General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCould an accident with a missle start a war?
Here's one crazy scenario....
North Korea fires a missile over Japan towards Guam. Japan shoots it down over land. The missile crashes into a school yard killing dozens. Japan retaliates against NK. NK starts shooting at Japan, the US, and South Korea. China steps up and backs up North Korea. China decides to assert themselves over the disputed islands. Japan is not going to stand for that and now Japan and China are at war in addition to the Japanese war in NK and the Chinese war in NK.
Can't happen? Far Fetched? It's not the first crazy thing to set off a war... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria
That is all for now. Sweet dreams
brooklynite
(94,792 posts)...NK has TWO missiles and a crappy Air Force; how do they "start shooting at Japan"?
Rex
(65,616 posts)sure why not? That can start a war with anyone imo. I mean if it lands in the sea like all the rest, then I doubt you will see a response.
markiv
(1,489 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)And DPRK does not likely have a nuclear weapon. Even if they do, it is not likely to have weaponized let alone configured for their missiles, which are none too reliable.
I mean, after all, this shit really is rocket science and the DPRK has not one clearly successful test of any of those elements. Especially their nuke tests which very much look like nuclear duds.
Relax, people.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)One that was launched in 1998 flew over Hokkaido. The most recent one, which was launched last December, flew over Okinawa. Thus, their missiles definitely have the range to hit Japan, and the Japanese government has deemed it to be a serious enough threat to put Tokyo area defenses on red alert.
longship
(40,416 posts)And their past tests have been a bit dodgy and nobody outside the DPRK knows whether they are going where they are supposed to go.
We kind of know that their nukes are not very good, plus weaponizing them is a question, let alone putting them on a missile. AFAIK, they haven't had a single successful test. The last one apparently had only a 6 KTon yield and produced no apparent chain reaction daughter products. It was a U core, which is pretty simple and they couldn't even get that to work.
So, who knows what they have.
But you are correct, the people within the putative range of this thing should take precautions. But people in Austin, TX should sleep soundly. The US Navy has assets in the area, too.
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)...the Israelis were still able to hold off.
I mean, if that is not a sign of restraint on a governmental level, I don't know what is. Japan may shoot them down if they fly overhead. Might. But nobody's in a hurry to start WW III- except Jong-un.
My 2 cents.
PB
markiv
(1,489 posts)on the spot
which we paid
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)markiv
(1,489 posts)and was shocked at the brazenness of it
defacto7
(13,485 posts)China under no circumstances will take the NK side if war breaks. They have too much to loose. Their best interest would be to pummel NK before it messes up SK.
One other thing... if Japan shoots it down and it falls on Japan, why would Japan retaliate?