North Korea Missile Launch Prompts U.S. Anti-Missile Ships

In the wake of North Korean announcements of missile testing, the U.S. deployed two missile-interceptor ships from South Korea this morning, just a few days before the scheduled rocket launch in the North. It is the opinion of the U.S. that the move by North Korea represents the first step in a plan to develop long-range, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Despite that, the U.S. has no intention of shooting down the missiles fired during the North Korean tests.

Said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, "I would say we’re not prepared to do anything about it. If we had an aberrant missile, one that looked like it was headed for Hawaii, we might consider it." At this point, it is also the opinion of the U.S. that North Korea does not yet have the capability of placing a warhead on a missile that can reach the U.S. Instead, the missile-interceptors that the U.S. is sending to the region will monitor the launch, which is scheduled to occur between April 4 and April 8. South Korea also plans to send a missile-interceptor to the area before the launch.

The planned North Korean launch is broadly considered to be in violation of U.N. sanctions, yet North Korea promises that it will restart a plant that produces weapons-grade plutonium if the U.N. takes punitive actions for the launch. New threats from North Korea include the suggestion that an attack will be launched in South Korea if that country joins a U.S. plan to cease the flow of weapons of mass destruction, most often referred to as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).