Norks test missile engine for US strike

Washington Post:

North Korea has tested the engine mechanism for an intercontinental missile that might be able to hit major cities on the U.S. West Coast, according to an account published Tuesday in the South Korean press.

A previously unknown missile launch site on the west coast of North Korea was identified last week by Jane's Defense Weekly, which cited commercial satellite images. The facility has a mobile launch pad and a 10-story tower that would support the North's largest ballistic missiles, Jane's reported.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee in Seoul on Thursday, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said the launch site is about 80 percent complete. His remarks added to the growing body of information about the site in recent media reports.

If accurate, the reports indicate that while North Korea has pursued on-again, off-again negotiations with the United States and four other countries on abandoning its nuclear weapons program, it has continued to work on developing a long-range ballistic missile and is diverting scarce resources from a collapsing economy that has brought about chronic food shortages.

...

While it is possible that this is part of an elaborate extortion plot by the Norks, what is clear is that Barack Obama would leave us vulnerable to that extortion or worse to actual attacks by killing the missile defense system. McCain and Palin should be all over him on this issue and Palin can point out that her Alaska National Guard is part of the primary defense against such attacks.

When Democrats ask themselves how they got a reputation for being weak on national security they should put their opposition to missile defense on the list of reasons.

Here is Obama's promise to cut missile defense.



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