Missile Launch – Law Street https://legacy.lawstreetmedia.com Law and Policy for Our Generation Wed, 13 Nov 2019 21:46:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 100397344 Is the U.S. Considering a Military Response to North Korea? https://legacy.lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/world-blogs/u-s-military-response-north-korea/ https://legacy.lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/world-blogs/u-s-military-response-north-korea/#respond Fri, 10 Mar 2017 15:18:26 +0000 https://lawstreetmedia.com/?p=59447

Tensions continue to mount.

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Image Courtesy of Mark Scott Johnson; License: (CC BY 2.0)

In a passing-of-the-torch meeting weeks after the election, President Barack Obama warned then-President-elect Donald Trump of the gravest threat facing America today: North Korea. Not a belligerent China. Not an adventurous Russia. Not terrorism. But North Korea, a tiny, starved nation led by a portly 33-year-old who launches ballistic missiles every now and then. 

A few months after Obama and Trump met, the North Korean threat remains as stark as ever: Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, claims his country will soon have the capacity to strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon; on Monday, North Korea tested four ballistic missiles simultaneously; and China, North Korea’s longtime security blanket, is wavering in its support. As North Korea continues to pursue nuclear weapons capable of striking the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, a dark cloud is slowly expanding over the Korean Peninsula, and the looming threat of potential conflict grows with each passing day.

Missile Tests

For the past year or so, North Korea has been flaunting its military capabilities for all the world to see. It tested a nuclear missile last January, and again in September. It has unleashed a flurry of medium and intermediate-range missile over the past few months. And on Monday, the North sent four missiles east toward Japan; they fell into the Sea of Japan, three of them dropping within the boundaries of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called Monday’s test a “new stage of threat.” According to Abe, he spoke with Trump for 25 minutes to discuss a response to the threat. Last week, the North warned a test was on the horizon: “New strategic weapons of our own style will soar into the sky,” read a piece in the North’s state-run newspaper. Monday’s missile launch was a response to the annual joint-exercise between U.S. and South Korean military forces, a show of force that often draws an aggressive response from the North.

America’s Response

On Wednesday, Nikki Haley, the U.S ambassador to the U.N., said Kim Jong-un is “not a rational person.” Speaking after an emergency U.N. meeting on North Korea, Haley hinted the U.S. might be considering a military response to the North’s latest missives. “All the options are on the table,” she said. Sanctions imposed by the international community, while crippling for North Korea’s economy, have not had much success in reigning in its nuclear program.

The U.S. has already responded more forcefully to the North’s threat, deploying its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system to South Korea months ahead of schedule. Mounted on the back of a truck, Thaad detects incoming missiles and intercepts them mid-air. While the move might placate South Korea’s and Japan’s fears, it has heightened tensions with China, who sees Thaad as a check on its own missile launches.

China’s Response

China, for decades, has been the linchpin to North Korea’s survival. Beijing’s support for Pyongyang could be wavering, however, as it recently announced a year-long freeze on imports of North Korean coal. But while China traditionally responds to North Korean missile launches with a gentle “don’t do that again,” it has yet to show the appetite for anything stronger. On Wednesday, China issued its sternest warning to date, advising the North to cease its missile and nuclear launches in order to “defuse a looming crisis.”

In exchange, however, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi suggested the U.S. and South Korea could end their joint-exercises. Both sides have balked at that suggestion, citing past failures in trying to engage North Korea diplomatically. What happens next is anyone’s guess–will China retaliate for the Thaad deployment? Will South Korea, Japan, and the U.S. preemptively strike North Korea’s nuclear facilities? What Obama told Trump in that private meeting in January may be slowly shifting from prophesy to a concrete global reality.

Alec Siegel
Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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North Korean Missile Reaches Japan’s Air Defense Zone https://legacy.lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/world-blogs/n-korea-submarine-missile-launch/ https://legacy.lawstreetmedia.com/blogs/world-blogs/n-korea-submarine-missile-launch/#respond Wed, 24 Aug 2016 18:53:23 +0000 http://lawstreetmedia.com/?p=55067

For the first time, according to Japan's prime minister.

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With a submarine-based missile launch on Wednesday, North Korea reached dangerous new territory, as the missile breached Japan’s air defense identification zone–a first, according to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The missile, a 9 meter long KN-11, launched from the waters off Sinpo, in North Korea’s South Hamgyong Province. U.S. Pacific Command tracked the missile as traveling 300 miles over the Sea of Japan before falling into the waters below Japanese-controlled airspace.

“If the North Korean regime continues to pursue its nuclear and missile capabilities and ignore severe economic difficulties of its people, it will bring about more severe sanctions and diplomatic isolation. It should also realize that it will hasten its self-destruction,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The KN-11, a missile with a maximum reach of 4,000 kilometers, launched from a submarine at 5:30 a.m. local time, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. It marks the latest in a string of missile launches from the communist country over the past few months. It was not entirely surprising, given the fact that the North said if the annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States occurred (they started Monday), it has a “self-defensive right and justifiable action to respond in a very hard way.”

And given a letter North Korea sent to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, that seems to be what happened. “U.S.-led large-scale joint military exercise in collusion with the South Korean forces despite repeated warnings of the DPRK is a grave military provocation aimed to launch a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK and a challenge to regional peace and stability in every way,” said the letter, referring to the country’s official title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, called the latest missile test “a threat to Japan’s security and an unforgivable reckless act that significantly damages the peace and stability of the region.” And the three most powerful nations in the region agreed on Wednesday to meet to discuss deterring an increasingly adventurous North Korea. At a meeting following the morning launch, the foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea, and China announced a trilateral summit to take place in Japan by the end of the year.

“There are many problems existing between the three countries, but China, Japan, and South Korea are the three biggest economy entities in Asia. It’s our responsibility to promote economic development, lead regional cooperation and maintain regional peace and stability,” said Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister.

Alec Siegel
Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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