(Nuclear?) Launch Detected!

~Big news over here in Japan, people. Continuing on the subject of airstrikes, you may have heard that everyone's favorite totalitarian nation, North Korea, just test-launched seven ballistic missiles, which all landed in the Sea of Japan just a few hundred miles from Yours Truly:

^ The missile launches were (thankfully) only tests, and crashed into the Sea of Japan a minute or so after launch. This was most likely the whole point: for North Korea to flex its military muscles so as to get more foreign aid. Or maybe Kim Jong Il was just feeling "so ronrey", and wanted attention.

^ North Korea tested six missiles with a "short" range of only a few hundred miles (i.e., enough to hit most of Japan) and one long-range missile (a Taepodong-2, pictured above) ttheoretically capable of hitting the Western United States:

^ Doesn't this map just make you sleep sounder at night? While the United States military is entirely committed to propping us a pseudo-democratic regime in the Middle East in order to secure oil supplies, a nation that has declared its intention to annihilate America with nuclear weapons is testing intercontinental missiles on the other side of the planet. The quick, decisive response from the White House was, "We are consulting with international partners on next steps."

Japan rightfully considers North Korea a huge threat, but can't really do anything except complain to the United States. People here in Niigata prefecture are terrified of North Korea for a number of reasons:

a) In 1998, N.K. launched a ballistic missile over Japan; in fact, it flew right over Niigata. During last year's earthquake, the manager of my school at first thought the shaking was a missile attack and was afraid to go outside.

b) Over the past few decades, North Korean spy ships have been prowling the waters off of Japan, occasionally slipping into Japanese territory to abduct a Japanese person, haul them back to Japan, and force them to help train North Korean spies. In fact, parents in Niigata use North Korea as a generic bogeyman to scare children into not traveling alone. "Don't stay outside at night, or the North Koreans will kidnap you!"

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July rockets. Over in this area, it seems we received some unexpected and extremely unwelcome rockets. ~Oyasumi!