The British press yesterday
was full of scare stories, built around commercial satellite photographs
of a rocket launch site in the south of the Democratic Peoples Republic
of Korea (D.P.R.K.), where a satellite launch is scheduled to take place
sometime in the middle of April, commemorating the 100th anniversary
of the birth of Kim Il-Sung. According to the Guardian and other newspapers,
the commercial satellite photos show that fuel has been delivered and
already loaded onto the rocket, and a mobile satellite system to closely
monitor the launch is also now on site.
The U.S., Japan, South Korea and several European allies are all claiming
that the scheduled rocket/satellite launch is a violation of the Feb.
29, 2012 agreement reached between the U.S. and the D.P.R.K., through
Chinese mediation. Under that deal, North Korea agreed to dismantle
its nuclear weapons program, and halt all missile tests, in return for
food aid and other security guarantees. At the time of the announcement,
the deal was hailed as a breakthrough. However, the announcement of
the planned rocket launch has caused the U.S. to withdraw the planned
food aid, and to announce plans for a missile defense shield over the
Asia-Pacific region, in partnership with Japan, South Korea, Australia—but
not China.
The claim from Washington and allies is that the three-stage rocket
that the North Koreans have built to launch the satellite is identical
to an ICBM, and that the satellite launch is a pretext for testing its
new ICBM capability. Japan and South Korea are prepared to pre-deploy
their own missile defense systems for the potential North Korean launch,
meaning that things could rapidly escalate out of control in North Asia.
Furthermore, according to a report by Washington Times national security
writer Bill Gertz, the U.S. has activated its global missile shield
around the expected North Korea launch, which involves "stepped-up electronic
monitoring, deployment of missile interceptor ships, and activation
of radar networks to areas near the Korean peninsula and western Pacific.
Three interceptor ships near Japan and the Philippines, as well as U.S.-based
interceptors, are ready to shoot down the North Korean missile if space-,
land-, and sea-based sensors determine its flight path is targeted at
the United States or U.S. allies, said officials who spoke on condition
of anonymity... A U.S. official said the military's large, X-band radar
that is based on an oil-rig-sized floating platform sailed from Honolulu
to waters near Korea on March 26 as part of the activation."
While China is not happy about the scheduled rocket launch, the Chinese
have far too many vital interests in North Korea to jeopardize them
by joining too aggressively in the pressure campaign to halt the launch,
according to one senior U.S. intelligence official who is closely tracking
the North Asia crisis.
Lyndon LaRouche today warned that this is a most dangerous situation—given
the ideological nature of the North Korean leadership and the insanity
of the U.S. President and British agent, Barack Obama. "This is why
I keep insisting that Obama must be removed from office by Constitutional
means as soon as possible. This is the only reliable way to avoid war,"
he concluded.
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