U.S. to bolster missile defenses to counter North Korea threat: Hagel (cites...EPA???

[Wehrwolfen]

Yahoo News and various networks playback ^ | 3/15/2013

Posted on Friday, March 15, 2013 10:34:41 PM by John S Mosby

......Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed confidence in the missiles and said he believed the steps taken by the United States would make North Korea's young leader, Kim Jung-un, think twice before acting on bellicose rhetoric.

"We not only intend to put the mechanics in place to deny any potential North Korean objective to launch a missile to the United States, but also to impose costs on them if they do," he told reporters.

"And we believe that this young lad ought to be deterred by that. And if he's not, we'll be ready."

The addition of another 14 interceptors amounts to a reversal of an Obama administration decision in 2010 to stop expansion of the missile interceptor system at 30 interceptors. The Bush administration had planned to deploy a total of 44.

In a sign of fiscal pressures facing the Pentagon, U.S. officials acknowledged they were also forgoing development of a new anti-missile interceptor that would have been deployed in Europe.


(Excerpt)

Read more:
U.S. to bolster missile defenses to counter North Korea threat: Hagel - Yahoo! News

Oblamer stopped the installation of the interception missiles in 2010.

 

[Politico]

Yeah now if they only had any missiles it would matter.

 

[zonly1]

Hagel is incoherent. The man is on psychotropic drugs. Why? listen to this unprepared moron who doesn't have a clue...he speaks in a fog of stupor.
Oh Btw, why did name the places or locations where the defense shield is proposed. That's like tipping your hand in a card game you plan to win. Maybe Obama doesn't want to win. In fact, if we were attacked from NK am not so sure this wimp/paper tiger would respond to the threat. We all know NK is China's front man in this global currency war at present, furthermore, china cyberattacks the US at will without any repercussions from our side. Our response is a paper tiger.

 

[Oldguy]

Oblamer stopped the installation of the interception missiles in 2010.

No. He shifted it from a land-based system which the Russian's saw as a threat, to a sea based system which has been up and functioning for several years now.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - No. Korea gettin' ready for a fight...

NKorea puts artillery forces at top combat posture
Mar 26,`13 -- North Korea's military warned Tuesday that its artillery and rocket forces are at their highest-level combat posture in the latest in a string of bellicose threats aimed at South Korea and the United States.

The announcement came as South Koreans marked the third anniversary of the sinking of a warship in which 46 South Korean sailors died. Seoul says the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo, while the North denies involvement. Seoul's Defense Ministry said Tuesday it hasn't seen any suspicious North Korean military activity and that officials are analyzing the North's warning. Analysts say a direct North Korean attack is extremely unlikely, especially during joint U.S.-South Korean military drills that end April 30, though there's some worry about a provocation after the training wraps up. The rival Koreas have had several bloody naval skirmishes in disputed Yellow Sea waters since 1999. In November 2010, a North Korean artillery strike on a South Korean island killed two marines and two civilians.

North Korea, angry over routine U.S.-South Korean drills and recent U.N. sanctions punishing it for its Feb. 12 nuclear test, has vowed to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and repeated its nearly two-decade-old threat to reduce Seoul to a "sea of fire." Despite the rhetoric, outside weapons analysts have seen no proof that North Korea has mastered the technology needed to build a warhead small enough to mount on a missile. On Tuesday, the North Korean army's Supreme Command said it will take "practical military action" to protect national sovereignty and its leadership in response to what it called U.S. and South Korean plots to attack. The statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, cited the participation of nuclear-capable B-52 bombers in South Korea-U.S. drills.

North Korea's field artillery forces - including strategic rocket and long-range artillery units that are "assigned to strike bases of the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zones in the Pacific as well as all the enemy targets in South Korea and its vicinity" - will be placed on "the highest alert from this moment," the statement said. Pentagon press secretary George Little said the threat would only further isolate North Korea. "North Korea's bellicose rhetoric and threats follow a well-worn pattern designed to raise tensions and intimidate others," Little said. He said there have been three flights by U.S. B-52 bombers during the recent military drills with South Korea.

The North's recent threats are seen partly as efforts to strengthen internal loyalty to young leader Kim Jong Un and to build up his military credentials. Kim "needs to show he has the guts. The best way to do that is to use the military might that he commands," said Lee Yoon-gyu, a North Korea expert at Korea National Defense University in Seoul. "This paves the way for greater praise for him if North Korea makes a provocation later and claims victory." Kim will eventually be compelled to do "something provocative to prove the threats weren't empty," Lee said.

MORE

See also:

N Korea 'combat posture to hit US'
26 March 2013 - North Korea says it has ordered artillery and rocket units into "combat posture" to prepare to target US bases in Hawaii, Guam and the US mainland.

The announcement, carried by KCNA news agency, follows days of strong rhetoric from Pyongyang. The Pentagon condemned the threats, saying the US was ready to respond to "any contingency". South Korea on Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan ship, in which 46 sailors died. It said there was no unusual activity in the North. Tensions remain high on the Korean peninsula in the wake of North Korea's third nuclear test on 12 February. The test led to new UN sanctions which Pyongyang strongly opposes.

Joint US-South Korea annual military drills have further angered the communist nation. In recent weeks its habitually fiery rhetoric has escalated - it has threatened the US with "pre-emptive nuclear attacks", as well as strikes on US military bases in Japan. "From this moment, the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army will be putting in combat duty posture No 1 all field artillery units including long-range artillery units and strategic rocket units that will target all enemy objects in US invasionary bases on its mainland, Hawaii and Guam," the KCNA statement said.

North Korea is not thought to have the technology to strike the US mainland with either a nuclear weapon or a ballistic missile, but it is capable of targeting US military bases in the region with its mid-range missiles. North Korea's announcement comes as the country carries out large-scale military exercises, reports the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul, and it is not clear whether the order applies to the army as a whole or just to specific units.

'Exercise restraint'

 

[JimH52]

U.S. Defense officials: North Korean threats are 'bellicose rhetoric' - CNN.com

Maybe so, but the wrong decision by this idiiot could result in a very dangerous war, which could include China. That is scary...

 

[Katzndogz]

Hagel is incoherent. The man is on psychotropic drugs. Why? listen to this unprepared moron who doesn't have a clue...he speaks in a fog of stupor.
Oh Btw, why did name the places or locations where the defense shield is proposed. That's like tipping your hand in a card game you plan to win. Maybe Obama doesn't want to win. In fact, if we were attacked from NK am not so sure this wimp/paper tiger would respond to the threat. We all know NK is China's front man in this global currency war at present, furthermore, china cyberattacks the US at will without any repercussions from our side. Our response is a paper tiger.

If Hagel had a clue he wouldn't be defense secretary. If he didn't operate in a fog of stupor he would be playing pinochle with McChrystal and the other 15 generals who wouldn't play in the fog of stupor.