Quote from Landis82:
Looks like "tough" guy Bush failed to keep the North Koreans from firing not one, but SIX missiles in 2006.
So much for the "Axis of Evil".
Bush was a PUSSY.
North Korea Launches Taepodong-2 Missile
July 5, 2006 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea fired six missiles over the Sea of Japan today, defying demands from the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia to refrain from such tests.
They included a long-range Taepodong-2 rocket that disappeared after 40 seconds, White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said in Washington.
Japan said it will impose sanctions and the United Nations Security Council will meet today to discuss the test. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill will travel to Asia as early as today for consultations.
The following is a timeline of the launches and key events prior to the tests. All missile timings are given in local Korean time using information provided to reporters in Washington.
3:33 a.m. Scud-C, short-range ballistic missile, is launched. It lands in the Sea of Japan, short of Japanese coastline.
4:04 a.m. Rodong, medium-range ballistic missile, or a Scud-C is fired and lands short of Japan. This and first launch were not considered unusual by U.S. officials.
5:01 a.m. Taepodong-2, long-range ballistic missile, is launched and vanishes in less than a minute. This missile also landed in the Sea of Japan.
7:12 a.m. Scud-C, or other missile, fired and lands in Sea of Japan at 7:17 a.m.
7:31 a.m. Rodong missile is launched, landing in the Sea of Japan at 7:36 a.m.
Time not determined: Another Rodong launched. The U.S. Northern Command said all missiles landed in the Sea of Japan. South Korea's government said the missile launches were from Hwadae in the northern province of Hamkyung Bukdo and Anbyun in Kangwondo province in the east.
July 4: North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency says U.S. naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean are an ``escalation of the U.S. aggressive moves for a new war.''
July 3: KCNA says a U.S. attack on its missile sites would be met with a ``relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war.''
June 30: Assistant Secretary of State Hill, who is also the top American negotiator in six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program, says missile test would call into question commitments to give aid and security guarantees pledged earlier.
June 29: A long-range missile test by North Korea would be ``extremely provocative,'' Australian Prime Minister John Howard says after holding talks with China's Premier Wen Jiabao.
June 28: Japan doesn't have the capability to shoot down a long- range missile from North Korea, the Associated Press reports, citing Japanese Defense Agency head Fukushiro Nukaga.
June 27: South Korea's government says it will take ``measures'' against North Korea in the event the country tests a long-range missile. North and South Korea are divided by a fortified border and haven't signed a formal peace treaty following the Korean War in the 1950s.
June 26: President George W. Bush urges the North Korean government to disclose details of any plans to launch a long-range missile, an act he said would be ``provocative.''
June 25: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner says U.S. missile defense systems will be used ``to the extent they can'' should North Korea fire a long-range ballistic missile capable of hitting North America.
June 23: The U.S. will pursue diplomacy to ease tensions with North Korea over a possible long-range missile test, the State Department says.
June 22: The U.S. should warn and then launch a pre-emptive strike to destroy a missile if North Korea persists with preparations for a test, former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Assistant Defense Secretary Ashton Carter say.
June 21: China's Wen calls for a resumption of six-nation talks to persuade North Korea to abandon plans to develop nuclear weapons, discussions that have been suspended since November 2005.
June 21: John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, rejects North Korea's suggestion the two nations hold direct talks over possible preparations for the launch of a long-range ballistic missile.
June 21: China joins the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Australia in telling North Korea to refrain from testing a long-range missile, saying it may damage six-nation discussions on the country's nuclear program.
June 19: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says a North Korean missile test would be ``a provocative act'' after the New York Times reported the missile may have the capability of reaching North America.
June 16: A long-range missile test by North Korea would violate an agreement Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reached with the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, in September 2002, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe says.
June 11: North Korea is preparing a possible test of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, the Financial Times says on its Web site, citing an unidentified senior U.S. official.
June 1: North Korea's government invites Assistant Secretary of State Hill to Pyongyang to discuss ways to complete last year's agreement on ending the country's nuclear weapons program. The U.S. rejects the offer.
May 25: The U.S. won't lift sanctions against North Korea to coax it back to six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program, Hill says in Beijing.
May 19: South Korea's government says it is trying to verify a Japanese news report that North Korea may be preparing to test a Taepodong long-range ballistic missile.
May 18: The Bush administration is considering opening direct talks with North Korea on a peace treaty as a new approach to persuading that nation to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons, a U.S. official says.
March 8: North Korea test-fires two short-range missiles, U.S. government says. North Korea doesn't confirm tests.
Feb. 28: North Korea again denies it is involved in money laundering or counterfeiting and reiterates demand for U.S. to lift sanctions before it will return to six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons.
November 2005: The fifth round of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons ends without making progress on a September agreement for ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear arms.
October 2005: The U.S. imposes sanctions on North Korea for money laundering and counterfeiting.
September 2005: China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and the U.S. reach a broad agreement on ending the North's nuclear weapons program at the fourth round of talks on the issue. Parties agree to further talks to flesh out details.
May 2005: North Korea tests a KN-02, a conversion of a Russian short-range missile, the SS21.
May 2004: North Korea reiterates commitment to freeze on tests of long-range missiles.
October 2003: North Korea tests a Chinese Silkworm surface-to-air missile, which falls into Sea of Japan.
April 2003: North Korea tests a Silkworm surface-to-air missile with a range of 60 kilometers.
March 2003: North Korea tests a Chinese Silkworm surface-to-air missile with a range of 100 kilometers.
February 2003: North Korea tests a Chinese Silkworm surface-to-air missile with a range of 100 kilometers.
September 2002: North Korea agrees to indefinite freeze on tests of long-range missiles in Pyongyang Declaration when Japan's Koizumi visits the country. Two countries agree to normalize ties after Koizumi apologized for its wartime aggression and agreed to provide food aid to North Korea.
August 1998: North Korea tests a Taepodong-1 three-stage, long- range ballistic missile, with a range of 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles). Missile flies over Japan and falls into the Pacific Ocean. North Korea claims test was a successful launch of Kwangmyongsong- 1 Satellite.
May 1993: North Korea test launches Rodong-1 mid-range ballistic missile with range of 1,300 kilometers.
April 1984: North Korea test launches Scud-B missile with range of 280 kilometers.
Last Updated: July 5, 2006 03:05 EDT
