North Korea’s military threatened yesterday to attack “major targets” in Japan if Tokyo tries to shoot down a satellite it intends to launch as soon as this weekend.
“If Japan recklessly ‘intercepts’ the DPRK’s [North’s] satellite for peaceful purposes, the KPA [Korean People’s Army] will mercilessly deal deadly blows not only at the already deployed intercepting means but at major targets,” said a statement from the KPA.
Pyongyang insists that no one has the right to block its plan to launch a communications satellite between April 4 and April 8, as part of what it calls a space program.
The North has begun fuelling its rocket in a sign it could be in the final stages of a launch as early as this weekend, CNN quoted a senior US military official as saying. There was no immediate confirmation.
The US and its Asian allies say the North, which has staged two previous long-range missile launches, wants a pretext to test a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile.
Japan and the US have deployed missile-hunting Aegis destroyers to monitor the launch. South Korea has reportedly also sent an Aegis warship.
Tokyo has additionally deployed Patriot guided-missile units on land, and says it will try to bring down the rocket should it start fall toward Japanese territory.
The KPA general staff, in a statement on official media, told the US “to immediately withdraw its already deployed armed forces if it does not wish to be hurt by the above-said strike.”
The North has previously warned that any interception will mean war.
Recent satellite photos appear to confirm the North has indeed mounted a satellite atop the missile and not a dummy warhead, US experts say.
But South Korea, Japan and the US say it doesn’t matter what is on top of the rocket — any launch would breach a UN resolution passed after the North’s 2006 missile launches and underground nuclear test.
South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee and his US counterpart, Robert Gates, held phone talks yesterday and agreed to respond “firmly” to any launch, the defence ministry said.
South Korea is “actively considering” taking a full part in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) if the launch goes ahead, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
The initiative aims to halt ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction and related materials.
The North’s Minju Joson newspaper said any decision by Seoul to join PSI would amount to a “declaration of war.”
Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said the North has moved a MiG-23 squadron to the northeast, where the Musudan-ri launch site is located. On Wednesday Pyongyang threatened to shoot down US spy planes monitoring the site.
South Korea and Japan have agreed to push for a new UN Security Council resolution against North Korea if the launch goes ahead, a senior Seoul official was quoted by Yonhap as saying.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS