North Korea Missile Launches Detected

[Unchainme]

July 4, 2006 — North Korea launched three missiles today, including one believed to be the long-range Taepodong-2, which is believed to be capable of reaching U.S. soil, sources told ABC News.

The first two missiles launched appeared to be short- or mid-range missiles, but it appeared that the third — which broke up shortly after it launched — was a longer range missile, sources said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said North Korea had launched three missiles, but he could not confirm whether the Taepodong-2 was among the weapons tested.

The launches of the first two missiles were detected by NORAD — the North American Aerospace Defense Command — sources told ABC News.

The first launch occurred around 2:30 p.m. ET, and the second came at around 3 p.m., the sources said.

Both of those launches were tracked and determined completely incapable of coming anywhere close to the United States, though one source told ABC News the government could not say where the missiles had landed.

A Japanese government official said North Korea seemed to launched three missiles, the first two a half-hour apart and the third coming an hour later, and all three landed in the Sea of Japan.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2153034

[jcook11]

WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[blueturk]

Originally posted by jcook11
WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No we're not! We got Saddam! That's all that matters!

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by frets5150
North Korea Test-Launches Multiple Missiles
By ERIC TALMADGE, AP
TOKYO (July 4) - A defiant North Korea test-fired a long-range missile Wednesday that may be capable of reaching America, but it failed seconds after launch, officials said. The North also tested five shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House called "provocative" but not an immediate threat.

Ignoring stern U.S. and Japanese warnings, the isolated communist nation carried out the audacious military tests even as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July and launched the space shuttle.

None of the missiles made it as far as Japan, all crashing into the Sea of Japan separating the island from the Korean Peninsula, officials said.

"We do consider it provocative behavior," U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.

Both Japan and South Korea protested. Japan called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting. South Korea said the tests would further deepen its neighbor's international isolation.

"We will take stern measures," said chief Japanese government spokesman Shinzo Abe, adding that economic sanctions were a possibility. He said the launch violated a longstanding moratorium, and that Tokyo was not given prior notification by Pyongyang.

The U.S. administration reacted quickly but made it clear that its response would not involve military action.

President Bush consulted with Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The State Department said Rice conferred with her counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

"It wasn't that he (the president) was surprised because we've seen this coming for a while," Hadley said. "I think his instinct is that this just shows the defiance of the international community by North Korea."

He said the long-range missile was the Taepodong-2, which failed 35 seconds after launch. Experts believe the missile - North Korea's most advanced with a range of up to 9,320 miles - could reach the United States with a light payload.

The State Department said the smaller missiles includes Scuds, which could target South Korea, and Rodongs, which has a range of about 620 miles and could target Japan.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported as many as 10 missiles may have been launched, but officials could not confirm that.

The launch came after weeks of speculation that the North was preparing to test the Taepodong-2 from a site on its northeast coast. U.S. and Japanese officials said six missiles were fired in all, launched over a four-hour period beginning about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday (2:30 p.m. Tuesday EDT).

Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command - which monitors the skies for threats to North American security - went on heightened alert, said NORAD spokesman Michael Kucharek.

"The safety of our people and resources is our top priority," Kucharek said.

If the timing is correct, the North Korean missiles were launched within minutes of Tuesday's liftoff of Discovery, which blasted into orbit from Cape Canaveral in the first U.S. space shuttle launch in a year.

Hadley suggested the tests might have been an attempt to grab the international spotlight.

"It's very difficult to know what the North Koreans think they are doing this for," Hadley said. "Obviously, it is a bit of an effort to get attention, perhaps because so much attention has been focused on the Iranians."

North Korea's missile program is based on Scud technology provided by the former Soviet Union or Egypt, according to American and South Korean officials. North Korea started its Rodong-1 missile project in the late 1980s and test-fired the missile for the first time in 1993.

North Korea had observed a moratorium on long-range missile launches since 1999. It shocked the world in 1998 by firing a Taepodong missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

On Monday, the North's main news agency quoted an unidentified newspaper analyst as saying Pyongyang was prepared to answer a U.S. military attack with "a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war."

The Bush administration responded by saying while it had no intention of attacking, it was determined to protect the United States if North Korea launched a long-range missile.

On Monday, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns warned North Korea against firing the missile and urged the communist country to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

The six-party talks, suspended by North Korea, involved negotiations by the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia with Pyongyang over the country's nuclear program.

The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan have taken quick steps over the past week to strengthen their missile defenses. Washington and Tokyo are working on a joint missile-defense shield, and South Korea is considering the purchase of American SM-2 defensive missiles for its destroyers.

The U.S. and North Korea have been in a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program since 2002. The North claims to have produced nuclear weapons, but that claim has not been publicly verified by outside analysts.

While public information on North Korea's military capabilities is murky, experts doubt that the regime has managed to develop a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on its long-range missiles.

Nonetheless, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told U.S. lawmakers last week that officials took the potential launch reports seriously and were looking at the full range of capabilities possessed by North Korea.

AP reporters Larry Margasak and Ann Gearan in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.


07/04/06 22:18 EDT

[Big Train]

The thing fell out of the sky, as did the two Scuds..

[Panamark]

Fuckers could probably reach us.. (Australia)

[Panamark]

If they ever progress past rubber band launched missiles..

[LoungeMachine]

Can't fathom a reason anyone would want to ever nuke Australia......




Except maybe revenge for those Crocodile Dundee movies.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by jcook11
WE'RE ALL GONNA FUCKING DIE
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

You first.

[Big Train]

Economy must be getting really bad in Korea if Kim is cranking the Anti-America deal up to warp speed.

[Panamark]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Can't fathom a reason anyone would want to ever nuke Australia......

A lot of Muslims and Arabs dont like us anymore coz we
joined up with you guys...

Isnt PongPong (or whatever his fookin name is) a muslim ??

[LoungeMachine]

Doubt Kim Jong Il is muslim, but I could be wrong.


Paul Hogan might be, though

[jcook11]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
You first.

You're really on tonight there Kobayashi

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Panamark
A lot of Muslims and Arabs dont like us anymore coz we
joined up with you guys...

For the record.....by "you guys", you are refering to the fascist Neo-Con Administration that came into power via a coup in 2000, and has continued this Country's slide into hell.

A Majority of us Yanks are opposed to this administration and it's foreign policies.

[Panamark]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
For the record.....by "you guys", you are refering to the fascist Neo-Con Administration that came into power via a coup in 2000, and has continued this Country's slide into hell.

A Majority of us Yanks are opposed to this administration and it's foreign policies.

Im referring to the armies of people that gave a fuck about 9/11

[jcook11]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
For the record.....by "you guys", you are refering to the fascist Neo-Con Administration that came into power via a coup in 2000, and has continued this Country's slide into hell.

A Majority of us Yanks are opposed to this administration and it's foreign policies.

"Bitterman party of one, your table is ready"

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Panamark
Im referring to the armies of people that gave a fuck about 9/11

Ahh....

For a moment there I thought you were talking about Iraq

[Panamark]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Doubt Kim Jong Il is muslim, but I could be wrong.


Paul Hogan might be, though

Hey I was walking through his old workplace yesterday.
No Shit, we were on the lookout tower on the Sydney Harbour
Bridge. He used to be a rigger on the bridge.. Crazy Bastard !
Not a job for those who fear heights.

He's no Muslim. Im not even sure the dude's ever been in a
church..

[Panamark]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine
Ahh....

For a moment there I thought you were talking about Iraq

No.. They should pull all our troops out of there now.
No doubt... Fookin crazy...

[LoungeMachine]

Not to get off the topic of NK Crazies and their "Failure to Launch" fiasco.......but.......


This just in:


Australia's other war in Iraq
Richard Baker
July 3, 2006


The Howard Government used Australia's support for the US in Iraq as a bargaining chip to protect the multibillion-dollar wheat trade with Baghdad.

Documents seen by The Age detail how Australia privately feared the US would muscle in on Australia's dominant trading position with Saddam Hussein's regime.

They show that more than six months before the outbreak of war, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer suggested that military support for the US in Iraq would benefit Australia's commercial position. Once war had broken out, he was concerned that the US would use American deaths in battle as a justification for seizing Australia's wheat trade.

At a meeting in August 2002 in Mr Downer's Canberra office, Prime Minister John Howard, senior Government officials and executives from wheat exporter AWB discussed the outlook for Australia's sales after Saddam. These sales had been envied by the influential US wheat lobby for years.

Documents seen by The Age reveal that an idea was floated at the meeting whereby Australia would provide military support for the US on the condition its wheat trade with Iraq was protected. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade record of conversation shows Mr Downer suggested Australian support for the US would benefit "Australia's commercial position in Iraq" in the event of regime change.

In the lead-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Australian Government tried desperately to strike a deal with the US. Documents show Mr Downer raised Australia's wheat trade with then US secretary of state Colin Powell at least three times. He also discussed it with his deputy, Richard Armitage.

In one dispatch a Foreign Affairs official reported Mr Downer telling Mr Powell words to the effect that the US could "forget Aussie support in future" if America flooded Iraq with wheat after the war.

Mr Downer stipulated that his request for Australia's Iraq sales to be protected be formally recorded in the minutes of his meetings with Mr Powell. Senior Australian embassy officials in Washington were instructed to press the wheat issue at every opportunity.

Once war began, wheat was never far from the Government's mind. On March 24, 2003, Mr Downer and senior AusAID officials met then AWB chief Andrew Lindberg at Parliament House to discuss the impact of war on wheat sales to Iraq.

A record of conversation shows Mr Downer's "prime concern" was the US concluding that "its sacrifices on the battlefield entitled its farmers to the Iraqi wheat market".

"He was sure the US well understood that Australians would go 'feral' if the US was seen to steal our wheat market, though he felt it unlikely that we could avoid losing a portion of it," the Foreign Affairs document records the minister as saying.

To limit the loss of market share to the US, Australia needed to demonstrate to the Iraqis that it was still the best country to serve its wheat needs, despite its declaration of war.

Mr Downer said it would be "extremely important symbolically" if Australian wheat was the first cargo unloaded in postwar Iraq. He said the Government had announced the provision of 100,000 tonnes of wheat for Iraq because the US planned to provide 500,000 tonnes.

"Mr Downer said he would be delighted if the first ship to enter Iraq in the wake of hostilities was carrying Australian wheat — particularly if it was escorted by HMAS Anzac," the note said.

Mr Lindberg said the US would not be able to ship wheat to Iraq for at least 25 days. AusAID deputy director-general Charles Spratt confirmed that rival agency USAID "had nothing in the pipeline".

But once hostilities ended and the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority tried to establish control, it appeared the Government's stomach for a wheat war was diminishing.

In early 2004, the AWB executive seconded to the CPA, Darryl Hockey, told the Government that US officials and wheat lobbyists were trying to persuade the Iraqis to change their wheat specifications to suit American grain and disadvantage Australia's product.

Mr Hockey advised Foreign Affairs official Zena Armstrong that unless a senior US representative on the CPA agreed to let the Iraqis decide the specifications and investigate the attempt to influence the Iraqis, Australia might "have to elevate this to the diplomatic level". The Government's response was to request a "level playing field".

In Iraq, it was becoming increasingly clear that the US was doing all it could to take over the wheat market. Foreign Affairs bureaucrat Lachlan Crews reported the "most heat" for investigations into the oil-for-food program, which was heavily corrupted by AWB, was coming from "Bush radicals and appointees".

Early this year, the Iraqi Government announced it would no longer deal with AWB. Trade Minister Mark Vaile led a mission to Baghdad and eventually Iraq bought some wheat from the Wheat Australia group. But it was at such a low price that AWB has refused to supply it with any more wheat.








We now bring you your regularly scheduled thread topic....

[Panamark]

So you guys went after the oil, we went after the wheat ???

LOL.....

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Panamark
So you guys went after the oil, we went after the wheat ???

LOL.....

And everyone got the Shaft.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine



Documents seen by The Age detail how Australia privately feared the US would muscle in on Australia's dominant trading position with Saddam Hussein's regime.

They show that more than six months before the outbreak of war, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer suggested that military support for the US in Iraq would benefit Australia's commercial position. Once war had broken out, he was concerned that the US would use American deaths in battle as a justification for seizing Australia's wheat trade.

Jeezuz


Doesn't do much to shoot down the "war is business" argument, now does it?


Interesting that the Aussies were already calculating wheat futures in a war torn Iraq, 6 months before the war.

6 days before the war Bush himself was denying we were even going to war...


Cunt you sell all this Aussie Wheat to NK in exchange for them not nuking you?

I like a good hum bow


[ who here even knew the aussies were such wheat merchants?]

If their hops are any measure [Foster's sucks], it might not be very good wheat.

[bobgnote]

Originally posted by Panamark
So you guys went after the oil, we went after the wheat ???

LOL.....

Hella, HELLAH g'day.

The 10/1/05 Bali attack was directed at Aussies on holiday, to the GREEN DAY standard, to be awakened on THAT day, as a reminder of the historic, Pacific Theatre Playhouse event, MARIANAS TURKEY SHOOT, an American aviation thingy, for your pleasure, though meaty and bouncy, like meatballs everywhere and at the ripoff WHO show.

You have camels in your outback, US in your arse. Divest the US. Be thankful. Or be dead, by Thanksgiving, 2008.

This is my usual opionion. Xena and other Oz is good TV, keep it up.

Note Xena looks like Fox's Kim Gulifoyle, Bridget Quinn, and somebody banged up a bindle, down under, radiated it, and it was XENA. Note Lucy Liu Fu's Lawless suggests the SF Co. DA roots, of Mouseketeer Kim G, Fox News. Your Murdoch, our intrigue, his retained earnings, you get to smoke him OUT, when the time comes.

Or die like rats in a roast. You face modern cruise missiles, IEDS for now, but eventually tube and runway cruise missiles, OVER ISRAEL AND THE US AND UK, which you need to lead, since Canada is twits, now, selling us our natural gas and some of our drugs and hockey, like sucks, inc.

Leaves you in Oz, to make a play, or die in 2008-2013, like GW plans and Murdoch better not neglect.

I recommend a betting man's dilemma, for any Fox News persons, caught out of position. On challenge, the newsie gets her shirt off, for Chertoff, her PANTS OFF, if she cannot shut the hell up or him up.

The faggots keep putting my Fox threads et al in the dump, maybe you can get them to cut that out, leave 'em in FRONTLINE.

I address stuff like this, so we can committe issues, without faggots, or with them, if they do not act up. But US is faggots, you just got married to a female, I presume, so WHAT IN FUCKING HELL ARE YOU AUSSIES ALL BUGGERED UP WITH FAGGOT DOLLARS, FOR?

The NK missiles can hit you, so what, you are already in range of those, secretly in service, AROUND THE WORLD. What is liable to happen is the new cruise configurations will pop up, since the NK names, like Taepodong-2, will be interesting, when new US ordinance shows up, already in service, 2006, that was illegally configured as at least ONE smart bomb, already, that is destined as a general shape, that will rule the world, WITH OR WITHOUT THE UGLY USA.

With or without any FAGGOTS, who hang out. With or without GW Asshat, shave or NO shave. When any of the new shapes, ALREADY BUISTED IN AS TOYS OR OTHER ORDINANCE, you are dead, in Oz, for hanging out with the USA, just because you can fight AND DIE, like Catholics, which we have too many of in the USA AND in OZ.

Any questions? The sooner you tag out of the match and leave the auditorium (see Jun the JP-PM, Elvis impersonator? Ervis have reft the buirding!!) JP infrastructure will take funding, US and YOU can rot, since the white Catholic trash are cheating at media, here and there.

OR, you can get more po-right-on with something LEFT, basubaru-san.

Nukes and missiles are like BASEBALL. We have it, you have it, JP won the tourney, this year. Little bro has a toy. You say he shouldna? Do you BELIEVE you can take it, from him?

It was only a celebratory shot, the US needs to worry about, ONLY BECAUSE IT PORTENDS USE OF HAZMAT FIREWORKS, ON SOME FUTURE JULY 4TH ANTI-HOLIDAY, also the Battle of Hattin, 1187, if you are not too stupified to note the US may get knocked or nuked, in 2007, that day, 2008, even more likely!

[jcook11]

Originally posted by bobgnote
Hella, HELLAH g'day.

The 10/1/05 Bali attack was directed at Aussies on holiday, to the GREEN DAY standard, to be awakened on THAT day, as a reminder of the historic, Pacific Theatre Playhouse event, MARIANAS TURKEY SHOOT, an American aviation thingy, for your pleasure, though meaty and bouncy, like meatballs everywhere and at the ripoff WHO show.

You have camels in your outback, US in your arse. Divest the US. Be thankful. Or be dead, by Thanksgiving, 2008.

This is my usual opionion. Xena and other Oz is good TV, keep it up.

Note Xena looks like Fox's Kim Gulifoyle, Bridget Quinn, and somebody banged up a bindle, down under, radiated it, and it was XENA. Note Lucy Liu Fu's Lawless suggests the SF Co. DA roots, of Mouseketeer Kim G, Fox News. Your Murdoch, our intrigue, his retained earnings, you get to smoke him OUT, when the time comes.

Or die like rats in a roast. You face modern cruise missiles, IEDS for now, but eventually tube and runway cruise missiles, OVER ISRAEL AND THE US AND UK, which you need to lead, since Canada is twits, now, selling us our natural gas and some of our drugs and hockey, like sucks, inc.

Leaves you in Oz, to make a play, or die in 2008-2013, like GW plans and Murdoch better not neglect.

I recommend a betting man's dilemma, for any Fox News persons, caught out of position. On challenge, the newsie gets her shirt off, for Chertoff, her PANTS OFF, if she cannot shut the hell up or him up.

The faggots keep putting my Fox threads et al in the dump, maybe you can get them to cut that out, leave 'em in FRONTLINE.

I address stuff like this, so we can committe issues, without faggots, or with them, if they do not act up. But US is faggots, you just got married to a female, I presume, so WHAT IN FUCKING HELL ARE YOU AUSSIES ALL BUGGERED UP WITH FAGGOT DOLLARS, FOR?

The NK missiles can hit you, so what, you are already in range of those, secretly in service, AROUND THE WORLD. What is liable to happen is the new cruise configurations will pop up, since the NK names, like Taepodong-2, will be interesting, when new US ordinance shows up, already in service, 2006, that was illegally configured as at least ONE smart bomb, already, that is destined as a general shape, that will rule the world, WITH OR WITHOUT THE UGLY USA.

With or without any FAGGOTS, who hang out. With or without GW Asshat, shave or NO shave. When any of the new shapes, ALREADY BUISTED IN AS TOYS OR OTHER ORDINANCE, you are dead, in Oz, for hanging out with the USA, just because you can fight AND DIE, like Catholics, which we have too many of in the USA AND in OZ.

Any questions? The sooner you tag out of the match and leave the auditorium (see Jun the JP-PM, Elvis impersonator? Ervis have reft the buirding!!) JP infrastructure will take funding, US and YOU can rot, since the white Catholic trash are cheating at media, here and there.

OR, you can get more po-right-on with something LEFT, basubaru-san.

Nukes and missiles are like BASEBALL. We have it, you have it, JP won the tourney, this year. Little bro has a toy. You say he shouldna? Do you BELIEVE you can take it, from him?

It was only a celebratory shot, the US needs to worry about, ONLY BECAUSE IT PORTENDS USE OF HAZMAT FIREWORKS, ON SOME FUTURE JULY 4TH ANTI-HOLIDAY, also the Battle of Hattin, 1187, if you are not too stupified to note the US may get knocked or nuked, in 2007, that day, 2008, even more likely!

Can you ever finish a thought without the words faggot or ******? Were you beaten as a child by a homosexual black person. You never pick on the spics gooks or kikes....how come?

[Seshmeister]

Just like Iraq you have a basket case fuckup of a country now being set up as a threat to the US or the UK.

What a fucking joke. The missile didn't even fucking work and couldn't carry any nuke they might have.

It's all about FEAR FEAR FEAR.

Without the USSR we need to have bogeymen invented.

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
Just like Iraq you have a basket case fuckup of a country now being set up as a threat to the US or the UK.

What a fucking joke. The missile didn't even fucking work and couldn't carry any nuke they might have.

It's all about FEAR FEAR FEAR.

Without the USSR we need to have bogeymen invented.

I'm not riddled with fear, are you?

The fact is that it took well over an hour for them to even say anything about it in the media...it would only take 45 minute's for a TP-2 to reach Chicago, if it worked that is.

So, why fear it?
Is fear gonna save anyone?

Nope

It does sound like a good time for the Serenity Prayer....but you're not the prayin' kind, eh Sesh.
Maybe you should be afraid in that case, huh?

[Seshmeister]

The only people you need to worry about are the religious nuts.

North Korea aren't superstitious so aren't going to attack anyone.

It's called a nuclear deterent and worked just fine for 40 years.

[thome]

Anyone know how to contact the United Nations are they not on this?
What's the UN , Take, on all this?
Oh wait, nevermind thier policy on real matters is to let GW and the US
make all the real -Hard -decisions and then blame GW when things
get tough or escalate .

Does every country in the world have a inalienable rite to -The Nuke-
just because they exist with soveriegnty.?

Should the UN be all up inside Korea on this matter.?

[Full Bug]

[frets5150]

North Korea Vows to Continue Missile Tests
Russia, China Oppose Sanctions at United Nations

SEOUL, South Korea (July 6) - North Korea on Thursday publicly acknowledged for the first time that it had tested missiles and vowed to continue launching them, threatening to "take stronger physical actions" against opponents of the tests.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry issued its statement through the state-run Korean Central News Agency one day after the country test-fired at least seven missiles, including an abortive launch of a long-range Taepodong-2. All the missiles apparently fell harmlessly into the Sea of Japan, but the launches drew international condemnation.

Japan, backed by the U.S. and Britain, circulated a U.N. Security Council resolution in New York on Wednesday that would ban any country from transferring funds, material and technology that could be used in North Korea's missile and weapons of mass destruction programs.

But North Korea said the missile launches were part of its military's regular drills to strengthen self-defense, and it had a legal right to carry them out.

"Our military will continue with missile launch drills in the future as part of efforts to strengthen self-defense deterrent. If anyone intends to dispute or add pressure about this, we will have to take stronger physical actions in other forms," the statement said, without elaborating.

Major South Korean newspapers reported Thursday that North Korea has three or four more missiles on launch pads ready to be fired. The North also barred people from sailing into some areas off the coast until July 11 in a possible sign of preparations for additional launches, said Chosun Ilbo, one of South Korea's largest dailies.

"There is a possibility that North Korea will fire additional missiles," South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as telling lawmakers, citing images of equipment going in and out of the launch sites.

The missiles are either short- or medium-range, Chosun Ilbo reported. Japan said there were no immediate signs of another attempt to launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile.

On Wednesday, splits emerged among the critics of the North's testing program.

China and Russia resisted Japan's attempt in the Security Council to impose sanctions against North Korea, saying only diplomacy could halt the isolated regime's nuclear and rocket development programs. China, the North's closest ally, and Russia, which has been trying to re-establish Soviet-era ties with Pyongyang, said they favor a weaker council statement without any threat of sanctions. Both countries hold veto power in the council, making sanctions unlikely.

China and Russia are clearly concerned that a U.N. demand for such measures would only delay a return to six-party talks aimed at persuading the country to abandon its nuclear program. China and Russia are part of the talks along with North and South Korea, the United States and Japan.

In a possible sign that Moscow's and Beijing's position may carry the day, President Bush addressed the issue in a subdued manner without the harsh warnings that he had issued as recently as last week when he said that a missile launch would be unacceptable.

Bush said Wednesday that the failure of North Korea's long-range missile test does not lessen the need to push the communist regime to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Bush spoke by phone to Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and they agreed to cooperate in pushing for a U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea, officials said. The president also spoke to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and they agreed to cooperate on diplomacy, a South Korean official said.

"One thing we have learned is that the rocket didn't stay up for very long," Bush said about the Taepodong-2 missile that failed 42 seconds after liftoff Tuesday. "It tumbled into the sea."

"It doesn't diminish my desire to solve this problem," he said in Washington.

In its statement, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said the launches were unrelated to the six-party talks, and that Pyongyang was still committed to the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The statement accused the U.S. of being hostile to the communist regime, and blamed Washington for blocking progress at the talks with its financial restrictions.

"Under these conditions, it is clear to every one that there is no need for us to hold off on missile launches," it said.

The failure of the Taepodong-2 missile - the object of intense international attention for more than a month - suggested a catastrophic failure of the rocket's first, or booster, stage. A working version of the intercontinental missile could potentially reach the United States with a light payload. The North also fired six shorter-range missiles on Wednesday

Tokyo responded swiftly by barring North Korean officials from traveling to Japan, and banned one of its trading boats from entering Japanese waters for six months.

In South Korea, separated from the North by the world's most heavily armed border, officials said the tests would affect inter-Korean initiatives such as the dispatch of food and fertilizer from the South to the North, but stressed that diplomacy was the best way to solve the crisis.

Lee Jong-seok told the National Assembly in a hearing Thursday that Cabinet-level meetings between the two Koreas scheduled for next week should go ahead, and that Seoul would press ahead with cross-border projects with North Korea.

Both Japan and South Korea are within range of North Korean missiles.

The Security Council held an emergency session at Japan's request, and council experts met late Wednesday for about 1{ hours to discuss the draft resolution. Experts will meet again Thursday morning and council ambassadors may then meet in the afternoon to review progress, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.

The draft resolution proposed by Japan and obtained by The Associated Press would condemn North Korea's ballistic missile launches and deplore its role as "the world's leading proliferator of ballistic missiles and related technology." It would demand that Pyongyang immediately halt "the development, testing, deployment and proliferation of ballistic missiles and reconfirm its moratorium on missile launching."

If approved, the council would strongly urge North Korea to return immediately to the six-party talks "without precondition" and stop all nuclear-related activities with the aim of completely dismantling its nuclear programs, including both plutonium reprocessing and uranium enrichment.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya and Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin both noted that after North Korea shocked Japan in August 1998 by blasting a Taepodong-1 missile over its territory and into the Pacific Ocean, the Security Council reacted merely with a press statement.

Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima called Wednesday's launches "far more serious."

North Korea's "possible combination of nuclear weapons with missile development and testing" is unacceptable and requires "quick, strong action" by the Security Council, he said.

Churkin said that while "a strong and clear message is needed to North Korea," the goal should be a resumption of six-party talks, which have been suspended since last September, and a diplomatic solution.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the council must send a "strong and unanimous signal" that North Korea's missile test-launch was unacceptable.

The initial council discussion "was very interesting because no member defended what the North Koreans have done," he said. "I think there is support for sending a clear signal to Pyongyang."

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.


AP-NY-07-06-06 0303EDT

Yeah that Saddam was a real threat

[DEMON CUNT]

More results of the Bush Administration's foreign policies! If you voted for Bush YOU VOTED FOR THIS!

While the US spends MILLION$ in Iraq this crazy fucker has been building weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile neocons still unable to recognize irony in any form.


Thank you Mr. Bush!

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
The only people you need to worry about are the religious nuts.

North Korea aren't superstitious so aren't going to attack anyone.

It's called a nuclear deterent and worked just fine for 40 years.

Or any nut for that matter, oh, much like Kim Jong Il as a matter of fact.
Truth is, Sesh, that North Korea has always been a closed society...so there actually is no way of guaging whether they are superstitious or not. And the civillian population knows only what they are allowed to know.

Right now they are just making noise, putting on a show...but what if they don't get what they want?
I'm assuming you're a father now and have learned at this point what a tantrum is all about when the Lil' Sesh doesn't get its way.

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by DEMON CUNT
More results of the Bush Administration's foreign policies! If you voted for Bush YOU VOTED FOR THIS!

While the US spends MILLION$ in Iraq this crazy fucker has been building weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile neocons still unable to recognize irony in any form.


Thank you Mr. Bush!

BULLSHIT!!!!

Anyone who has voted in America since WWII voted for this. America's Foreign Policy has always been fucked up, you can't lay 60 years of failed policy at the feet of one Administration unless you have a really good pair of blinder's on.

FYI: North Korea has been working on a Nuke program since Clinton was in office, which was what, the mid 90's?

I've seen enough Independant films from over there to know what i'm talking about.
The whole reason we have a problem with muslims stems from decades of American Foreign Policy in the Middle East, and our association with Isreal.

If you believe anything else then it's time to remove the blinder's.

I can't stand Bush, but i know enough history to know that the problem is American Foreign Policy as a whole, NOT just a Conservative Foreign Policy as some Democrat's would like people to believe.

But, it is an election year, so whatever gets the votes, eh?

[DEMON CUNT]

Originally posted by Cathedral
...

I can't stand Bush, but i know enough history to know that the problem is American Foreign Policy as a whole, NOT just a Conservative Foreign Policy as some Democrat's would like people to believe.

...

MMM, that's some delicious Kondoleezza Kool Aid!

Bonus points for scapegoating Clinton!

[Seshmeister]

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by DEMON CUNT


MMM, that's some delicious Kondoleezza Kool Aid!

Bonus points for scapegoating Clinton!

Scapegoating?
Tell me, Demon Cunt, when did the North Korean's begin their Nuke Program?
When did they launch their first test missile, Demon Cunt?

I'm not scapegoating a damn thing, that would be you thinking that every problem began in 2000.

Let's put it this way, our foreign policy has been flawed since we dropped Fat Man and Little Boy on Japan.

And in that time not one Democrat OR Republican has done anything to alter the World Police mentallity of our government.

Somebody best be checking what's in their cup, but it isn't me.

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by DEMON CUNT
If you voted for Bush YOU VOTED FOR THIS!

yeah, ok...

[Seshmeister]

World police bullshit.

The mentality has been a backdoor empire by bullying weaker countries to gain economic advantages.

[Seshmeister]

THe US has troops in over 100 countries to help 'police' them in whose interests exactly?