N. Korea Slams Hawaii Missile Defenses

(CBS/AP)  North Korea criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii amid concerns the North may fire a long-range missile toward the islands, about 4,500 miles away.

"Through the U.S. forces' clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike on our republic has become a brutal fact," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.

The paper also accused the U.S. of deploying nuclear-powered aircraft and atomic-armed submarines in waters near the Korean peninsula, saying the moves prove "the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear war" on the North is imminent.

The commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said the North will bolster its nuclear arsenal in self-defense.

The North routinely accuses the U.S. of plotting to invade. But the U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has said it has no such plan.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high since the North defiantly launched a rocket in April and conducted an underground nuclear test last month, prompting U.N. Security Council sanctions.

North Korea responded to the U.N. resolution on the nuclear test with threats of war, and pledged to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.

In what could be the first test of the U.N. sanctions, an American destroyer has been tracking a North Korean ship sailing off China's coast amid suspicions that it is carrying illicit weapons.

The Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port on June 17, is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and weapons-related material. The resolution requires member nations to request permission to inspect the cargo of ships suspected of carrying banned goods.

(CBS)

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday that Washington is "following the progress of that ship very closely." Rice would not say whether the U.S. would confront the Kang Nam. (Click here for a full transcript of Face the Nation.)

"I'm not going to get into our operational details, or what we might actually do on the high seas, if anything, or what allies and partners in the region might do," Rice told Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

Rice said the newly passed United Nations resolution granted the U.S., "and everybody in the international community… one piece of a very tough, very comprehensive sanctions regime that we are going to pursue fully and implement and enforce fully and effectively. And so will other nations around the world."

North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.

[raqueljenae]

President.O please talk to korea work out something in a peaceful maner that doesnt consist of bombs and voilence.

[USMCGROSSO]

FUNNY HOW IN AMERICA IF SOMONE THREATENS YOU WITH HARM, YOUR ARRESTED AND TRIED TO THE FULLEST EXT OF THE LAW. AND AFTER 9-11 AND ALL THE CRAZY EVENTS AFTER 9-11 SHOULDNT THE US LOOK AT THIS THE SAME WAY? MAKES YOU WONDER WHATS WRONG WITH OUR SYSTEM. YOU CANT SAY YOUR GOING TO HURT SOMEONE, BEING A SINGLE PERSON, BUT ITS OK TO THREATEN AN ENTIRE COUNTRY WITH WMD? HOWS THAT RIGHT?

[mjlewis6]

There is a 3 MILLION MAN ARMY in North Korea that can easily advance about a half million into South Korea albeit at a tremendous cost of lives both to its invading army and the civilian population. Better to keep the War Genie bottled up so that perhaps someone inside the bottle can make changes than to let it pop and kill so many people.

There is no political advantage in winning a war with a third world country that has to be reconstructed..It is very much like Somalia in that nothing productive is going on, the people are a resource, and rather than the government being their representative, the people are used quite mercilessly for narrow political ends.

[Oregon_State_OSU]

Kim Jong-Il is a Super Paranoid Patty and loves to talk trash and sling Idle Threats.

Kim Jong-Il is a very short, paraniod, not very pretty little drag queen with bad hair and booster shoes.

[USASTILLONTOP]

Let's wait till they make a move.. Isn't that right?

[CLoverNYC1]

USAstillontop,

We coalition to create a UN blockade delaying the Kang Nam indefinitely.

Kim flips his wig, spews out more threats until he's forced to make a move. When he does, he's toast.

Unfortunately, he make take half of South Korea and Japan with him.

[CLoverNYC1]

Kim Jung Il is nothing more than an nuclear arms dealer in a bad wig.

Kim knows full well the USA has no plans to attack his nation.

He spews all that nonsense to justify weaponizing plutonium and developing nukes while his people die of malnutrition and starvation.

[souljam76]

The United States must plan to strike before it gets too late. I am sure John McCain & Sarah Palin would plan this if they were elected presidents. Obama & Bush didn't 100% care about what went on with North Korea

[nikosk11]

"North Korea criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation."

Well, excuuuuuse me for not asking permission from these "dog-eating" a$$holes.

[mcintoshlou]

IT WAS JUST a week ago that Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) was in the spotlight for his admission of marital infidelity. Now comes fellow Republican and would-be presidential hopeful Mark Sanford's clumsy admission of adultery, and Mr. Ensign is, so political pundits judge, yesterday's news. That's too bad, because there is still a lot about Mr. Ensign's affair that the public has a right to know.

Interest in Mr. Ensign -- and we make no secret that ours is influenced in part by his despicable role in undermining D.C. voting rights -- is by no means absolution of Mr. Sanford. The latter abrogated his responsibilities as South Carolina governor and misled his staff and the public. Mr. Sanford's infidelity should be a private matter between him and his wife, but his embarrassing confessional raised inevitable calls for his resignation. His announcement yesterday that he would reimburse the state for portions of a 2008 trade mission that included meeting with his Argentine mistress raises more questions about his conduct.

This maxim seems true of all politicians, but more so for conservative Republicans, and even MORE SO for evangelical Christian conservative Republicans. Evangelical right-winger Helen Chenoweth might have had the prototypical response for a conservative Republican caught in the middle of a sexual tryst:

Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho), who was one of the first to call for Clinton's resignation, told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that God had pardoned her sins for her six-year extra-marital affair.

There has, at least in recent history, been something of a double standard on the topic of political infidelity. Contrast Eliot Spitzer's getting run out of the New York statehouse on a rail with David Vitter, who faced, at worst, only scattered calls for resignation. Jim McGreevey was also run from his job in...shall we say...unique circumstances, while Larry Craig, whose "coming out" party included a criminal act, retired on his own terms, his only formal rebuke being an ethics committee admonishment that the committee had (curiously) not seen fit to burden Vitter with.

So Sanford benefits not only from escaping the worst of the news cycle, but also from the fact that conservative Republican philanderers tend to escape with a bit less permanent damage than other politicos.

HOW CAN THE UNITED STATES EVER HOPE TO BE TREATED WITH RESPECT,

AS LONG AS WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT POPULATED BY CRIMINALS,

ADD TO THESE FACTS THE CRIME SPREE OF THE BUSH/CHENEY YEARS, MURDER,

TORTURE, KIDNAPPING, LYING, ALL IN THE NAME OF CONSERVATISM AND WE,

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, HAVE BECOME THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WORLD.

AND WE HAVE ALSO BECOME THE CRIMINAL TERRORIST LEADER OF THE AXIS OF EVIL.

[zonkzilla]

Well Kim Jung Il, is this the response you wanted?
LOL

by 1st Lt. Raymond Geoffroy
30th Space Wing Public Affairs

6/29/2009 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile configured with a National Nuclear Security Administration test assembly launched from North Vandenberg today at 3:01 a.m.

The launch was an operational test to verify the weapon system's reliability and accuracy.

The missile carried three unarmed re-entry vehicles approximately 4,190 miles at speeds in excess of 24,000 mph to their pre-determined targets near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Col. David Buck, the 30th Space Wing commander, was the mission's launch decision authority. Lt. Col. Lesa K. Toler, the 576th Flight Test Squadron commander, was the mission director for this test launch.

"It's really something when you see a truly outstanding team come together," Colonel Buck said. "As a former Top Hander myself, I know that the Airmen of the 576th FLTS are the best of the best when it comes to force development evaluation, and, as the 30th Space Wing commander, I know that this is the best range team in the world. I couldn't think of a better team to demonstrate the awesome capability of our ICBM fleet."

[mcintoshlou]

WHAT A CROCK, YOU REPUBLI'CON's WILL SAY AND DO ANYTHING TO SPREAD YOUR

IDIOTS PROPAGANDA. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF YOUR LIES.

WE WILL VOTE THE REST OF YOU OUT OF OFFICE IN THE NEXT ELECTION