TMCnet News
U.S. editorial excerpts -6-+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) NEW YORK, June 21_(Kyodo) _ Selected editorial excerpts from the U.S. press: MISSILE DEFENSE TEST (The Wall Street Journal, New York) As we went to press in the U.S. last night, morning was breaking at the Musudan-ri launch facility in the remote northeast of North Korea. It's possible we'll wake up to the news that Pyongyang has tested the long-range ballistic missile that is fully fueled and which U.S. satellites have monitored for more than a month. If so, we hope we'll also learn that the U.S. responded, as defense officials said late yesterday it might, by testing its newly operational missile defense system and blowing the Korean provocation out of the sky. What better way to discourage would-be nuclear proliferators than to demonstrate that the U.S. is able to destroy their missiles before they hit our allies, or the U.S. homeland. Even a miss would be a useful learning experience all around. Consider what's at stake. We've known for years that North Korea has several nuclear weapons at the very least and is developing the missile technology to threaten America. Pyongyang's test missile is believed to be a Taepodong-2. A two-stage version could reach Alaska, Hawaii or the West Coast, according to a study in March by the Center for Nonproliferation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, while a three-stage model could reach all of the continental U.S. North Korea may not yet have the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead -- but then again it may. In any event, it's small comfort that the Taepodong-2 is probably inaccurate. If it misses Seattle, that's not necessarily good news for Tacoma or Portland. The last time North Korea launched a missile that caught the world's attention was in August 1998, when it shot a Taepodong-1 over Japan and into the Pacific. Pyongyang has since tested shorter-range missiles many times, including as recently as March. Its inventory of ballistic missiles totals about 800, including 100-200 Nodongs and Taepodong-1s capable of reaching Japan. North Korea is also developing a land-based mobile missile known as the Taepodong-X, with a range of 4,000 kilometers that could land anywhere in Japan. Missile exports have also long been a major source of foreign exchange for Pyongyang, with customers in Pakistan (whose "Ghauri" missile is a renamed Nodong) and throughout the Middle East. Its longtime best customer is Iran, which last year was reported to have purchased technology that allowed it to extend the range of its Shahab-3 missile to 3,500 kilometers from 1,500. In the blunt words of the German daily Bild last December, "this means that the 'madmen of Iran' could reach targets in the whole of Germany." All of which demonstrates once again the need for the missile defenses that the Bush Administration has steadily been developing. The objective of the integrated system -- which U.S. officials stress is "limited" and still under development -- is to provide a "layered" defense, with multiple opportunities to take shots at an incoming missile. The highly complex system depends on swift coordination among elements based on land, at sea, and in the air or space. The emerging missile defense system is making that less true, and a North Korean test launch is an ideal time to demonstrate that we are willing and able to defend ourselves. (June 21) |