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Are we at the brink of war with North Korea?
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According to an analysis by Japan’s Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites, North Korea is preparing a Taepodong-2 missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles and would launch it from North Korea’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast. Based on this intelligence, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday that North Korea might fire its most advanced ballistic missile towards either Japan’s Okinawa island, Guam or Hawaii around the Fourth of July holiday.
The Pentagon is concerned about the possibility of a North Korean missile launch in the direction of Hawaii, so Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the military’s ground-based mobile missile system to Hawaii and positioned a radar system nearby. The Terminal Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, coupled with the radar system, is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles in their last stage of flight.
The missile launch threat comes at a time when the U.S. military is tracking a ship from North Korea suspected of carrying illicit weapons. It is the first vessel monitored under tougher new United Nations rules meant to rein in and punish the authoritarian regime for its recent provocations. The North has said that it would consider any interception of its ships at sea as an act of war.
If the North launches a missile towards Hawaii, it would be a declaration of war, and the U.S. would have no choice but to respond with military action. If we don’t, we would seem weak, and the North would be more emboldened to take further actions. In fact, they already feel emboldened, because so far in response to their provocative actions, the Obama administration has only responded with rhetoric. They test nukes, and the Obama expresses grave concern. They sentence two journalists to 12 years in a labor camp, and again he’s again concerned. The North clearly does not care how “concerned” we are. We really need to get beyond the rhetoric to take some specific actions to show them that our words have teeth and that they must suffer consequences for their provocative and reckless actions.
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