Here's How US Allies Could Shoot Down Missiles From North Korea

Things are heated on the Korean peninsula, and while there's plenty of talk from the North about launching a "cutting edge strike" on the United States, their missile capabilities are mostly limited to attacks against U.S. forces in South Korea or Japan.

But were they to actually launch missiles, America and its allies are far from defenseless.

South Korea and Japan currently have the Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target system, better known as the PATRIOT. It's a highly mobile system that can be set up in under one hour.

First designed for an anti-aircraft role in the late 1970s, the Patriot was later modified to defend against ballistic missiles. With a radar that can pick up threats more than 60 miles away and armed with a high-explosive warhead, it's designed to launch missiles that detonate and produce shrapnel when it gets close to a threat, according to PBS.

The PATRIOT system was used extensively during the first Gulf War against Iraqi SCUD missiles, with varying degrees of success. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, however, they worked extremely well.

From a report of the Defense Science Board:

All nine enemy tactical ballistic missiles that threatened areas designated for Patriot defense were engaged. Eight of these engagements were observed by enough other sensors to conservatively declare them successes; the ninth engagement is judged to be a probable success. None of the attacking tactical ballistic missiles caused any damage or loss of life to the coalition forces.

Here's how it works:

The land-based PATRIOT system will soon be joined by U.S. ships en route to the area, the USS John McCain and the USS Decatur. Both are Aegis-class warships, meaning they're capable of intercepting and destroying ballistic missiles "above the atmosphere during the midcourse phase of a hostile ballistic missile's flight."

The holistic anti-North Korean missile system will also be bolstered soon by the deployment of another missile defense system to Guam, the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD).

SEE ALSO: Defense Secretary Calls North Korea Clear And Present Danger — US Set To Deploy Missile Defense To Guam >

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The Complete History Of False Threats From North Korea

North Korea is threatening Seoul again, this time over a jointly controlled factory.

The Democratic People's Republic also says it is restarting its nuclear reactor, five years after shutting it down.

But a survey of 50 years of North Korean bellicosity shows nothing major is likely to happen.

We went back and pulled all the major headlines created by North Korean bluster against the South since the end of the Korean War.

As you'll say, there are exactly zero violent outbreaks of any consequence.

In some ways we shouldn't be surprised by all the threats: the conflict never officially ended. Instead, an armistice was signed when the U.N. withdrew troops in 1953.

And there is a new dimension this time around i n the form of the North's brand-new leader, Kim Jong-un

But after five decades, it seems safe to say that we'll get through this one — and the next — in one piece.

Hostilities had ended by 1954. But just four years later it seemed like there'd barely been any progress.

And by '66, skirmishes had begun breaking out again.

Kim Il Sung, who ran the country during this time, can be credited with starting the trend of periodic bluster, which was mostly came from frustration over American forces' ongoing presence in the South. He ended up ruling until his death in 1994.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Here Are The Theoretical Ranges Of North Korea's Missiles

With North Korea (DPRK) saying it has received final approval from Supreme leader Kim Jong-un for nuclear attack on the U.S., it's time to take another look at their missiles. 

This infographic from the National Post lists the types of rockets in the North Korean arsenals and their theoretically reliable ranges. The only thing missing is North Korea's most recent rocket, the recently launched Unha-2.

First of all, most analysts believe that North Korea is years from being able to strike the mainland U.S. with one of these, especially given proven capabilities and American defenses.

Second, North Korea is also believed to be years away from  being able to place a nuclear warhead on one of these.

The U.S. State Department initially responded to the North's recent strike plan by calling it more warmongering bluster, but in the last few days America has moved two guided-missile destroyers off of the Korean peninsula.

On the other hand, North Korean threats are very serious to staunch U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, which are easily within range of these weapons.

SEE ALSO: A Satellite Tour Of North Korea's Nuclear Facilities

SEE ALSO: ANALYST: US Military Expects North Korean Missile Launch

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North Korea Missile Plan Targets Washington, Los Angeles, Austin and Hawaii

The United States sent two
nuclear-capable B-2 bombers to the Korean Peninsula
yesterday in response to North Korea shutting down the military
hotline with South Korea on
Wednesday. Today, North Korea responded
by announcing it was preparing a missile strike plan against the
United States. A photo (at right)
released by the North Korean newspaper Rodang
 appears to identify Washington, DC, California, Austin, Texas
and Hawaii as targets. Leon Panetta, then the U.S. Secretary of
Defense, said
last April that America was “within an inch of war” with North
Korea and had to be careful about what it says and does that might
escalate the situation. Tensions have been rising since North
Korea’s latest round of missile tests began
last December. Earlier this month the totalitarian regime
declared the Korean War armistice signed nearly sixty years ago

null and void, something it had most recently done in 2009, and
six times since 1994.

The White House, for its part, responded today by saying the
U.S.
would not be intimidated and can defend itself and its allies.
However, as Ron Paul noted
earlier this week, some U.S. actions, like the public military
exercises and the push at the UN for new sanctions are helping
exacerbate the situation. North Korea has just one real ally on the
planet, China, and even that is barely so. Its reactions to tension
over the last few months have been to tell North Korea, or North
Korea and South Korea, as the case may be, to
simmer down. Russia’s foreign minister, meanwhile, warned today
of a “vicious circle” that could
spiral out of control. That’s highly unlikely. Instead, North
Korea’s saber-rattling, and the Western response to it, fulfills
the need Kim Jong Un has for attention and for an external enemy to
use as a scapegoat for the self-inflicted decades-long tragedy that
is North Korean society.

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Kim Jong-Un Has Already Hit His Biggest Target

No one in Austin, Texas seems to be worried about being targeted in the US Mainland Strike Plan that was pictured in the background of a recent Kim Jong-un photo op.

After all, it has been well-established that North Korean [DPRK] missiles can't make it to middle America — and we've learned over the years to ignore the crazy threats from the hermit kingdom.

But Kim's photo op may have been a hit with its real target: his own people.

Most DPRK experts seem to have come to this conclusion, including John Swenson-Wright, senior lecturer in East Asian International Relations at the University of Cambridge, in an interview with James Pearson of NK News.

“It seems reasonable to suppose that the target map is designed for home consumption and to create an impression of war-readiness for DPRK-citizens that is part of a wider policy of strengthening national resolve," says Swenson-Wright.

Consider also how the images were released in "widely distributed" and publicly displayed domestic workers newspapers.

Kim "needs to show he has the guts. The best way to do that is to use the military might that he commands," Lee Yoon-gyu, a North Korea expert at Korea National Defense University in Seoul told the BBC. "This paves the way for greater praise for him if North Korea makes a provocation later and claims victory."

Lee continued by saying that eventually Kim will have to perform a more provocative action in order to "make good on his threat" and retain credibility, so a tactical strike — a "skirmish" — is still a possibility.

Though all threats of preemptive nuclear strikes should be taken seriously, analysts say it's unlikely because it would effectively mean "suicide."

And lest there be any doubt that this was a photo op, the AP analyzed the photo and concluded that it was likely doctored.

Certainly this doctoring isn't for America's benefit, because the idea of North Korea reaching middle America (#whyaustin) with a missile is laughable.

“All the available technical evidence suggests that the North’s claims to be able to hit (let alone target precisely) geographical sites in the United States are highly implausible,” said Swenson-Wright.

The BBC backed up this assertion more than three months ago when researchers released an analysis of North Korea's most powerful missile, the Unha-3:

[Experts] acknowledge that there's no evidence that the North has the guidance systems or re-entry capability needed to mount an actual strike ... many more rocket and nuclear tests will be needed before North Korea can make a warhead small enough to fit its rockets and claim a credible nuclear delivery system.

While the West isn't scared, however, it's likely that the people of North Korea have no idea about doctored images or true missile capabilities.

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No Ruling on Gay Marriage from Supreme Court, Pentagon Responds to North Korea, Israeli Army Objects to Foreign Ministry’s Use of Bar Refaeli: P.M. Links

• There aren’t many clues on how the Supreme
  Court might
  rule on gay marriage after hearing oral arguments related to
  California’s Proposition 8 today.


• Some bars in Washington and Colorado are
  embracing marijuana use even as its legal status when smoked in
  “public places” remains unsettled in both states.


• The Pentagon responds to the
  latest saber rattling from North Korea by pointing out the U.S.
  was
  ready for “any contingency.”


• David Petraeus is
  expected to apologize for the affair that ended his CIA tenure,
  the beginning of a “public comeback.”


• An Egyptian-born Italian journalist who converted from Islam to
  Catholicism
  says he is leaving the Church over its “soft” stance on his
  former religion.


• The Israeli army
  opposes the foreign ministry’s decision to hire supermodel Bar
  Refaeli to promote the country's tech sector, because she’s a draft
  dodger and thus a bad role model for youth.


• The discovery of the Higgs Boson could help
  explain how the infinite stack of turtles will topple at the
  end of the universe.

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