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Thursday, April 11, 2013

'Very high' chance North Korea will fire missile, U.S. and South Korea say

NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reports on the military's latest intelligence on North Korea's possible missile strike plans, saying U.S. military officials are "concerned" about where the missiles will be aimed.

By Jim Miklaszewski, Courtney Kube and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

U.S. defense officials are "highly confident" that North Korea is planning the imminent launch of a medium-range missile, echoing warnings from South Korea that the probability of Pyongyang carrying out its threat is "very high."

Pentagon officials say they believe the rogue communist state is preparing to fire one or more Musadan missiles from its east coast.

The North has been threatening the United States and its "puppet" South Korea almost daily in recent weeks, and the Commander of U.S. Pacific Command told Congress on Tuesday?that he could not recollect a more tense time in the region since the end of the Korean War.

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

World leaders have shown alarm at the prospects of a conflict.

"According to intelligence obtained by our side and the U.S., the possibility of a missile launch by North Korea is very high,? South Korea?s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told a parliamentary hearing in Seoul, according to Reuters.

Musudan missiles could be launched "at any time from now,? he said.

U.S. defense chiefs have echoed that belief, acknowledging that North Korea has placed a Musadan missile -- which has a range of roughly 1,800 to 2,100 miles, with a minimum range of about 400 miles --?on its east coast.

Adm. Sam Locklear told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. is ready to respond to a North Korean missile launch or other threat.

"I am satisfied that we are ready today, yes," Locklear said.

Threats of war from North Korean may be spiking due to an aggressive vice marshal close to leader Kim Jong Un. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

Asked specifically whether U.S. forces can intercept a missile from North Korea, Locklear said: "I believe we have a credible ability to defend the homeland, to defend Hawaii, defend Guam, to defend our forward-deployed forces and defend our allies."

He went on to say that the U.S. was in a position to intercept a missile even if one were launched imminently.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities in the northeastern city of Dandong told tour agencies to halt overland tourism into North Korea, local travel agents said Wednesday.

"All (tourist) travel to North Korea has been stopped from today, and I've no idea when it will restart," a travel agent in Dandong told Reuters.

And despite the taunts from North Korea, which include a warning for foreigners to leave the South, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said no new security warnings were being issued to Americans in South Korea or those planning to travel there.

Japan deploys Patriot missiles and Aegis radar-equipped destroyers in response to reports that North Korea may be preparing a missile launch. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

"There's no specific information to suggest imminent threat to U.S. citizens or facilities in the Republic of Korea,? he added. ?So the U.S. Embassy has not changed its security posture. We have not recommended that U.S. citizens who reside in or plan to visit the Republic of Korea take special security precautions at this time."

Amid the regional tension, South Korea blamed Pyongyang for a cyberattack that shut down tens of thousands of computers and servers at banks last month.

Investigators detected similarities between the March cyberattack and past hacking attributed to the North Korean spy agency, including the recycling of 30 previously used malware programs ? out of a total of 76 used in the attack, said Chun Kil-soo, an official at South Korea's Internet security agency.

NBC News' Jim Maceda and Jeff Black contributed to this report.

Related:

Richard Engel answers your questions on North Korea

North Korea warns foreigners to leave South

'Positive thinking' after years of threats keeps South Koreans going

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 6:57 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/2a8cc9cc/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C10A0C176853920Every0Ehigh0Echance0Enorth0Ekorea0Ewill0Efire0Emissile0Eus0Eand0Esouth0Ekorea0Esay0Dlite/story01.htm

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Why I?m Not Nice To Conservatives (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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Neighbors describe student behind stabbing as shy

CYPRESS, Texas (AP) ? A 20-year-old student who told police he had fantasized for years about stabbing people to death went on a rampage with a knife at a suburban Houston community college, hurting more than a dozen people, authorities said.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office said that about 11:20 a.m. Tuesday, Dylan Quick began a building-to-building rampage with a razor-like knife at the Lone Star Community College System in Cypress. He wounded at least 14 people, two critically.

Neighbors said he was a shy young man who would say hello when he took out the trash and helped his parents tend the yard, though he rarely came out alone.

"I can't imagine what would have happened to that young man to make him do something like this. He is very normal," said Magdalena Lopez, 48, who has lived across the street from the Quick family for 15 years.

The Quicks were friendly and fit in well with the other families on the block of brick, ranch-style homes. Most were aware that Quick is deaf. A street sign, "Deaf Child In Area," was posted on the block to warn drivers.

"I can't believe he would do it," Lopez added.

But hours after the stabbing attack, Quick was charged with three counts of aggravated assault, and the statement from the sheriff's office said pieces of the blade used in the attack were found in at least one victim and at the scene of the attack. A knife handle was found in a backpack Quick was carrying when he was arrested. Authorities were seen leaving Quick's parents' home with two brown paper bags.

No one answered the door or the phone at the red brick home, though two vehicles were parked in the driveway, one of them a Honda Accord with a license plate that read "DYLAN." It was not immediately known if Quick has an attorney.

The attack began before noon on a sunny spring day, interrupting the careless chatter of Diante Cotton and his friends, who were sitting in the cafeteria when a girl clutching her neck walked in, yelling.

"He's stabbing people, he's stabbing people," Cotton said the girl shouted, his first indication that something was amiss on the normally tranquil campus.

Walking outside, Cotton and his friends saw another half-dozen people with injuries to their faces and necks. Some were being loaded into ambulances. The most critically injured were evacuated in medical helicopters.

"I turned around, and there was just blood ? just blood dripping down the stairs, all over the floor, all over everyone's towels, on their necks, just a lot of blood," Melody Vinton told KHOU-TV.

The attacker ran past Vinton, she said, as she was leaving her chemistry class. He was stabbing people, she said, one after another, always aiming for the neck or face.

"There's no humanity in that. Just to see another human being do that was more traumatic than anything," Vinton said.

Vinton and other students in the science building rushed to help the victims until emergency crews arrived.

Michelle Alvarez tried to back away when she saw Quick running toward students. She didn't even feel it as he swiped her.

"He came running and swinging at my neck, as I tried to get out of the way," she told the Houston Chronicle.

It remains unclear how long the attack lasted, but Lone Star college officials said they locked down the campus shortly after 11:30 a.m. Students described phones going off informing them of the lockdown. Some stayed in class until they were dismissed. Others went out to the hallways, where they were evacuated to their cars.

The sheriff's office said Quick told them he had fantasized about stabbing people to death since elementary school and had planned the attack for some time.

But Michael Lincoln, who lives next door, said Quick had never been aggressive, making the accusations even more shocking.

"If he's outside, he speaks to me, 'Hey neighbor, how you doing?'" Lincoln said.

Elva Garcia, 46, who lives two houses down from the Quicks, described him as a nice young man who stayed out of trouble and only came outside with his parents. She saw him, she said, just this past weekend, working with his parents in the front yard.

"We can't even believe it. What motive would he have?" Garcia said.

The attack came three months after a different Lone Star campus was the site of a shooting in which two people were hurt. The suspected gunman in that incident is charged with aggravated assault.

___

Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Warren in Dallas contributed to this report.

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/students-describe-bloody-scene-texas-college-072218198.html

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

PFT: Gronkowski's deal now a shrewd move

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As career implosions go, it doesn?t happen much more quickly than it did for cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who went in roughly 20 months from being the prize of the post-lockout free-agency class to a one-year, $1.35 million base deal.

But at least Asomugha is still in the league.

Defensive end Ray Edwards, who jumped from the Vikings to the Falcons after the lockout, was cut during his second season in Atlanta, and he never has been heard from again.

Except, of course, when knocking guys out with punches so ferocious they don?t even have to, you know, connect.

Edwards, who now embraces boxing in large part because the NFL no longer embraces him, is the subject of a slow-news-day profile in USA Today.? He claims he didn?t know about Nick Capes? plan to take a no-punch dive.? Edwards also claims that his football career didn?t deserve the knockout blow it received from the Falcons.

?When they say you?re a bad apple, they don?t want you on your team; Terrell Owens is evidence,? Edwards said.? ?Before [Owens] left the game, he was a 1,000-yard receiver, but he didn?t get a job because of people saying he?s a bad person.? It?s hard to get second chances in the NFL because it?s a product line coming out of college.

?I think [Falcons head coach] Mike Smith [gave me the problem player label] because me and him weren?t on the best of terms.? He felt someone was better than me, but I knew he wasn?t.? Players didn?t agree with him.? He just didn?t like me.?

Other football coaches are smart enough to factor in those potential personal conflicts.? Disregarding whatever the Falcons were saying, the Seahawks (who gave Owens a chance last year) brought Edwards in for a tire-kicking after he was cut.? But when defensive end Chris Clemons tore an ACL in the wild-card round, Pete Carroll and John Schneider dusted off concussion-lawsuit plaintiff Patrick Chukwurah for a divisional-round game at Atlanta ? even though Edwards surely would have had extra motivation (and maybe some inside information) to help Seattle win in the Georgia Dome.

?If you don?t do what they tell to do in the NFL, exactly how they tell you to do it, you have a bad attitude,? Edwards said.? ?I have a bad attitude because I want to be on the field?? That sounds like a winning attitude to me.?

No, it sounds like a guy who knows better than his coach, and who doesn?t know when to accept the coach?s decision and move on.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/08/in-hindsight-gronkowski-made-smart-move/related

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Japan increasingly nervous about North Korea nukes

TOKYO (AP) ? It's easy to write off North Korean threats to strike the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile as bluster: it has never demonstrated the capability to deploy a missile that could reach the Pacific island of Guam let alone the mainland U.S.

But what about Japan?

Though it remains a highly unlikely scenario, Japanese officials have long feared that if North Korea ever decides to play its nuclear card it has not only the means but several potential motives for launching an attack on Tokyo or major U.S. military installations on Japan's main island. And while a conventional missile attack is far more likely, Tokyo is taking North Korea's nuclear rhetoric seriously.

On Monday, amid reports North Korea is preparing a missile launch or another nuclear test, Japanese officials said they have stepped up measures to ensure the nation's safety. Japanese media reported over the weekend that the defense minister has put destroyers with missile interception systems on alert to shoot down any missile or missile debris that appears to be headed for Japanese territory.

"We are doing all we can to protect the safety of our nation," said chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga, though he and defense ministry officials refused to confirm the reports about the naval alert, saying they do not want to "show their cards" to North Korea.

North Korea, meanwhile, issued a new threat against Japan.

"We once again warn Japan against blindly toeing the U.S. policy," said an editorial Monday in the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of its ruling party. "It will have to pay a dear price for its imprudent behavior."

Following North Korea's third nuclear test in February, Japanese experts have increasingly voiced concerns that North Korea may already be able to hit ? or at least target ? U.S. bases and major population centers with nuclear warheads loaded onto its medium-range Rodong missiles.

"The threat level has jumped" following the nuclear test, said Narushige Michishita, a former Ministry of Defense official and director of the Security and International Studies Program at Tokyo's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

Unlike North Korea's still-under-construction intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, program, its arsenal of about 300 deployed Rodong missiles has been flight tested and is thought to have a range of about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles).

That is good enough to reach Tokyo and key U.S. military bases ? including Yokota Air Base, which is the headquarters of the U.S. 5th Air Force; Yokosuka Naval Base, where the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and its battle group are home-based; and Misawa Air Base, a key launching point for U.S. F-16 fighters.

Michishita, in an analysis published late last year, said a Rodong missile launched from North Korea would reach Japan within five to 10 minutes and, if aimed at the center of Tokyo, would have a 50-percent probability of falling somewhere within the perimeter of Tokyo's main subway system.

He said Japan would be a particularly tempting target because it is close enough to feasibly reach with a conventionally or nuclear-armed missile, and the persistent animosity and distrust dating back to Japan's colonization of the Korean peninsula in 1910 provides an ideological motive.

Also, a threat against Japan could be used to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Washington. Pyongyang could, for example, fire one or more Rodong missiles toward Tokyo but have them fall short to frighten Japan's leaders into making concessions, stay out of a conflict on the peninsula or oppose moves by the U.S. forces in Japan to assist the South Koreans, lest Tokyo suffer a real attack.

"Given North Korea's past adventurism, this scenario is within the range of its rational choices," Michishita wrote.

Officials stress that simply having the ability to launch an attack does not mean it would be a success. They also say North Korea is not known to have actually deployed any nuclear-tipped missiles.

Tokyo and Washington have invested billions of dollars in what is probably the world's most sophisticated ballistic missile defense shield since North Korea sent a long-range Taepodong missile over Japan's main island in 1998. Japan now has its own land- and sea-based interceptors and began launching spy satellites after the "Taepodong shock" to keep its own tabs on military activities inside North Korea.

For the time being, most experts believe, North Korea cannot attack the United States with a nuclear warhead because it can't yet fashion one light enough to mount atop a long-range ICBM. But Japanese analysts are not alone in believing North Korea has cleared the "miniaturization" problem for its medium-range weapons.

In April 2005, Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that North Korea had the capability to arm a missile with a nuclear device. In 2011, the same intelligence agency said North Korea "may now have" plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles, aircraft or "unconventional means."

The Pentagon has since backtracked, saying it isn't clear how small a nuclear warhead the North can produce.

But David Albright, a physicist at the Institute for Science and International Security think-tank, said in an email he believes the North can arm Rodong missiles with nuclear warheads weighing as much as several hundred kilograms (pounds) and packing a yield in the low kilotons.

That is far smaller than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki but big enough to cause significant casualties in an urban area.

Japan also is a better target than traditional enemy South Korea because striking so close to home with a nuclear weapon will blanket a good part of its own population with the fallout.

Regardless of whom North Korea strikes ? with a nuclear or conventional weapon ? it can be assured of one thing: a devastating counterattack by the United States.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-08-Japan-NKorea's%20Nuke%20Threat/id-30d1f2695ba343a796008281a6486e10

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