How about stop rationalizing North Korea’s continued testing of long range missiles which violate UN and (verbal) US agreements?
There is quite a large gap between that and making excuses for policy failures…
It wasn’t long range, the track was about 500mi. Nobody is rationalizing anything simply stating facts.
I’m sure Japan is comforted by that… only 500 miles.
I’m sure they are comforted by the fact it wasn’t’ flying over Japan as prior tested missiles did.
Read the article?
South Korean Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said the Pukguksong, or Pole Star in Korean, would have had a range of about 1,300 km (910 miles) on a standard trajectory.
910 miles? Short range? That’s the distance from NYC to Atlanta. Or 100 miles greater than the distance from Pyongyang to Tokyo. Keep rationalizing.
Not threatened… yeah right… Keep rationalizing.
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister condemned the launch of what he said were two ballistic missiles, one of which fell in the waters of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), saying it was a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“Would have had” which is a projection and it’s still a short or intermediate range weapon, not a long range ICBM.
It fell in the ocean, it didn’t fly over Japan.
That’s the spirit! Rationalize till there’s nothing left to be concerned about!
Next time it goes over, it will be “but they didn’t actually hit them”. The rationalization will continue…
Fact, it was not a long range weapon as claimed above.
It traveled about 500 miles and did not cross either S. Korea or Japan.
It still violated U.N resolutions and Japan was clearly threatened by their statement.
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch of what he said were two ballistic missiles, one of which fell in the waters of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), saying it was a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
But keep on throwing out excuses… for North Korea.
Nukes, Iran, North Korea and their Russian and Chinese guardians
North Korea is nuclear because China supports it. If China had opposed it, they wouldn’t be nuclear. If China opposed it, North Korea would be forced to give up their nuclear weapons.
Iran wants to be the next North Korea, and Russia supports it.
Obviously, China and Russia are not keeping in the spirit of nuclear non-proliferation. Who is the next rogue state to receive their support for building a nuclear arsenal?
With regard to North Korea, the American approach was to issue sanctions and call it a day, which is akin to putting one’s head in the sand, so to speak. Then Trump came along and took a different approach. He threatened them. And then he decided to try the carrot approach.
With Iran, we’re imposing sanctions, but I don’t believe that will prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapons arsenal and that may result in war between Israel and Iran, a war that we would highly liked be drawn into.
The problem isn’t North Korea and Iran. The problem is China and Russia. If the Russians and Chinese were with us on preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, we could join forces and FORCE them to be non-nuclear. But, alas, that is not the case.
So what should our approach be?
With regard to North Korea, we approach South Korea and Japan and, together, we privately inform China that, unless North Korea disposes of ALL of their nuclear weapons and enriched uranium, etc.,
South Korea and Japan will both build their own nuclear arsenals.
I believe THAT would compel China to finally do the right thing and FORCE North Korea to disarm. And if not? Japan and South Korea should follow through and build their own nuclear deterrence.
We could then apply the same approach to Russia. Hey Russia, you support Iran having nukes? Ok, how do you feel if we assist Ukraine in building their own nuclear arsenal? How about Poland or Georgia?
Ultimately, I believe that North Korea and Iran would be non-nuclear and we may be able to keep the nuclear club small. What we’re doing now doesn’t seem to be working.
Nothing indicates he was threatened, just irritated.
Nobody is defending NK or making excuses for them, the fact is, even with this launch tensions are far lower than they were two years or even a year ago.
Not a bad strategy but if it fails we have a new and very serious problem with nuclear proliferation and probably every country that can afford to will also jump in the race.
We obviously have a problem now with nuclear proliferation because two world powers SUPPORT proliferation, as long as the proliferating is happening in nations they support.
A problem that could grow exponentially worse overnight if that strategy failed.
Do you think China would have a different attitude if they learned that Taiwan was developing a nuclear arsenal? They’d be threatening invasion and more. North Korea? No problem.
Yes, they’d immediately crush Taiwan and occupy the Island if there was even a hint they had an active nuke program.
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