This is a recent article that has been publicised on www.yahoo.com about the much 'world' awaited North Korean conflict that is beginning. Being that I am a US soldier I found it important to share that we are quite possibly coming to nuclear war.
~Sex.
SEOUL, South Korea – Strong winds may have done what a flurry of diplomacy couldn't: stop North Korea from launching a rocket the U.S. and other nations suspect is a cover for a long-range missile test, at least for a day.
Preparations for sending "an experimental communications satellite" into space were complete, North Korea's state-run media said Saturday morning, announcing: "The satellite will be launched soon."
But winds around the launch site in northeastern North Korea were "relatively strong," state radio announced at midday, possibly too high for the launch of the long-range Taepodong-2 rocket, analysts said.
"Apart from being very cautious, North Korea may have put off the launch purely due to weather factors such as strong winds," said Atsuhito Isozaki, an assistant professor of North Korean politics at Japan's Keio University.
With all eyes on the Musudan-ri launch pad — from missile interceptors in the waters, spy planes in the air and war rooms in Tokyo, Seoul and Washington — North Korea may also have wanted to keep the world guessing, said Koh Yu-hwan of Seoul's Dongguk University.
For weeks since North Korea announced its intention to send a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket, diplomats from five nations seeking to disarm the rogue state of nuclear weapons have pressed the North to refrain from a launch they say violates a U.N. resolution barring Pyongyang from ballistic activity.
North Korea insists the launch is a peaceful move to develop its space program, and informed international aviation and maritime authorities liftoff would take place sometime between April 4 and 8, between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.
But the U.S., South Korea, Japan and others suspect the launch is a guise for testing the regime's long-range missile technology — a step toward eventually mounting a nuclear weapon on a missile capable of reaching Alaska and beyond.
President Barack Obama said the launch would be "provocative" and would prompt the U.S. to "take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can't threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity."
Japan's foreign minister, Hirofumi Nakasone, said Saturday it would be "regrettable" if Pyongyang fails to heed its neighbors' appeals.
"The launch will damage peace and stability in Asia. We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from it," chief Japanese government spokesman Takeo Kawamura said.
Even President Hu Jintao of China, North Korea's chief ally, agreed during talks Friday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that the launch would "negatively affect peace and stability in Northeast Asia," Lee's office said.
U.N. Security Council diplomats say a draft resolution now circulating could reaffirm and tighten enforcement of the demands and sanctions of a resolution passed after North Korea conducted a nuclear test on 2006.
Taking no chances, Japan deployed warships and missile interceptors off its northern coast to shoot down any wayward parts the North said might litter the area as the rocket passes over the country.
North Korea has warned Japan any attempt to intercept the satellite would mean war and has threatened to shoot down American U-2 spy planes broaching its airspace.
Russia scrambled fighter jets to the Far East and put its troops there on alert, Sergei Roshcha, an aide to regional commander Lt. Gen. Valery Ivanov, told the Russian news agency Interfax.
The military is tracking the missile path and will not let any fragments fall on Russian territory, Vesti television said, citing a source in the Russian Armed Forces' General staff.
As South Korea's president huddled with his Cabinet, his government urged citizens working at joint economic zones in North Korea and in Pyongyang to return home because of the "grave" tensions on the peninsula. More than 600 South Koreans left the North on Saturday, the Unification Ministry said.
A South Korean who works at a factory in the northern border town of Kaesong remained in North Korean custody after being detained Monday for allegedly denouncing the North's political system and inciting female North Korean employees to flee the communist country.
North Korea also is holding two American journalists accused of crossing into the country illegally from China and engaging in "hostile acts." Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture, will be indicted and put on trial, Pyongyang has said.
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Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and John Heilprin at the U.N. contributed to this report.
