MORE ON NORTH KOREA….Over at Defense Tech, Noah Shachtman is unimpressed with William Perry’s call to destroy North Korea’s missile test site before it can be used to launch a new, long-range ICBM:
The hype kicked into high gear when the New York Times claimed that the Norks “completed fueling a long-range ballistic missile” over the weekend. But the report is getting fishier by the second. The Norks generally rely on a highly corrosive gasoline-kerosene mix for their missile fuel, and an oxidizer containing nitric acid. It’s nasty, metal-eating stuff. And once fueled up, the missile has to be launched quickly ? two or three days, I’ve been told ? or else the missile is basically ruined.
It’s now been four days. And there’s been no launch. Which means it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that a missile has been fueled. So much for Perry’s demand “to strike the [missile] if North Korea refuses to drain the fuel out.”
….Now, what happens if we strike North Korea ? and there’s no missile to hit? What does that do to American standing, then?
The New York Times does not exactly have a great reputation for balance and fact checking when it comes to passing along alarmist information about the axis of evil. Maybe the Koreans have just built a giant paper mache model?
