Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva today testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee about North Korea’s recent “ICBM” test, saying that while the tested missile shows the range to hit the United States, it appears incapable of accurately targeting anything in particular.
Gen. Selva said that the tested missile did not demonstrate any sort of guidance capability, and doubted they’d have the sort of technology to maintain control over the missile’s trajectory, steering it toward any specific target. The test showed a range of over 4,000 km, meaning it could hit Alaska.
That’s not the first problem that’s been noted with the tested “ICBM,” with South Korea saying that the missile didn’t appear to have any re-entry technology associated with it, meaning technically it lacks ICBM capabilities to survive an intercontinental flight.
North Korea’s test was a rare success for them, with other recent test flights falling apart shortly after launch. Still, there remain a lot of questions about whether this represents a realistically usable long-range missile, or just a short-range missile with a bunch of extra fuel giving the appearance of longer-range capabilities.
So what? It doesn’t matter. You have a fourth rate, post ideological gangster-style economic power tying with Zambia which starves its people so it can afford nukes and threaten the hegemon with nuclear annihilation on a daily basis. You have the Chinese who have nurtured this situation as a foil to US interests, which had contracted for 20 years, and have aggressively tried to fill the power vacuum left by the US. The Chinese could have put this situation away for years at anytime by simply closing the border until NK either fell or caved-in. If the Chinese want to save their vaulted “trade”, they better clean up the mess before the Yanks accidentally/on purpose fix it for them, ruin their trade thing, and leave the US more powerful and in control than ever before. So F all these people, vaporize the NKs and put the Chinese back in their corner.
“…Yanks accidentally/on purpose fix it for them…”
Let’s see…the last time the “yanks” accidentally or even on purpose actually “fixed” an international “thing?” Hmmm, must have been long before my time because they’ve not fixed anything since.
That’s totally insane, and you know it. Do you want South Korea destroyed as well? Because, that’s what will happen .. And it DOES matter.
North Korea not only borders China, it also borders Russia. You haven’t figured that one out yet, have you? China’s done what it was supposed to do, it stopped buying N. Korean coal and deployed troops at the border. In addition, Russia also deployed troops at its border with N. Korea.
North Korea hasn’t invaded its southern neighbor since 1950; and now, the current South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, wants to negotiate with his N. Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un; so, let the two leaders negotiate. Since a treaty was never signed when the fighting ended in 1953 – only an armistice – the actual war has never truly ended. What Kim Jong-un wants is a peace treaty, and Moon Jae-in’s willing to negotiate with him regarding that treaty.
I don’t think it’s so crazy. Let’s see what the negotiations with SK will bring. More food for the North? Open the industrial park? More threats to nuke the hegemon?
Do you think Russia cares what happens to NK? Do you think Russia would risk war with the US over NK? Russian have been far too pragmatic. The Chinese have clearly played the NK as a foil to the US. The proof? Look what happened to Mongolia when the Dali Lama visited there. Chinese don’t shy away when the want something, but they’ll back off because they’re scared shyteless of the US too.
NK didn’t invade the south, but you can bet they sure wanted to. They almost killed the entire S Korean leadership in the 1983 terrorist attack in Rangoon. Li’l Kim kills his brother? How Machiavellian can you get?
So yeah there’s no peace treaty, so bombs away, it’s all legal. But if Mr. Moon wants to negotiate with Li’l Kim, have at it.
I think the US should just withdraw all US forces from the peninsula and then LET THEM HAVE IT. GLOWING and WARM. Nobody will care, frankly.
North Korea’s nukes don’t need to be accurate or have reentry capabilities. They just need to blow up a nuke in space over the US and the resultant electromagnetic pulse will fry our electrical grid. Congress estimated that if that happened, 90% of Americans would die within 12 months.
Surprising that the Joint Chiefs don’t understand that.