The New York Times reports that North Korea launched test missiles including a long range Taepodong 2, theoretically capable of striking the United States but which failed after less than a minute of flight and fell into the Japan Sea.
"It's very in your face to do it on the Fourth of July," said Ashton B. Carter, a Harvard professor who, with former defense secretary William J. Perry, had urged the Bush administration to destroy the Taepodong missile on the launching pad, advice the administration rejected.
By rejecting such advice the Bush Administration avoids further embarrassment to the People's Republic of China which had urged North Korea not to conduct the missile tests and to rejoin the six-nation nuclear talks.
The tests are sure to anger China — which expended considerable diplomatic prestige in pressing the North not to go ahead with the launching and to rejoin the six-nation talks — and raise doubts anew about the real extent of Beijing's influence on Pyongyang. The Chinese foreign ministry said it had no comment to make yet on the launching.
Imagine the reaction of the Chinese to a U.S. air strike on the Asian continent, even if it was against a common threat. Restraint keeps the Chinese on our side in this face-off against North Korea.
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