U.S. Military Set to Intercept North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes

Forums: Politics, War, United States, North Korea, Proliferation
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The U.S. military is planning to intercept a flagged North Korean ship suspected of proliferating weapons material in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last Friday, FOX News has learned.

The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The order to inderdict has not been given yet, but the ship is getting into position.

The ship left a port in North Korea Wednesday and appears to be heading toward Singapore, according to a senior U.S. military source. The vessel, which the military has been tracking since its departure, could be carrying weaponry, missile parts or nuclear materials, a violation of U.N. Resolution 1874, which put sanctions in place against Pyongyang.

The USS McCain was involved in an incident with a Chinese sub last Friday - near Subic Bay off the Philippines.

The Chinese sub was shadowing the destroyer when it hit the underwater sonar array that the USS McCain was towing behind it.

That same navy destroyer that was being shadowed by the Chinese is now positioning itself for a possible interdiction of the North Korean vessel.

This is the first suspected "proliferator" that the U.S. and its allies have tracked from North Korea since the United Nations authorized the world's navies to enforce compliance with a variety of U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its recent nuclear test.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/19/military-set-intercept-north-korean-ship-suspected-proliferatin-missiles-nukes/

I trust our military leaders are prepared for the next steps that they will need to take. I do not believe N. Korea will back down.

Are you ready for a real war this time, folks? remember, we have 40,000 US troops sitting at the border who are now at risk.

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@Yankee,

Yankee wrote:

I trust our military leaders are prepared for the next steps that they will need to take. I do not believe N. Korea will back down.

Are you ready for a real war this time, folks? remember, we have 40,000 US troops sitting at the border who are now at risk.

North Korean ships won't be forcibly boarded and this much has been stated plainly.

Quote:

The U.N. sanctions encourage, but do not require, member countries to interdict North Korean ships they believe to be carrying banned weapons. If the ships refuse permission to be boarded, they are to be directed to a nearby port for inspection.

If they refuse that advice, they are to be denied port services, including refueling.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-un-north-korea13-2009jun13,0,3733411.story

So in other words, maybe this ship will be denied port services, and no that won't start a "real war" Henny Penny.

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@Yankee,

Quote:

Are you ready for a real war this time, folks? remember, we have 40,000 US troops sitting at the border who are now at risk.

Do you have many paranoid fantasies like that, Yankee? I know, I know. When I was 11 or 12 years old, I, too, used to dream about a shoot-out with the Soviet Union. But, thankfully, I outgrew it and learned to face political reality.

The last thing in the world we need is yet a third front. We have our hands full in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nobody is going to war against N. Korea. And, contrary to what you said, if there was a really serious chance of having to face the U.S. and allies on a battlefield, the government of Kim would back down. Why? Because this time they don't have the backing of China as they did back in the early 1950s. China is pretty peeved with its neighbor to the south. North Korea's nuclear posturing is puting a serious crimp in China's attempt to emerge as an equal among the industrialized (read: capitalistic) countries of the world. They don't quite know what to do about N. Korea at this point, but I suspect they'll figure out something. Sooner or later.

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@Merry Andrew,

Apparently, you have no idea what a real war is.

This is an apparent "jab" by N. Korea looking for a reason to escalate tensions.

Paranoid fantasies? No, that is for children like you.

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Just in case, I am taking my rubber ducks out of the bathtub, and replacing them with toy ships!

It would not be so bad if things escalated. Let us not forget that 50,000 of our military were lost in about three year's time in the Korean Conflict (as opposed to the ten years of the Vietnam Conflict). How often do nations get a "do over"? We should not look a gift horse in the mouth.

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@Yankee,

It was a mistake to assume we could predict how Saddam would react based on what we believed to be rational behavior and it’s a mistake to assume the same as respects North Korea.

Still, if there is reason to believe that the ship is carrying materials deemed contraband by the UN then the USS John McCain should intercept it.

What happens then is guesswork. Obviously it would be suicidal for the North Korean ship to fire on an American destroyer (assuming it has any armaments), but I wouldn't be stunned if it did.

I don't think it will and there will be no forced boarding. There will also be no permission to board granted, nor acquiescence to sail to a port for formal inspection. Then the John McCain will shadow the NK vessel until it runs out of fuel and another standoff will take place.

I would guess that the US Navy has any more of an intention to forcibly tow the NK ship than it does to forcibly board it.

North Korea will likely send another ship to refuel the first, and yet another standoff will ensue.

All the while, North Korea will be making all sorts of bellicose threats, and likely move additional troops to the South Korean border.

Confrontations like these are not to be taken lightly, but do we have a choice?

Having allowed North Korea to develop nuclear weapons, are we now going to simply avert our eyes when it exports them or the components to build others?

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@Yankee,

Yankee what is a real war and have you been in one

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so we are going to follow this ship to Burma and watch them unload?? That's the plan? Haven't these boys ever checked with the spy satellite folks, I think that they can do the job cheaper.

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@Yankee,

Again, and you seem to be the authority. What is a real war, and have you been in one.

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@Sglass,

I served 8 years in this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

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A very marvel of time travel. The United States was involved in World War II for less than four years--December 7, 1941 to September 1, 1945. Yet our boy Yankee here served eight years in that space of time. Incredible!

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@Yankee,

Yankee wrote:

Apparently, you have no idea what a real war is.

This is an apparent "jab" by N. Korea looking for a reason to escalate tensions.

Paranoid fantasies? No, that is for children like you.

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@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

A very marvel of time travel.
The United States was involved in World War II for less than four years--December 7, 1941 to September 1, 1945.
Yet our boy Yankee here served eight years in that space of time. Incredible!

Our girl Setantass has no ******* clue.
It appears Yankee served our country for 8 years, 4 of which included December 7, 1941 to September 1, 1945.

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@Yankee,

Ah, yankee you were in the 'Good War'. Thank you for responding
Actually that is the same war Merry Andrew was in. Why don't you ask him about war through the eyes of a child, scared, always hungry, always on the run looking for a safe place. Why don't you ask him about the Berlin bombings,et al.

Ask his wife about his screaming nightmares.

i think ma knows what a real war is.

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@H2O MAN,

Pay him no mind, sir.

I enlisted in late 42.

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@Sglass,

Yes, I know. None of it was very pretty.

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In 50 or 60 years people will be able to ask folks about Obamanomics through the eyes of a child,
scared, always hungry, always on the run looking for a safe place and screaming nightmares.

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@H2O MAN,

I really like your road kill mentality

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Obviously, Yankee did not serve eight years in a war in which we were only involved in for four years. He may well have served eight years, and i don't dispute that. But he didn't serve eight years during World War II.

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@Sglass,

Sglass wrote:

I really like your road kill mentality

That's pretty good... Obamanomics will result in many rotting corpses on the roadsides.

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U.S. Military Set to Intercept North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes

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