Britannia Radio

Friday, February 13, 2009

 

Sources Say N. Korea Moved Taepodong-2

Following reports of clandestine, indoor assembly (see story below), analysts tell China Confidential that nuclear-armed North Korea has transported a Taepodong-2 missile to its east coast launch site in Musudan-ri, in North Hamgyong Province. 

The sources say North Korea used a specially constructed, covered cargo carriage that made the long-range missile--supposedly capable of striking Alaska--difficult to track. The cargo carriage is double the length of an ordinary carriage and is capable of carrying first- and second-stage rockets.

A missile launch--over Japan--is likely before the end of the month.

North Korea seems bent on raising tensions and provoking an international crisis. The secretive, Stalinist/Kimist regime in Pyongyang believes that the United States, which protects South Korea and Japan, is economically weak and especially vulnerable.

Moreover, the regime's Islamist ally, nuclear-arming Iran, needs a new diversion that will provide Iran with more time to achieve breakthroughs in (a) uranium enrichment that will allow for the manufacture of several nuclear weapons and (b) warhead and missile technology for development and deployment of intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

North Korea and Iran are coordinating and cooperating closely, and have been for many years. The best hope for the U.S. is that North Korea is more criminal than imperialist, that it can still be bribed to stop it from overthrowing the status quo on the Korean Peninsula. Iran, in contrast, is imperialist to the core; it is bent on destroying Israel, dominating the Middle East, and driving the U.S. out of the region for once and all.

Bottom line: the Obama administration, faced with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s and draining conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, has its hands full.