South Korea says North fires 7 missiles off east coast

Associated Press
July 4, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

The launches, which came two days after North Korea fired what were believed to be four short-range cruise missiles, will likely further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of the latest U.N. Security Council resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday, a fourth around noon and three more in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said that the missiles were ballistic and are believed to have flown more than 250 miles (400 kilometers).

"Our military is fully ready to counter any North Korean threats and provocations based on strong South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the first three appeared to be Rodong missiles while the rest were an upgraded version of Scud-C missiles, citing intelligence authorities.

The Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report, saying more analysis needs to be done.

Scud-C missiles have a range of up to 300 miles (500 kilometers), which could hit most of South Korea. The Rodong has a range of up to 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), putting most parts of Japan within striking distance. Yonhap said, however, that the range of the Rodong missiles launched Saturday had been reduced.

U.N. resolutions ban North Korea from firing Scuds, medium-range missiles or long-range missiles. Among the U.N. measures is Resolution 1874, passed after North Korea's May 25 nuclear test, that prohibits any launch using ballistic missile technology.

Thursday's cruise missile launches, on the other hand, did not violate the resolution, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry. Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said it was believed North Korea launched cruise missiles Thursday.

Ballistic missiles are guided during their ascent out of the atmosphere but fall freely when they descend. Cruise missiles fly low and straight to their target.

The North has a record of timing its missile tests for U.S. Independence Day, which fell on Saturday.

"The missiles were seen as part of military exercises, but North Korea also appeared to have sent a message to the U.S. through the missile launches," a senior official in South Korea's presidential office said, without elaborating.

The official told The Associated Press that North Korea could fire more missiles in coming days, but said there was little possibility it could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it threatened in April.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Yonhap said North Korea was pulling out personnel from its missile launch site and was allowing ships to sail again in waters off its east coast — an indication of no more missile launches any time soon. Yonhap cited an unidentified military official.

The Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.

The North had initially warned ships to stay away from its east coast through July 10 for military exercises.

But the South Korea-U.S. combined forces command will not change its heightened alert level until tensions are eased, the Defense Ministry said. The command has increased surveillance since May, when the North threatened military strikes on South Korean and U.S. troops.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea.

Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said both political and military reasons were behind the launches.

"I think it's a demonstration of their defiance and rejection of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, for one thing, and to demonstrate their military power capabilities to any potential adversaries," Pinkston said.

He also pointed out that July 4 is not only U.S. Independence Day but also the anniversary of a 1972 joint communique in which the two Koreas agreed to work toward peacefully reunifying their divided peninsula.

During the U.S. Independence Day holiday in 2006, Pyongyang fired a barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 that broke apart and fell into the ocean less than a minute after liftoff. Those launches, which occurred on July 5 in North Korea, also came amid tensions with the U.S. over North Korea's nuclear program.

North Korea's state news agency carried no reports on the launches.

South Korea and Japan, which are within easy range of North Korean missiles, condemned the launches as a "provocative" act that violates the U.N. resolution.

South Korea "expressed deep regret over the North's continuous behavior that escalates tensions in Northeast Asia by repeatedly defying" the resolution, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said in a statement that the launch of missiles "is a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan, and is against the resolution of the U.N Security Council."

In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said he had no immediate comment. China is the North's closest ally.

Well Sgt. I think I had that one pegged like clockwork for a predicitive date!!!
EWS is out again, although the intelligence community is allready having a hayday with it I imagine!
Like I had stated before, Il and his regime are thumbing their middle fingers at America specifically!

Perhaps the semi build launch pads in the North were distractions for our sattelites as the eastern missile barrage was to be set forth instead by Ils regime. They seem to have diverted their missile moovements with hybrid missile technology allowing 800+ miles to gain access to Japan. I am sure with WWII history Japan is not very happy about the events transpiring right now.

Max max1mos111@yahoo.com
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...as/as_nkorea_missile
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday, a fourth around noon and three more in the afternoon. The Defense Ministry said that the missiles were ballistic and are believed to have flown more than 250 miles (400 kilometers).
Scud-C missiles have a range of up to 300 miles (500 kilometers), which could hit most of South Korea. The Rodong has a range of up to 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), putting most parts of Japan within striking distance. Yonhap said, however, that the range of the Rodong missiles launched Saturday had been reduced.

U.N. resolutions ban North Korea from firing Scuds, medium-range missiles or long-range missiles. Among the U.N. measures is Resolution 1874, passed after North Korea's May 25 nuclear test, that prohibits any launch using ballistic missile technology.


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Author Topic: NK fires 7 ballistic missiles on US Independence Day
Sgt_Schlappy
Posted Sat 04 July 2009 06:37 AM
South Korea says North fires 7 missiles off east coast

Associated Press
July 4, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

The launches, which came... (more)

This also occured on the 4th... It would seem the North Koreans were trying to shut off all Early Warning Systems in the US while they were launching missiles at us. War games or not, I consider this an act of war and nuclear proliferation!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...t/us_us_cyber_attack

Government Web sites attacked; NKorea suspected
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print Featured Topics: Barack Obama AP – An employee of Korea Internet Security Center works at a monitoring room in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, …
Play Video North Korea Video:Obama arrives in Italy for G8 summit AFP Play Video North Korea Video:Kim Jong-il makes rare appearance Reuters Play Video North Korea Video:North Korea airs first ever beer commercial KREM.com Spokane/Coeur d'Alene By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer – 22 mins ago
WASHINGTON – A widespread computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of the Treasury Department, the Secret Service and other U.S. agencies, and South Korean government sites also came under assault.

South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korean or pro-Pyongyang forces. U.S. officials so far have refused to publicly discuss details of the attack or where it might have originated.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that its own Web site was among several commercial sites also hit.

The U.S. government sites, which included those of the Federal Trade Commission and the Transportation Department, were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week. South Korean Internet sites began experiencing problems Tuesday.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service, the nation's main spy agency, told a group of South Korean lawmakers Wednesday it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South were behind the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed on the information.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the information. The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy agency — said it couldn't immediately confirm the report, but it said it was cooperating with American authorities.

Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the agency's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a notice to federal departments and other partner organizations about the problems and "advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks."

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack.

Attacks on federal computer networks are common, ranging from nuisance hacking to more serious assaults, sometimes blamed on China. U.S. security officials also worry about cyber attacks from al-Qaida or other terrorists.

This time, two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their Internet service provider to resolve the problem. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

Ben Rushlo, director of Internet technologies at Keynote Systems, said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday.

Keynote Systems is a mobile and Web site monitoring company based in San Mateo, Calif. The company publishes data detailing outages on Web sites, including 40 government sites it watches.

According to Rushlo, the Transportation Web site was "100 percent down" for two days, so that no Internet users could get through to it. The FTC site, meanwhile, started to come back online late Sunday, but even on Tuesday Internet users still were unable to get to the site 70 percent of the time.

Web sites of major South Korean government agencies, including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry, and some banking sites were paralyzed Tuesday. An initial investigation found that many personal computers were infected with a virus ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korea Information Security Agency official Shin Hwa-su said.

___

Associated Press writer Hyung-Jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

hi. im just a civilian ( my son is in the guard deployed at the moment) but my biggest worry is n.korea will launch one of those weapons that detonates in the atmosphere and knocks out our communications. i read about it in the newspaper. van we still defend ourselves against attack if that happens? im sorry but im really scared

Don't worry about those pukes. We are all over the globe witht he finest army on the planet. Do you know why we salute hands down on the brim of our hats or eyebrow? It is because our army in all global wars has never surrendered. If you see foreign soldiers tipping their hat or brow with their hands aimed upwards, it is because their army is disgraced and surendered at one time or another. There is a reason we tip downwards. As a prior vet i can attest. Don't be too afraid of Kim Jung Silly... They should be more concerned if we invade, not vica versa...

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Author Topic: NK fires 7 ballistic missiles on US Independence Day
armymom20096
Posted Wed 08 July 2009 04:18 PM
hi. im just a civilian ( my son is in the guard deployed at the moment) but my biggest worry is n.korea will launch one of those weapons that detonates in the atmosphere and knocks out our communications. i read about it in the newspaper. van we still defend ourselves against attack if that happens? im sorry but im really scared