U.S. bolsters Hawaii's missile defense

Hawai’i, roughly 4,500 miles from the Korean Peninsula and just out of reach of even an upgraded Taepodong-2, which has an estimated range of 4,000 miles.

So far, the missile has proven inaccurate and has failed to reach a third stage, a critical leap to be able to hit the United States. A 2006 missile launch failed seconds after liftoff and fell into the ocean. In April, a Taepodong-2 rocket flew for about 13 minutes before plunging into the ocean 790 miles east of Japan as the second of its three stages was firing.

Philip Coyle, a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Defense Information and a former assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, told the Advertiser that the heightened U.S. military reaction to reports of a missile launch next month should not be taken as an indication of a greater threat to Hawai’i. “The actions Secretary Gates is taking are prudent but they are, in part, intended to indicate to North Korea that they shouldn’t be messing around, not because they can reach Hawai’i but because they shouldn’t be messing around, in general, like they have been,” he said.

Recent missile launches and last month’s underground nuclear detonation by North Korea brought international condemnation and new UN sanctions. Coyle said the actions are attempts by the regime to gain international recognition and re-engage the United States in negotiations on energy, food aid and other issues. “They would have to be suicidal to attack any part of the United States, even the farthest-out tip of the Aleutians. It would justify massive retaliation and bring an end to the regime. I’m the first to admit North Korea has done a lot of crazy things, but they are not suicidal,” Coyle said.

This is sword-rattling, and North Korea is very good at sword-rattling,”

Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research institute in Washington, D.C., offered further reassurance that Hawai’i is not being targeted by Pyongyang. He told the Advertiser that statements the missiles would be launched “toward Hawai’i” are misleading. “What they simply meant was ‘east,’ ” and from North Korea, “the largest expanse of open water is toward the east,” he said.

Klingner also noted it is standard practice for space launches to fly in an easterly trajectory in the direction of the Earth’s rotation. However, if North Korea has fixed the