North Korea to Close Air Routes for Rocket Launch

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea will close two routes in its airspace April 4-8 for a scheduled rocket launch, South Korea’s transportation ministry said.

The air routes off North Korea’s east coast will be closed daily between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. during the period for the launch of a rocket carrying a communications satellite, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said late yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The ministry cited North Korea’s official notice of the plan.

Kim Jong Il’s regime has said it intends to launch a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful space project. The U.S. and South Korea have warned against the action, saying it would violate a United Nations resolution and that evidence suggests North Korea is instead planning to test a ballistic long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska.

The routes to be closed off are part of the R452 route that connects North Korea and Russia and the G346 route between the communist country and Japan, which aren’t used by South Korea’s national carriers or foreign planes flying to South Korea, the South Korean ministry said.

North Korea test-fired a long-range Taepodong-2 missile in July 2006, three months before it tested a nuclear device, prompting sanctions from the UN Security Council.

The country agreed in February 2007 to scrap its nuclear weapons development program in return for energy aid and normalized diplomatic ties with the U.S. and Japan. Six-nation disarmament talks remain stalled as the communist country refuses to let inspectors remove samples from its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

Wi Sung Lac, South Korea’s chief negotiator to the nuclear talks will visit Beijing to meet with Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei on March 24, Yonhap News reported today, citing a diplomatic official it didn’t identify. Wi also plans to visit the U.S., the report said.

The six-nation talks also involve Japan and Russia.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...id=azE46E_VYe9A

[justashooter 430]

air to air. no problem.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Heracles 417]

We need to send a few missiles to this guys palaces.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Team America to the rescue!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

NKorea reasserts right to satellite launch

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea warned the United States, Japan and their allies not to interfere with its plan to launch a satellite into space next month, saying Tuesday any intervention could doom already stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has declared its intention to send a communications satellite into space between April 4 and 8. Regional powers suspect the North will use the launch to test its long-range missile technology, and has warned Pyongyang the launch would trigger international sanctions

A 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution prohibits North Korea from engaging in ballistic activity, which Washington and its allies say includes firing a long-range missile or using a rocket to send a satellite into space.

On Tuesday, the North's Foreign Ministry reasserted its right to peaceful development of its space program.

"The countries which find fault with (North Korea's) satellite launch including the U.S. and Japan launched satellites before it," said the statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. The stance proves their "their hostility toward us," it said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea's top nuclear negotiator, Wi Sung-lac said his country is working on contingency plans in case Pyongyang goes ahead with the rocket launch.

"As the clock ticks, we are placing more weight on countermeasures after a launch," he was quoted by Yonhap as saying on Tuesday.

The North also warned that any sanctions would violate the spirit of a disarmament pact Pyongyang signed in 2005 with five other nations: China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the U.S.

Under the deal, the North pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. In 2007, the country agreed on the initial disarmament steps—disabling its main nuclear facilities in return for the equivalent of 1 million tons of energy aid and other benefits.

The disarmament process, however, has been stalled since last year over a disagreement with Washington over how to verify the North's past atomic activities.

The statement warned that sanctions would "deprive the six-party talks of any ground to exist or their meaning."

The North also said it would not abandon its nuclear weapons and had no choice but to strengthen its forces in the face of such hostility. The statement didn't elaborate.

"As the clock ticks, we are placing more weight on countermeasures after a launch," he was quoted by Yonhap as saying before he left for Beijing on Tuesday.

Regional powers are looking to China, North Korea's biggest benefactor and longtime communist ally, to help calm tensions in the region and persuade the North to return to the negotiating table. Both China's president and premier have urged North Korea to come back to the talks in recent days.

Tensions have been running high on the divided Korean peninsula since a pro-U.S., conservative government took office in Seoul one year ago with a tougher policy on Pyongyang. The North cut off ties with South Korea, halted key joint projects and significantly restricted border traffic.

The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops to deter aggression from North Korea, which is still technically at war with South Korea since their 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

[almaty 19]

wow, i am glad i read this thread ..i have to cancel my vacation plans for those dates

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

US: North Korea loading rocket on launch pad

WASHINGTON (AP) - North Korea is loading a Taepodong rocket on its east coast launch pad in anticipation of the launch of a communications satellite early next month, U.S. officials say. U.S. counterproliferation and intelligence officials have confirmed Japanese news reports of the expected launch between April 4 and 8.

North Korea announced its intention to launch the satellite in February. Regional powers worry the claim is a cover for the launch of a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said earlier this month that all indications suggest North Korea will in fact launch a satellite.

North Korea faked a satellite launch in 1998 to cloak a missile development test. In 2006, it launched a Taepodong-2 that blew up less than a minute into flight.

Both the satellite launch rocket and long-range missile use similar technology, and arms control experts fear even a satellite launch would be a test toward eventually launching a long-range missile.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have urged North Korea to refrain from launching a satellite or missile, calling it a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution barring the country from ballistic activity.

North Korea insists it bears the right to develop its space program and on Tuesday warned the U.S., Japan and its allies not to interfere with the launch.

Officials at the South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the Defense Ministry were not available for comment early Thursday in Seoul.

South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Wi Sung-lac, said Wednesday after returning from talks with his Beijing counterparts, that a launch would trigger a response.

"If North Korea launches rocket, certain countermeasures are unavoidable," he said. He refused to elaborate, saying the measures, including any sanctions, would be discussed among U.N. Security Council member nations.

It probably won't be clear if the latest launch is a satellite or a missile test until footage can be analyzed after the event; the trajectory of a missile is markedly different from that of a satellite.

Analysts have been watching for signs of a satellite or missile on the launch pad in Musudan-ni, the northeast coastal launch site. Satellite imagery from March 16 showed progress toward mounting a rocket, with a crane hovering over the launch pad, said Christian LeMiere, an editor at Jane's Intelligence Review in London.

He said that once mounted, scientists would need at least a week to fuel and carry out tests before any launch. Images from earlier this month did not indicate the rocket or missile had been mounted, he said Wednesday.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090325/D975ALGO0.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

US deploys warships as North Korea prepares to launch missile

The US has deployed two warships with anti-missile capabilities in the waters off Japan as tensions mount over North Korea's plans to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Alaska.

The deployment comes as America, Japan and South Korea threaten North Korea with 'serious consequences' if it proceeds with plans to conduct the missile test in defiance of a 2006 UN resolution.

North Korea, which has informed international agencies of its plan to fire the missile between April 4 and 8, says the launch is a "satellite test" which it is entitled to make under international law.

Recent satellite imagery has shown that the North Korea has now assembled two stages of the three-stage Taepodong-2 missile on a launch pad in the country's northeast. Experts estimate that missile could be ready to fire within four days.

Japan has threatened to shoot down the missile if it crosses over Japanese territory, a move which Pyongyang has already said it would consider an "act of war".

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has warned any launch would threaten to end the six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. The talks have been stalled since December in a dispute over how to verify its disarmament.

"This provocative action, in violation of the United Nations mandate, will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences," she said while on a visit to Mexico, warning that the US would put the issue before the UN Security Council for additional sanctions.

It is unclear if China, Pyongyang's only major ally which has held talks with senior figures from both North and South Korea in the last week, would support a US move to deepen sanctions.

North Korea also continues to hold two Korean-American journalists who it arrested over a week ago after they strayed across North Korea's border with China while on a reporting assignment.

The US Navy spokesman said the two destroyers – the USS McCain and USS Chafee – equipped with Aegis technology capable of tracking and destroying missiles had left Sasebo port in southwestern Japan. "I would say we are ready for any contingencies," he added.

The approach launch is typical of the brinkmanship of North Korean diplomacy, analysts say, however relations on the Korean Peninsular now said to be at their lowest ebb for a decade.

A successful satellite launch would be both a blow to South Korea, which hopes to launch its own satellite later this year, and a huge fillip for Kim Jong-il, the North's ailing dictator who was reported to have a had a stroke last year.

"A successful launch, coupled with international recognition of its nuclear capabilities, would also help secure the survival of the regime," added Koh Yu-hwan, Dongguk University professor of North Korea studies in Seoul.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...ch-missile.html

[*Robert* 2]

Sounds like a good opportunity to send an Aegis Class cruiser off the coast and test their anti-ballistic missle defense system!!!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Sounds like a good opportunity to send an Aegis Class cruiser off the coast and test their anti-ballistic missle defense system!!!

How about two?

The US has deployed two warships with anti-missile capabilities in the waters off Japan as tensions mount over North Korea's plans to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Alaska.