Xtra News Community 2
March 29, 2024, 12:23:03 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to Xtra News Community 2 — please also join our XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP.
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links BITEBACK! XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP Staff List Login Register  

Kim Jong-un celebrates American Independence Day in style…

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8 ... 10   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Kim Jong-un celebrates American Independence Day in style…  (Read 5515 times)
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #50 on: July 08, 2017, 02:39:02 pm »

Obumma care turned out to be a ballsup , now Trump is fixing it😀

Like everything that Obumma ran away from, he was to busy golfing with his good mate Sir John Key🙄
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #51 on: July 08, 2017, 02:42:05 pm »


You're FULL OF SHIT....just like Trump.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #52 on: July 09, 2017, 01:28:39 am »


from The Washington Post....

With tensions high, Pentagon flies bombers over Korean Peninsula in show of force

A pair of American B-1B bombers flew alongside fighter jets from South Korea and Japan
four days after North Korea launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile.


By DAN LAMOTHE and THOMAS GIBBONS-NEFF | 1:42AM EDT - Saturday, July 08, 2017

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer of the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron sits at Andersen Air Force Base on Friday in Guam before a bilateral mission with South Korean and Japanese jets. — Photograph: Airman 1st Class Jacob Skovo/United States Air Force.
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer of the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron sits at Andersen Air Force Base on Friday in Guam before a bilateral mission
with South Korean and Japanese jets. — Photograph: Airman 1st Class Jacob Skovo/United States Air Force.


THE PENTAGON flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Friday in a show of force, carrying out a 10-hour, multi-part mission alongside fighter jets from South Korea and Japan four days after North Korea launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile.

U.S. Pacific Command disclosed the operation late on Friday, saying the mission was a demonstration of the “ironclad” American commitment to allies in the region. The Air Force launched the planes from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, flying west across the Pacific before joining South Korean F-15s and dropping inert bombs over Pilsung Range, a training area in the northeastern corner of South Korea.

“U.S. bombers and Republic of Korea fighters are just two of many lethal military options at our disposal,” said Lieutenant General Thomas Bergeson, the deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea. “This mission clearly demonstrates the U.S.-ROK alliance remains prepared to use the full range of capabilities to defend and to preserve the security of the Korean Peninsula and region.”

The U.S. bombers flew back to Guam alongside Japanese F-2 fighters over the East China Sea. The U.S. military continues to train with Japanese forces to make sure they are collectively ready to defend against an attack, said Lieutenant General Jerry P. Martinez, the commander of U.S. Forces Japan.

It's the latest show of force in the region by the United States and its allies since Tuesday's test of an ICBM by North Korea. On Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean forces demonstrated their ability to fire ground launched cruise missiles with the U.S. Army's Tactical Missile System and the South Korean Hyunmoo Missile II. Both missiles have a similar range and can hit targets more than 180 miles from their launch site. In addition to showcasing their ability to fire into North Korea, Reuters reported on Friday that U.S. forces also have plans to test a controversial missile defense system, called THAAD that has recently been deployed to the peninsula.

North Korea's launch of a two-stage ICBM, called the Hwasong-14, appears to have caught the United States off-guard. Following the missile's launch, the Pentagon first classified it as an intermediate-range missile before admitting that the weapon's 3,400-mile range qualified it as an ICBM. Despite condemnation from the international community and waves of new sanctions, North Korea has steadily advanced its missile program in recent months, leaving the White House with few options to deal with the rogue state.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters on Thursday that America's self-restraint “has prevented war in the face of provocations” and that economic and diplomatic efforts are ongoing with U.S. allies and China in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. “But obviously, any kind of effort by North Korea to start a war would lead to severe consequences,” Mattis said.

Though North Korea's ability to launch an ICBM is groundbreaking, the reclusive state face series of technical hurdles before its program has enough material for more nuclear tests and the ability to strike deep into the United States, experts say. The test, however, will likely change U.S. calculus when it comes to striking Pyongyang, as any military plan will have to weigh the possibility of a nuclear attack against the U.S. homeland.


• Dan Lamothe covers national security for The Washington Post and anchors its military blog, Checkpoint.

• Thomas Gibbons-Neff is a staff writer at The Washington Post and a former Marine infantryman.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related stories:

 • U.S. missile defense and its spotty history have a new challenge in North Korean ICBMs

 • U.S. Army and South Korean military respond to North Korea's launch with missile exercise


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/07/08/with-tensions-high-pentagon-flies-bombers-over-korean-peninsula-in-show-of-force
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #53 on: July 09, 2017, 01:28:53 am »


from The Washington Post....

How ‘isolated’ North Korea managed to build an ICBM that could reach Alaska

The country might seem isolated, but it imported expertise from Russia and has had relationships with Iran and Pakistan.

By AMANDA ERICKSON | 5:01AM EDT - Saturday, July 08, 2017

Pedestrians make their way past the portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung, left, and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. — Photograph: Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse.
Pedestrians make their way past the portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung, left, and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.
 — Photograph: Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse.


NORTH KOREA is a country in isolation, a place where most citizens don't have access to the Internet or the means to travel abroad. In 2010, The New York Times described the country as a “hermit kingdom, so poor that there is almost no supply of concrete, bricks or window glass. People suffer shortages of rice, gasoline and even underwear.”

And yet. It's been able to expand its weapons technology at an astounding rate. Earlier this week, it test launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say could have reached Alaska. How has the North been able to make big weaponry advances that experts considered a couple of years away at best?

The answer: North Korea has been developing its nuclear weapon systems expertise for decades. It boasts a cadre of well-trained scientists and engineers and a vast, international financial network that's both supplied the necessary raw materials and funded a billion-dollar weapons development program. And it doesn't hurt that Kim Jung Un has made the nuclear weapons program a top priority, orienting his entire country toward that goal.

“When you have a strategic line, a single-minded focus on nuclear and economic development, and you're able to politically mobilize and entire state infrastructure to that end, it provides a lot of potential momentum,” says Scott A. Snyder, a North Korea expert and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “That's what Kim Jung Un has done.”

North Korea launched its missile development program in 1980. At first, their strategy was to buy up old Soviet missiles from third parties like Egypt and Syria, explains John Schilling, a North Korea expert an aerospace engineer who contributes to 38 North, a website devoted to events concerning North Korea. Once the North Korean engineers had the old missiles, they worked to reverse-engineer them so that they could produce their own copies.

The country imported experience too, Schilling says. As the Soviet Union neared collapse, North Korea hired Russian engineers who weren't being paid at home. They brought them to Pyongyang to both work directly on North Korean programs, and to train North Koreans.

North Korea also had relationships with Iran and Pakistan, Schilling says. “Initially, these seem to have been one-way affairs — North Korea sold Iran missiles to use in their war with Iraq, and Pakistan (or at least A.Q. Khan) sold nuclear technology to North Korea,” he wrote in an email. “But as all three nations developed their skills, this turned into more of an equal partnership with information and technology flowing between all three nations.” (Abdul Qadeer Khan is the founder of Pakistan's uranium-enrichment program and has been accused of aiding the proliferation of nuclear weapons in other countries.)

At first, these efforts led to some trial and a lot of error. Not so anymore. Today, the regime is “much more efficient and effective” at producing weapons in-house, says Ken Gause, a North Korea expert at the Center for Naval Analyses. “They're not making the same mistakes over and over again.”

Indeed, Schilling says that they're mostly able to build their rockets in-house. “They do still need to import some specialized parts and components, particularly electronics, but this is done mostly on a black- or grey-market basis,” he writes. And it's not hard. “It doesn't need to be done on a large scale, and it doesn't need anyone else's active collaboration, so it would be very difficult to stop,” he says.

The country's speedy weapons development in the past few years, Snyder says, can be attributed to Kim Jung Un.

Kim Jung Il, Un's father, initially developed the nuclear weapons program. But it wasn't an overriding priority, Snyder says, and it moved at a “plodding pace.” When Un assumed power, Snyder says he “stepped on the gas peddle,” making missile development his top priority. That's in part a political calculation — Un was young when he took over the country, and untested. The program was a source of domestic legitimization. It also helped Un counter the perception that North Korea is vulnerable internationally, a weak state surrounded by strong states.

Un sees an ability to strike with nuclear weapons as the key to his legitimacy. All of which makes slowing the program down at this point a nearly impossible aim. “If North Korea wants a nuclear program, North Korea is gonna get one,” Gause said. “And we're gonna have to live with it.”

Of course, there are still some hurdles the country needs to overcome.

Right now, their strongest warhead detonated at about 20 kilotons, similar to Nagasaki. Reaching the abilities of an American missile of warhead (which yield 100 — 475 kilotons) will require “fundamentally new designs,” Schilling says. That's still a couple of years away he predicts.

The country has also so far failed to show that it can fit a nuclear warhead into a missile. But that doesn't bring Schilling much comfort.

“Every nation with North Korea's level of demonstrated expertise in nuclear weapons development has at least been able to fit their low-yield nuclear warheads into missiles,” he writes. North Korea has published mock-ups of how they would do it, and Schilling calls them “plausible.” He also notes that very few countries have actually demonstrated that their missiles and warheads work together.

Even the United States and Russia have done it only a handful of times. “Mostly, nations test their missiles and warheads separately and trust that they will work when brought together,” he wrote. “If the North Koreans felt compelled to put one of their warheads on one of their missiles and fire it tomorrow, odds are it would work.”


• Amanda Erickson writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. Previously, she worked as an editor for Outlook and PostEverything.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/07/how-isolated-north-korea-managed-to-build-an-icbm-that-could-reach-alaska
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #54 on: July 09, 2017, 04:12:34 am »

You constantly deride America and Americans...and yet keep quoting their lefty news media...are you a little confused as to where American news comes from and who writes it🙄
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #55 on: July 09, 2017, 04:50:05 pm »


America has patriotic citizens who work for REAL newspapers which post the truth (including links to facts to back-up what they publish) instead of the constant lies/alternative facts/bullshit/conspiracy theories which spews out of the alt-right.

Mind you, it's hilarious to see there are mentally-retarded folks in ENZED who are gullible enough to swallow what the alt-right dish up.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #56 on: July 09, 2017, 06:17:21 pm »


from The Washington Post....

The secret to Kim's success?
Some experts see Russian echoes in North Korea's missile advances.


Weapons experts noted striking similarities between North Korea's new intercontinental weapon's
propulsion system and a 1960s-era Soviet system. And although North Korea is known to have
obtained other Soviet missile designs in the past, the new revelations suggest the possibility
of a transfer of weapons secrets that has gone undetected until now.


By JOBY WARRICK | 5:58PM EDT - Saturday, July 08, 2017

This photo distributed by the North Korean government shows what was said to be the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in North Korea's northwest. — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Associated Press.
This photo distributed by the North Korean government shows what was said to be the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile
(ICBM) in North Korea's northwest. — Photograph: Korean Central News AgencyAssociated Press.


FOUR MONTHS before its July 4th missile test, North Korea offered the world a rare technical preview of its latest missile engine, one said to be capable of lobbing nuclear warheads at U.S. cities. A video on state-run TV depicted a machine with thickets of tubes and vents, and a shape that struck some U.S. experts as familiar — in a distinctly Soviet way.

“It shocked me,” said Michael Elleman, one weapons expert who noticed jarring similarities between the engine tested by North Korea in March and one he frequently encountered in Russia at the end of the Cold War. “It seemed to come out of nowhere.”

After intensive study, Elleman, a former consultant at the Pentagon, and other specialists would report that they had detected multiple design features in the new North Korean missile engine that echo those of a 1960s-era Soviet workhorse called the RD-250.

There is no record of Pyongyang's obtaining blueprints for the Russian missile engine, and experts disagree on whether it ever did so. But the discovery of similarities has focused new attention on a question that has dogged U.S. analysts for at least the past two years: How has North Korea managed to make surprisingly rapid gains in its missile program, despite economic sanctions and a near-universal ban on exports of military technology to the impoverished communist state?

Many weapons experts say North Korea's startling display of missile prowess is a reflection of the country's growing mastery of weapons technology, as well as its leader's fierce determination to take the country into the nuclear club. But others see continuing evidence of an outsize role by foreigners, including Russian scientists who provided designs and know-how years ago, and the Chinese vendors who supply the electronics needed for modern missile-guidance systems.

Whether outsiders played a decisive role in Tuesday's firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile is not publicly known. But the evidence from the televised engine test in March is tantalizing, and also disturbing, analysts say. While North Korea is known to have obtained other Soviet missile designs in the past, the new revelations suggest the possibility of a transfer of weapons secrets that has gone undetected until now.

“It would mean that North Korea had a wider procurement network in the former Soviet Union than we had thought,” said Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who oversaw the dismantling of Soviet-era missiles in Russia and Ukraine two decades ago. “My first question would be, ‘What else have they got?’”


A foundation of knowledge

It was, without a doubt, one of the strangest mass arrests in the history of Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 Airport: On October 15th, 1992, police detained 60 Russian missile scientists, along with their families, as they prepared to board a plane for North Korea.

Under questioning, the scientists confessed that they had been hired as a group to help the North Koreans build a modern missile fleet. In those early days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was little work for Russia's elite weapons scientists and little pay to help them feed and clothe their families.

“We wanted to make money and come back,” one of the scientists explained at the time to a Russian journalist.

Scores of other scientists did make the journey in the 1990s, taking with them decades of experience, as well as parts and blueprints. It was the beginning of a Russian-influenced renaissance in North Korea's missile arsenal, which until then consisted mostly of outdated, early-generation Scuds, some of them purchased on the black market. About the same time, North Korea also obtained sensitive nuclear technology from Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

The Russian government has insisted it had nothing to do with the transfer of missile secrets to North Korea. But Soviet designs became the templates for a series of intermediate-range ballistic missiles built and tested by North Korea over the next two decades, with extra features and capabilities added by a new generation of engineers recruited from the country's best schools.

Still, the program struggled, with many missiles blowing up on the launchpad, said Gaurav Kampani, a University of Tulsa international security expert and fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

“North Korea's ballistic missiles, especially its long-range missile project, were often considered a joke because of an unusual number of test failures,” Kampani said.


Serious advances

The jokes all but stopped after North Korea achieved a series of technical breakthroughs in surprisingly rapid succession. Just in the past four years, Pyongyang has launched satellites into orbit and successfully tested one missile that can be fired from a submarine, as well as another that uses solid fuel, a significant military advance because it allows for more mobility and a much faster launch.

On Tuesday, its Hwasong-14 missile became the first in North Korean history capable of traveling more than 3,400 miles, the minimum distance needed to be classified as an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The missile is believed to be a two-stage version of the Hwasong-12, which carries the same engine North Korea put on public display in March.

In nearly every case, the technical foundations of the new missiles can be traced to know-how acquired from Russians and others over many years. Yet, the advances of the past years suggest that North Korea's engineers are now managing quite well on their own.

“The consensus has been that North Korea’s program — missile as well as nuclear — is mostly indigenous,” said Laura Holgate, a top adviser on nonproliferation to the Obama administration who stepped down in January as head of the U.S. mission to the United Nations in Vienna. “They continue to seek to import commercial dual-use technologies for their weapons programs, but the design and innovation is homegrown.”

The many failures in the past were simply part of the learning curve for a country with a demonstrated ability to benefit from its mistakes, said David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank.

“Armed with the acquisition of many goods from abroad, North Korea appears to have devoted considerable resources to making the missiles domestically and, more importantly, figuring out how to launch them successfully,” Albright said. “With regards to missiles, practice makes perfect.”


Soldiers watch fireworks in Pyongyang, North Korea, to celebrate the test launch of North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic missile two days earlier. — Photograph: Jon Chol Jin/Associated Press.
Soldiers watch fireworks in Pyongyang, North Korea, to celebrate the test launch of North Korea's first intercontinental ballistic
missile two days earlier. — Photograph: Jon Chol Jin/Associated Press.


Determined to succeed

Yet it is also clear that North Korea's engineers are continuing to benefit from designs bequeathed to them years ago. Before Pyongyang's new missile engine surfaced, U.S. officials fretted about the Hwasong-10, a mobile, intermediate-range ballistic missile that was successfully tested last June. The missile, which is capable of reaching targets as far as Guam, 2,000 miles away, has been shown in independent analyses to be a modified version of a Russian missile commonly known as the R-27 Zyb. North Korea is believed to have obtained the Russian blueprint in the 1990s and to have spent years working on prototypes, current and former U.S. officials said.

Elleman, the former Pentagon missile expert, believes that North Korea's newest missile engine has a similar past. The designs were most likely obtained years ago, through rogue scientists or on the black market, only to surface recently as part of a newly energized missile program.

Elleman is preparing to publish an analysis comparing the engine used in the Hwasong-12 and Hwasong-14 with the Soviet-era RD-250, using photos that highlight nearly identical features, including cooling tubes, exhaust nozzles and the four auxiliary engines that steer the rocket.

“They've had these designs for a long time, and they've probably been doing exercises around these engines for 15 years,” he said. “All that work was done, and all [that] was left to do was the ground testing and flight testing with these different designs. It is what has allowed them to rapidly build up and try all these things over the past few years.”


The Kim Jong Un factor

The key new element was most likely North Korean leader Kim Jong Un himself, who accelerated the pace of the country's nuclear and missile development soon after taking power. “They are serious about trying to create a capability that could threaten the United States,” Elleman said.

The lingering Soviet legacy partly explains why North Korean technology tends to be decades behind that of the United States and other modern military powers, said David S. Cohen, a former deputy director of the CIA who had advised the Obama administration on North Korea's weapons advances.

“The missiles they're shooting now have some new engineering, but it's all based on old Soviet models,” Cohen said.

Unable to purchase advanced technology on the open market, North Korea also remains dependent on smugglers and black-marketeers to obtain some of the parts it needs, particularly electronics, Cohen said.

But he cautioned against underestimating a North Korean leadership that repeatedly displayed ingenuity in working with old designs and systems as well as a determination to succeed in the face of international isolation and censure.

“It is a mistake to think that this is really a hermit kingdom that is cut off and doesn't have access to the Internet,” Cohen said. “They have a lot of disadvantages, but the biggest part of the government economy is their nuclear and missiles program, so the smartest folks they have are directed to do this work.

“My fear,” he added, “ is that people underestimate them.”


• Joby Warrick joined The Washington Post's national staff in 1996. He has covered national security, the environment and the Middle East and currently writes about terrorism. He is the author of two books, including 2015's Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, which was awarded a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Kim Jong Un's rockets are getting an important boost — from China

 • Experts: North Korea's missile was a ‘real ICBM’ — and a grave milestone

 • The message behind the murder: North Korea's assassination sheds light on chemical weapons arsenal


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-secret-to-kims-success-some-experts-see-russian-echoes-in-north-koreas-missiles-advances/2017/07/08/5d4f5fca-6364-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #57 on: July 09, 2017, 06:51:19 pm »

Anhhhhh..yes...we have a problem with North Korea and weapons...sort of already knew that...it ain't rocket science😳
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #58 on: July 10, 2017, 12:28:43 pm »


We've had a problem with the United States of America and weapons of mass destruction for decades.

In fact, the United States of America is the only country with a history of using nuclear weapons to carry out mass-extermination of human beings.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #59 on: July 10, 2017, 01:35:18 pm »

Yeah, thank Christ for that eh....or do you speak Jaoanese😉
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #60 on: July 10, 2017, 01:54:30 pm »


Past actions ALWAYS speak louder than mere words.

The United States of America has a past which involves using nuclear weapons to exterminate tens of thousands of human beings in the blink of an eye.

And not merely once either.

Name even one other country which has likewise exterminated human beings en mass using nuclear weapons.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #61 on: July 10, 2017, 01:58:43 pm »

Only because it has not been required...can you list for me all the World Wars that have threatened our freedom since WW2... where a few nukes might come in handy to bring to an end in a timely manner🙄
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #62 on: July 10, 2017, 03:08:05 pm »


Well....Saddam could have ended the invasion of his country with a few nukes.

Sure, the Americans would have turned Iraq into a radiated, smoking ruin, but not before a few million Americans got nuked in retaliation for the initial invasion, which would have absolutely deterred Dubya from invading Iraq. Just like American nukes have deterred other countries from invading America.

So it is with North Korea....and Israel....and Pakistan....and France....and India....and Britain....and China....and Russia.

None of those countries have ever been invaded since they got nuclear weapons.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #63 on: July 10, 2017, 03:13:31 pm »

Excuse me....Britain and France and Russia and Pakistan and Israel are being attacked by terrorists and having their citizens slaughtered regularly..😳
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #64 on: July 10, 2017, 10:54:49 pm »


More people die in motor vehicle crashes; falling from ladders; workplace accidents; and cancer every hour than die in an entire year from terrorist attacks.

Banning motor vehicles, ladders, workplaces and cancer will save considerably more lives than terrorist attacks ever take.

Jeeeeeezus H Christ, you're fucking DUMB....

No wonder you feel the need to dream up LIES about being an important businessman doing business overseas.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #65 on: July 10, 2017, 11:04:36 pm »

....or we sell kiwirail...and the hundreds of millions of loses we no longer have each year could be spent building more hospitals😜
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #66 on: July 10, 2017, 11:06:53 pm »


Guess what?

Both National and Labour are into spending billions of dollars on both NZ's rail and road networks.

Oh dear....I guess if you don't like it, you'll have to fuck off to the USA and volunteer to be Donald Trump's dick-sucker beneath his desk in the oval office.

It would probably be a better job than being a idiot in NZ who makes up lies about being a businessman going on business trips throughout Asia.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #67 on: July 10, 2017, 11:15:45 pm »

Glad you brought that up..yes I am in Kampot now famous for the production of pepper and durian...very nice river town...beautiful clean (swimable) river 😉its still early here but you should get to bed ...it's way past your bedtime...no worry...I will look after place for you😉

..no I'd only leave if Frauline Clark became PM again😏

Looks less likely Little McLittle can pull it off...but Winnie is on a surge😳
Report Spam   Logged
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #68 on: July 15, 2017, 01:33:37 pm »


NORTH KOREA

Kim Jong Un sends North Korean slaves to Russia to earn cash for regime
By Andrew O'Reilly Published July 14, 2017 Fox News
 
NOW PLAYING
Kim Jong-un: Fast facts about North Korea's leader
Brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is shipping tens of thousands of impoverished citizens to Russia for the hard currency his cash-strapped regime desperately needs, Fox News has found.


Alarmed human rights groups say the North Korea workers in Russia are little more than slaves, subjected to everything from cruel and violent acts to ruthless exploitation at the hands of corrupt officials, while being forced to turn over large chunks of their pay to the North Korean government.

More on this...
Chinese trade with North Korea jumped more than 10 percent in first half of year, official says
Quake hits off North Korea but experts rule out nuke test
Missile Wars: Where North Korea stands after ICBM launch
A report issued earlier this year by the Seoul-based Data Base Center for North Korean Human Rights estimates that about 50,000 North Korean laborers are working low-paying jobs in Russia. They send at least $120 million every year to the regime in Pyongyang.

“The North Korean government maintains strict controls over their workers’ profits, in some cases probably taking 90 percent of their wages,” Scott Synder, director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy at the Council of Foreign Relations, told Fox News. “This is an issue that has been going on under the radar for a long time.”

International sanctions have crippled North Korea’s economy. The country produces few goods suitable for export. Kim needs money any way he can get it.

North Koreans helped construct a new soccer stadium in St. Petersburg. They also helped build a luxury apartment complex in Moscow.

The North Korean workers toil under terribly harsh conditions. A North Korean working on the soccer project was killed. Two North Korean laborers were found dead in June at a decrepit hostel near the Moscow apartment building site.

For years North Korean laborers have worked at remote Russian logging camps, which has brought to mind the brutal Soviet-era Gulag system.

Even so many North Korean laborers are willing to pay bribes to be sent to Russia given the dire economic and political situation at home.

The U.S. State Department issued a report on human trafficking last month that concluded that North Korean workers in Russia had been subjected to “exploitative labor conditions characteristic of trafficking cases such as withholding of identity documents, non-payment for services rendered, physical abuse, lack of safety measures, or extremely poor living conditions.”


Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has proposed new sanctions to deal with the problem.

“Secretary Tillerson has called on all countries to fully implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions, sever or downgrade diplomatic relations, and isolate [North Korea] financially, including through new sanctions, severing trade relationships, expelling guest workers, and banning imports from North Korean,” a State Department official told Fox News.

One reason for making such resolutions international is because North Korean laborers work in other countries besides Russia. China uses large numbers of them, and Qatar has North Korean laborers helping build its World Cup stadium.

Among the exploited North Korean workers are painters sent to the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok. Still, they have it little better than the North Koreans working in the Russian logging camps.

The boss of a decorating company in Vladivostok told the New York Times recently that minders from the Workers’ Party of Korea, the ruling party in Pyongyang, will confiscate half or more of a laborer’s monthly salary. He said a construction crew boss will take another 20 percent.

Related Image
Local residents attend the departure ceremony of the Mangyongbyong cruise ship in the port area of North Korean Special Economic Zone of Rason City, northeast of Pyongyang August 30, 2011. North Korea launched itself into the glitzy world of cruise tourism when about 130 passengers set sail from the rundown port of Rajin, near the China-Russia border, for the scenic Mount Kumgang resort near the South Korean border. Isolated North Korea's state tourism bureau has teamed up with a Chinese travel company to run the country's first ever cruise aboard an ageing 9,700 tonne vessel which once plied the waters off the east coast of the divided peninsula shuttling passengers between North Korea and Japan. Picture taken August 30, 2011. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (NORTH KOREA - Tags: POLITICS TRAVEL SOCIETY) - RTR2QSOBExpand / Collapse
Local residents at the port area of the North Korean Special Economic Zone of Rason City, near the China-Russia border.  (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
The corruption has apparently only increased in the last 10 years as the monthly pay rate for the laborers has increased from about 17,000 rubles, around $283, to 50,000 rubles, or about $841, according to the report.

“They don’t take holidays. They eat, work and sleep and nothing else. And they don’t sleep much,” the Russian boss said. “They are basically in the situation of slaves.”

He was reluctant to give the Times his name for fear the laborers would be punished by Workers’ Party officials.

Experts question why the human trafficking of North Koreans to Russia hasn’t drawn as much attention on the international stage as sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking.

“It’s very much analogous to any other type of trafficking situation across the world,” Snyder said. “Sex trafficking is done by shadowy, illegal organizations, but here we’re talking about state entities carrying out the trafficking. This really speaks to the nature of these regimes.
Fox
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #69 on: July 16, 2017, 01:43:38 am »


Ah, yes....North Korean workers helping out Trump's favourite despot dictator buddy, Vladimir Putin.

Trump should be really pleased they are helping out his mate.
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #70 on: July 16, 2017, 02:13:20 am »

Yeah...just reminds us of how socialism always ends up....best stay with capitalism😉
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #71 on: July 29, 2017, 01:59:55 pm »


Excellent news....yet another country will shortly have a nuclear deterrent against American aggression, just like America has a nuclear deterrent against aggression from other countries.



from The Washington Post....

North Korea could cross ICBM threshold next year,
U.S. officials warn in new assessment


“Alarming” advances in its missile program are forcing analysts to dramatically alter their forecasts.

By ELLEN NAKASHIMA, ANNA FIFIELD and JOBY WARRICK | 1:38PM EDT - Tuesday, July 25, 2017



NORTH KOREA will be able to field a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year, U.S. officials have concluded in a confidential assessment that dramatically shrinks the timeline for when Pyongyang could strike North American cities with atomic weapons.

The new assessment by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which shaves a full two years off the consensus forecast for North Korea's ICBM program, was prompted by recent missile tests showing surprising technical advances by the country's weapons scientists, at a pace beyond what many analysts believed was possible for the isolated communist regime.

The U.S. projection closely mirrors revised predictions by South Korean intelligence officials, who also have watched with growing alarm as North Korea has appeared to master key technologies needed to loft a warhead toward targets thousands of miles away.

The finding further increases the pressure on U.S. and Asian leaders to halt North Korea's progress before Pyongyang can threaten the world with nuclear-tipped missiles. President Trump, during his visit to Poland this month, vowed to confront North Korea “very strongly” to stop its missile advances.

The DIA has concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be able to produce a “reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM” program sometime in 2018, meaning that by next year the program will have advanced from prototype to assembly line, according to officials familiar with the document. Already, the aggressive testing regime put in place in recent months has allowed North Korea to validate its basic designs, putting it within a few months of starting industrial production, the officials said.

The DIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to address any classified assessments.

But Scott Bray, ODNI's national intelligence manager for East Asia, said in a statement: “North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental range ballistic missile — which was not a surprise to the intelligence community — is one of the milestones that we have expected would help refine our timeline and judgments on the threats that Kim Jong Un poses to the continental United States. This test, and its impact on our assessments, highlight the threat that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose to the United States, to our allies in the region, and to the whole world. The intelligence community is closely monitoring the expanding threat from North Korea.”

One of the few remaining technical hurdles is the challenge of atmospheric “re-entry” — the ability to design a missile that can pass through the upper atmosphere without damage to the warhead. Long regarded as a formidable technological barrier for impoverished North Korea, that milestone could be reached, beginning with new tests expected to take place within days, U.S. analysts said. U.S. officials have detected signs that North Korea is making final preparations for testing a new re-entry vehicle, perhaps as early as Thursday, a North Korean national holiday marking the end of the Korean War.

“They're on track to do that, essentially this week,” said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence report who, like others, insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive military assessments.

North Korea has not yet demonstrated an ability to build a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could be carried by one of its missiles. Officials there last year displayed a sphere-shaped device the regime described as a miniaturized warhead, but there has been no public confirmation that this milestone has been achieved. Preparations reportedly have been underway for several months for what would be the country's sixth underground atomic test. The last one, in September, had an estimated yield of 20 to 30 kilotons, more than double the explosive force of any previous test.

North Korea startled the world with its successful July 4th test of a missile capable of striking parts of Alaska — the first such missile with proven intercontinental range. The launch of a two-stage “Hwasong-14” missile was the latest in a series of tests in recent months that have revealed startlingly rapid advances across a number of technical fields, from mastery of solid-fuel technology to the launch of the first submarine-based missile, current and former intelligence officials and weapons experts said.

“There has been alarming progress,” said Joseph DeTrani, the former mission manager for North Korea for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a former special envoy for negotiations with Pyongyang. “In the last year they have gained capabilities that they didn't have, including ones that we thought they would not have been able to obtain for years.”

The July 4th missile test also caught South Korea's intelligence service off guard, prompting a hasty revision of forecasts, according to South Korean lawmakers who have received closed-door briefings. “The speed of North Korea's ICBM missile development is faster than the South Korean Defense Ministry expected,” said lawmaker Lee Cheol-hee of the left-wing Minjoo party, who attended an intelligence committee briefing after the July 4th test.

The South Korean government, which is actively trying to engage the regime in Pyongyang, has declined to call the most recent test a success. North Korea still has not proved it has mastered some of the steps needed to build a reliable ICBM, most notably the re-entry vehicle, Lee said.

Still, officials across the political spectrum acknowledged that North Korea is rapidly gaining ground. “Now they are approaching the final stage of being a nuclear power and the owner of an ICBM,” said Cha Du-hyeogn, who served as an adviser to conservative former president Lee Myung-bak.

U.S. spy agencies have detected multiple signals that North Korea is preparing to test a re-entry vehicle. Analysts believe that the July 4th test was intended to demonstrate range — the ability of its new two-stage ICBM prototype to reach altitude and distance milestones — while the new launch will seek to validate engineering features designed to protect the warhead as it passes through the upper atmosphere and then is delivered to a distant target.

The latest designs appear to cobble together older systems — including portions of a missile frame used to launch satellites into orbit — with a more advanced engine that North Korea began testing earlier this year. Much of the technology is based on old Soviet-era designs that have been reworked by what U.S. experts describe as an increasingly capable cadre of homegrown engineers, goaded along by a leadership that has pursued nuclear weapons and delivery systems with single-minded zeal.

Kim vowed in January to successfully test a nuclear-capable ICBM in 2017, achieving a long-sought goal that North Koreans believe will serve as the ultimate deterrent against threats to the communist regime's survival. At the time, the U.S. intelligence community's formal assessment still held that a credible ICBM threat would not emerge until 2020 at the earliest.

“North Korea's timeline moved faster than we expected,” said the U.S. official familiar with the new DIA assessment. “We weren't expecting an ICBM test in July.”

Former U.S. officials and weapons experts said a successful test of a nuclear-capable ICBM would dramatically raise the stakes in the North Korean crisis, putting new pressure on North Korea's neighbors and increasing the risk of miscalculation. “The danger is that decision time and warning is greatly reduced when North Korea has the weapons, and that escalation can happen quickly,” said Jon Wolfsthal, senior director for arms control and non-proliferation with the Obama administration's National Security Council.

The specter of a nuclear-armed, ICBM-capable Kim “takes the risk to a new level but does not change the nature of the threat we have faced for some time,” Wolfsthal said. “We have to deter North Korea from ever using any nuclear weapons and make clear that any move to use these weapons is suicide.”


• Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She focuses on issues relating to intelligence, technology and civil liberties.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.

• Joby Warrick joined The Washington Post's national staff in 1996. He has covered national security, the environment and the Middle East and currently writes about terrorism. He is the author of two books, including 2015's Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS which was awarded a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Report: North Korea can strike U.S. with nuclear ICBM by next year

 • VIDEO: Why does North Korea hate the U.S.? Look to the Korean War.

 • GRAPHIC: North Korea showed off a lot of missiles. What might be their targets?

 • The message behind the murder: North Korea's assassination sheds light on chemical weapons arsenal

 • Twenty-five million reasons the U.S. hasn't struck North Korea

 • Kim Jong Un's rockets are getting an important boost — from China


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-could-cross-icbm-threshold-next-year-us-officials-warn-in-new-assessment/2017/07/25/4107dc4a-70af-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #72 on: July 29, 2017, 02:00:13 pm »


from The Washington Post....

North Korea fires another missile, its latest step
toward putting the U.S. within reach


The projectile flew for 45 minutes, indicating it was another intercontinental ballistic missile.

By ANNA FIFIELD | 3:17PM EDT - Friday, July 28, 2017

In this July 4th, 2017, file photo distributed by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile in North Korea's northwest. — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Associated Press.
In this July 4th, 2017, file photo distributed by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right,
inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile in North Korea's northwest.
 — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Associated Press.


TOKYO — North Korea has taken another bold step toward achieving its stated goal of being able to send a nuclear weapon to the U.S. mainland, firing an intercontinental ballistic missile late on Friday that highlights the regime's rapid technological progress.

The missile flew almost straight up for 45 minutes and reached a height of about 2,300 miles before crashing into the sea off Japan. But if it had been launched on a normal trajectory, the missile could theoretically have reached Chicago and perhaps even New York, experts said.

This latest provocation compounds the problem facing the Trump administration and North Korea's neighbors: How to stop the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from making progress with its nuclear weapons program.

“Kim Jong Un does seem hellbent on acquiring the capability to reach the United States with nuclear weapons,” said Sharon Squassoni, director of the Proliferation Prevention Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The Pentagon and South Korea's joint chiefs of staff both said they had detected the launch, which occurred on Friday at about 11:11 p.m. North Korea time. The late-night launch was unusual, as North Korea usually fires missiles shortly after dawn.

“We assess that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile, as had been expected,” said Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command “determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America,” Davis said.

American officials assessed that the missile flew on a “lofted” trajectory to reach an apogee of 2,300 miles, before landing about 620 miles from its launch site in Chagang province in northwestern North Korea, near the border with China.

This is something that North Korea has been doing to test its missiles without firing them over Japan, an even more incendiary move.

The missile landed within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference convened early Saturday morning. Analysts said it landed off the coast of the northern island of Hokkaido.

“We cannot tolerate North Korea's repeated provocations like this,” Suga said. “We have made a strong protest to North Korea and condemned this act in the strongest terms.”

If the missile had been fired on a trajectory designed to maximize its range, it could have flown 6,500 miles, said David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. This is without taking into account the rotation of the Earth, which  increases the range of missiles fired to the east.

“Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago appear to be well within range of this missile, and that Boston and New York may be just within range,” Wright said. “Washington may still be just out of range,” he added.

These are only estimates, and experts do not know what kind of payload the missile was carrying, a factor that influences range.

But with its rapid succession of tests, North Korea is showing steady and observable technical progress that has alarmed analysts and officials alike.

Friday's test comes just three weeks after North Korea fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile, launched as July 4th dawned in Asia, and becomes the 14th ballistic missile launch this year alone.

That missile, which North Korea called the Hwasong-14 (or Mars-14), flew to an altitude of 1,741 miles — seven times as high as the International Space Station — before landing in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, 577 miles from its launch site. Analysts said that this would put Alaska and Hawaii within range.

Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in California, said that this latest test was designed to demonstrate that North Korea could hit more of the mainland United States.

“My guess is that they want to show more range,” Lewis said, adding that North Korea was essentially calling the Pentagon's bluff. “We basically dared them to do this. We said, ‘It's not really an ICBM until it can hit Alaska’, and they're, like, ‘Okay’.”

Ten of this year's 14 ballistic missile launches can be considered successful, according to CNS researchers.

The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency has shaved two full years off the consensus forecast for North Korea's ICBM program, now estimating that North Korea will be able to field a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year.

A launch this week — the anniversary of the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War fell on Thursday — had been anticipated. U.S. intelligence agencies had seen signs that North Korea was preparing for another test.

The North Korean leader has repeatedly said he wants a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States, and his defense minister on Wednesday threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

“If enemies misunderstand our strategic status and stick to options of staging a pre-emptive nuclear attack against us, we will launch a nuclear attack on America's heart as the most relentless punishment without warning or prior notice,” the minister said at a ceremony to mark the conclusion of the Korean War, which ended in an armistice but which Pyongyang claims it won. The occasion is celebrated annually in North Korea as the “Day of Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War”.

The Pentagon is planning another test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in Alaska soon. The system is designed to shoot down incoming missiles.

In a surprising apparent shift, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May vowing to review the U.S. deployment of a THAAD battery to South Korea, signaled he would now accept the system.

After an emergency National Security Council meeting held early on Saturday morning, Moon's office said he had directed his staff to consider ways to strengthen deterrence, including through the “additional deployment” of THAAD launchers.

The July 4th test, which violated United Nations resolutions against North Korea, was met with the usual rounds of international condemnation, and the latest provocation is likely to be greeted in the same way.

But the world has not found a way to persuade North Korea to stop.

The United States has been leading the charge for more and more sanctions against North Korea, but Russia and China — both veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — have been reluctant to impose painful measures and are calling instead for a “de-escalation plan” to deal with Pyongyang.

The Trump administration needs to focus on diplomacy as well as sanctions, said Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.

“A deployed North Korean ICBM is not inevitable, but it will be if policymakers in Washington keep putting the cart before the horse and demanding Pyongyang meet onerous preconditions to begin talks,” she said.

The Trump administration, like the Obama administration before it, has said that North Korea must agree to freeze its weapons program before talks can begin.

“Washington's diplomacy deficit is further compounded by the dangerous illusion that sanctions alone will push North Korea to negotiate,” Davenport said, “when the Trump administration and Congress should be focused on signaling support for talks without conditions.”

Squassoni of CSIS agreed.

“We won't know anything about North Korea's intentions unless we engage them seriously and at length,” she said. “The Trump administration needs to commit resources and real expertise to reshaping peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.”


Thomas Gibbons-Neff in Washington contributed to this report.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • The inevitability of North Korea's nuclear weapons

 • VIDEO: Report: North Korea can strike U.S. with nuclear ICBM by next year


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-fires-another-missile-its-latest-step-toward-putting-the-us-within-reach/2017/07/28/7fc4437a-71fd-11e7-8c17-533c52b2f014_story.html
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #73 on: July 29, 2017, 02:25:30 pm »


from the Los Angeles Times....

Pentagon confirms North Korea tested
second ICBM in less than a month


By W.J. HENNIGAN | 4:05PM PDT - Friday, July 28, 2017



NORTH KOREA launched its second intercontinental ballistic missile in less than a month on Friday in a test that indicated remarkable technological progress in the isolated nation's weapons development, Pentagon officials said.

Although the Pentagon had yet to make final assessments, independent defense analysts said the two-stage missile appeared the most powerful that Pyongyang has ever tested.

They estimated that it flew about 45 minutes and soared about 1,850 miles into space before it crashed down in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island.

If that trajectory were flattened out, the analysts said, in theory the missile has the capability for the first time to threaten California and beyond.

President Trump, who has repeatedly warned of the threat from North Korea and made it a foreign policy priority, issued a statement late on Friday expressing, as in the past, objection to the “reckless and dangerous action.”

“The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the regions,” he said.

The missile test — issued from a mobile launcher shortly before midnight, and from a rural site not previously used near the Chinese border — appeared designed to show it would be difficult to shoot down.

“A night launch from an unexpected location” was intended to “show us that we don't have a credible pre-emption option,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons analyst with the nonpartisan James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey.

It was North Korea's 18th missile test this year, placing the nation on a record-setting pace.

General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that “Kim Jong Un and his forces are very good at camouflage concealment and deception.”

He added that Pyongyang has yet to fine-tune its missile guidance and control systems and hasn’t shown the “capacity to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence of success.”

The latest missile was launched from Mupyong-ni in Chagang province, in northern North Korea.

Pyongyang first tested a prototype ICBM, dubbed the Hwasong-14, on July 4th in a flight that lasted 37 minutes, raising alarms that it had achieved a breakthrough in its missile program.

The high arc of the trajectory led U.S. analysts to conclude for the first time that Pyongyang had attained the capability of building a missile that could reach Alaska and possibly Hawaii.

Although Pyongyang has developed and tested nuclear weapons, it is not known to have developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit atop an ICBM or robust enough to survive the missile's fiery re-entry into the atmosphere.

But the string of underground nuclear tests and increasingly sophisticated missile flights have led to concerns it could soon develop the capability to launch a nuclear-armed missile at American military targets in Asia — or even the U.S. mainland.

Given that progress, U.S. intelligence agencies recently cut their projections of how long it would take Pyongyang to build a missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland from four years to one year.

The Pentagon vowed on Friday to defend regional allies and noted that the missile did not threaten North America.

“Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, remains ironclad,” Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in a statement. “We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation.”

General Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, telephoned South Korea's top military official, General Lee Sun Jin, and “expressed the ironclad commitment” to the U.S.-Korean alliance, the Pentagon said in a statement.

“The three leaders also discussed military response options,” the statement said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan called a meeting of his country's National Security Council.

“I have received information that North Korea once again conducted a missile firing,” he said. “We will immediately analyze information and do our utmost to protect the safety of the Japanese people.”

The United Nations Security Council has repeatedly slapped sanctions on North Korea since its first nuclear test in 2006. While the measures have cut the country off from much of the world's economy, they have failed to halt its advances in military know-how.

Congress this week overwhelmingly passed legislation that would place additional sanctions on North Korea, as well as Russia and Iran, and limit the president's ability to ease them. The White House has not said if Trump will sign the bill.


• W.J. Hennigan covers the Pentagon and national security issues from the Los Angeles Times' Washington, D.C., bureau. His defense coverage has taken him through five continents and earned him awards from the National Press Club in 2016 and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation in 2015. Previously, he covered the aerospace and defense industry from Los Angeles, where he was recognized with a California Newspaper Publishers Association award.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Duck and cover 2.0: How North Korea is prompting new efforts to prepare for a nuclear attack


http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-japan-north-korea-missile-20170728-story.html
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
Donald
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
*
Posts: 898



« Reply #74 on: July 29, 2017, 03:11:24 pm »

...wow...unusual for the la times to only report facts...without criticism and solutions....must be the "to hard basket"....of course LA looks to be potentially now within range of a North Korean nuke....imagine all those lefties being incinerated 😜

...Eva been to LA ktj....they say it's very nice this time of year🙄
Report Spam   Logged

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8 ... 10   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Open XNC2 Smileys
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum


Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy
Page created in 0.042 seconds with 14 queries.