And by “theater” I mean the strategic variety, not the cinema.
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan’s top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.
The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.
Weellllllll, that’s nice. The upside here is that Hawaii is actually 4,500 miles away from North Korea so it’s out of range of that particular missile in at its current specifications. The downside is that we never know if the North Koreans have modified the missile to give it a longer range or if maybe they’ve come up with an even more nefarious plan to move Hawaii closer to North Korea. Do I really think that North Korea is going to attempt to attack Hawaii between July 4th and July 8th? No, not really. But I do think this move is telling.
North Korea is, in effect, pointing a revolver at us and pulling the trigger, spinning the cylinder, and then pulling the trigger again over and over and over again. We never know exactly when that cylinder may contain a bullet or not and Kim Jong-Il views it as some sick, global game of reverse Russian roulette. Up until now he’s been reserved enough with the previous administrations that he hasn’t provoked outright hostilities, but I think he’s crossed that line now. With the previous three administrations, North Korea has been reticent to push too hard because he knew that (in reverse chronological order) a) GW was just looking for an excuse to nuke his ass off the planet, b) although hesitant to commit ground troops to actual combat, Bubba was pretty liberal with his use of cruise missiles, and d) Bush senior would have been more than happy to make North Korea one of his thousand points of light. Reagan, well, it was suicide to try that crap with Reagan. Now Kim Jong-Il is seeing how far he can push Barry O before he shoves back. So far, he’s pushed pretty damn hard and we’re still waiting for our shove back.
I’m not laying the blame for the current situation with North Korea squarely at the One’s feet because there have been missteps along the way… but now the ball is in his court and he has to step up to the plate. And yeah, I know there’s an economic crisis to deal with and two wars going on etc, etc… but that’s the job of the President. He wanted it, he’s got it. Now he has to do it and North Korea is at the top of his in-box along with those other items. The threat of Nuclear blackmail at the hands of a madman is no longer a looming, distant threat… it’s a stark reality. And if you think that Kim Jong-Il wouldn’t use a nuclear weapon because of the threat of retaliation, keep this in mind…
The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North’s massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.
It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are “sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea.”
Yup, North Korea has enough nerve, blood, choking, and blister agents to make life in a strike zone a living hell without actually inviting nuclear holocaust upon themselves by utilizing a nuclear first strike. Nice, eh? They cannot be left alone to do this and we cannot capitulate to their demands that they be allowed to become even stronger. Right now North Korea is the neighborhood bully who is threatening everyone in the neighborhood, especially us, with a knife in order to extort money from us so he can buy a gun. Allowing that to happen in the name of diplomacy wouldn’t just be ill-advised, it would be the same kind of craven and effete stupidity displayed by Neville Chamberlain… and we all know how that worked out.
SEOUL, South Korea – A badly damaged North 
SEOUL, South Korea – 
We were first and most impressive. Russia is kind of the Ron Jeremy… impressive and dangerous, but ugly as sin. 
China is that one kid from high school that everybody saw in the boys’ shower and applauded. 
Korea’s nuclear arsenal, however, is about as impressive as a small Asian boy who just got out of a very cold bathtub. 
Moose junk vs mouse junk. Think about that, Kim. At best, you can bring an annoying trickle… we can drown you.
Of course there’s always the old fashioned way: one seal, one rifle, one fantail, one shot, one kill.
