North Korea Saga - Chapter 3

Things are heating up very quickly between North Korea, Japan, and U.S. We will see what will happen in a few days because the rocket is being fueled which means that after it is completed, the rocket can be fired three to four days after that.

1. President Barack Obama warned the liftoff would be a "provocative act" that would generate a U.N. Security Council response, but North Korea's military threatened those who opposed the launch with a "thunderbolt of fire" if they interfered.
2. A Korean Central News Agency report made a veiled threat against the U.S. In an apparent reference to American warships that have reportedly set sail to monitor the launch, the Korean-language version of the report said: "The United States should immediately withdraw armed forces deployed if it does not want to receive damage."
3. An unidentified senior U.S. military official said Pyongyang has started to fuel the rocket, a move that indicates final preparations for the launch. Experts say the missile can be fired about three to four days after fueling begins.
4. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted unidentified officials as saying the North had moved a squadron of MiG-23 fighter jets to a base near the launch site in what appeared to be a response to Japan's deployment. Seoul's Defense Ministry declined to confirm the reports.
5. An English version said the U.S. forces could be hit in a retaliatory strike against Japan.
6. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the North to reconsider the launch, saying: "There will obviously be consequences if they do proceed with this."
7. The North countered with its own warnings against any efforts to intercept the rocket, take the issue to the Security Council or even monitor the launch. It says its armed forces are at a high level of combat-readiness.
8. "If Japan imprudently carries out an act of intercepting our peaceful satellite, our people's army will hand a thunderbolt of fire to not only interceptor means already deployed, but also key targets," said a report Thursday by the North's official Korean Central News Agency that quoted the general staff of its military.
9. In what appeared to be a reference to American warships that have reportedly set sail to monitor the launch, the Korean-language version of the KCNA report said: "The United States should immediately withdraw armed forces deployed if it does not want to receive damage."
10. In Washington, U.S. lawmakers are urging Obama to shoot down the rocket if it endangers the United States or its allies. But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a TV interview aired Sunday that the U.S. had no plans to intercept the rocket but might consider it if an "aberrant missile" were headed to Hawaii "or something like that."

 

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