Newspaper says N. Korean missile pieces found in Alaska adn.com
[ couple followups. What legs there are to this one seem pretty weak. Story 1, in full, it's short: ]
Officials puzzled, say closest one splashed down hundreds of miles off coast
By Tom Kizzia, Anchorage Daily News (Published: March 5, 2003)
An unsubstantiated report from South Korea on Tuesday, claiming fragments of a North Korea missile warhead had been found in Alaska, left state, federal and military officials here puzzled.
The Korea Times, a major Korean newspaper, said a delegation from South Korea's National Assembly had released a new report on the region's current showdown over nuclear weapons and missiles. The newspaper quoted a former Japanese foreign minister's words in the report that "the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska."
The Japanese official, Tara Nakayama, cited a U.S. document as his source.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Tuesday he's never heard of such a thing. Neither had Chris Nelson, the state's missile defense coordinator.
Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency, said the report probably referred to a three-stage missile tested by North Korea in 1998.
"It splashed in the water hundreds of miles from Alaska," Lehner said. "I've never heard of any piece of a missile landing in Alaska from that test or any other test."
The South Korea legislators used the claim to note that Washington and Tokyo have "underrated Pyongyang's missile capabilities," according to the newspaper. Given the Bush administration's political efforts to promote national missile defense, it's hard to imagine why the United States would have kept such a discovery secret.
U.S. and Korean military analysts have said North Korea is probably developing a two-stage missile with a range of 3,700 miles, making it able to reach Anchorage. A three-stage version of that missile might be able to reach the West Coast of the United States, defense officials have testified.
These ranges remain hypothetical, though North Korea has recently said it may restart its missile testing program. North Korea agreed to a test moratorium with the Clinton administration.
The August 1998 test of a three-stage Taepodong-1 missile was an unsuccessful effort to launch a satellite, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The first stage splashed down in the Sea of Japan, while the second stage flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific, U.S. officials said. The fate of the satellite stage has not been reported.
"The third stage malfunctioned, and it didn't go as far as it could've gone," Lehner said.
[ Elsewhere, in the "how things get distorted and blown out of proportion" department, an excerpt of a random editorial from the other end of the country. If the war marketing team fires up on this one next, it'll be fun, fun, fun . . . ]
Editorial: Meanwhile, over Korea ... pressconnects.com
To further its point, North Korea has turned aggressor. President Bush said in a recent interview with 14 newspapers that he believes diplomacy is the best approach to the situation. If all else fails, he said a military option would be considered. Some experts feel that option would be nuclear. What is scary about this situation is that North Korea is believed already to have nuclear warhead missiles capable of hitting not only South Korea and Japan, but also Alaska and Hawaii.
[ compare and contrast that "sober" assessment with the stratfor assessment in atimes.com , quoted in previous message, and you got to scratch your head. Another clip from that story: ]
The more advanced three-stage Taepo Dong-2 exists largely on paper. The missile was designed to have a solid fuel engine in its third stage, in order to dramatically extend its range to nearly 2,200 miles. Because of a variety of challenges - likely a lack of funding - not even the CIA expects the missile to be ready for prime time until 2020 without considerable outside assistance. More recent research indicates the agency probably is correct and success soon is unlikely. |
