for a war to distract from internal issues, which is all kinds of problematic. I mean, how do you avoid a war with someone wanting one and will use any pretext, real or imagined, to further provoke you and who'll keep upping the ante? If the theory is correct, then it's really a case 'when' not 'if' - at some point NK will dream up some reason and lob a missile at an actual viable target. Won't be a nuke, but enough to start a conventional war.
NK is not suicidal. They do want to appear tough for domestic consumption especially since two of three legs the communist dictatorship's legitimacy rests upon are now gone. The only leg still standing is its supposed great military power and willingness to use it to stand up to supposed foreign imperialists and their supposed puppet regime in the South (which is doing far better than the north in every way). So my guess is he wants to do a lot of saber rattling, he wants to keep tensions high, but he wants it to be just shy of actual war because he knows he would lose a war.
Does he really know he would lose a war? Would the North Koreans lose a war? Maybe Kim In whatever thinks he can stir up a border conflict with the South Koreans, make some incursions into South Korea, kill a few hundred thousand people, and then call for a cease fire before the South Koreans and U.S. invade. Make it too costly for the U.S. and ROK to invade and fight to the finish. Call it a victory and spend the rest of his life crowing about how he "kept the worlds superpower at bay".
Tossing one of your missiles over Japan is a dangerous way to sabre-rattle. 50 miles south so if goes goes wrong, it flops in water rather than on land, yes, but over actual habitable land? Chance of it actually killing someone, should it fail, is low, but not close enough to zero that anyone with an ounce of smarts would do it.
A full-on hot war? Yes. He knows it would be the end of NK. A limited exchange, on the other hand, he can sell to his people as a great victory regardless of outcome. The question he should be asking himself would if Trump would stop at a limited exchange.
I have to think China is looking at that circle Elwood posted and asking itself some hard questions too . . .
Yeah, there's a few people living within that circle in China. The Russian Pacific Fleet's headquarters and their entire infrastructure is within that circle too.
