It strikes me that they (bush and them) are trying to frighten the people of this country. This comes close on the heels of the warning to keep plastic bags, duct tape, and a 3-day water supply ready in case of chem/bio attack.

This is the first time I have seen information that they had a delivery system for their Nukes. These people are fully capable of firing off these missiles if they feel the least bit threatened. Then China would come over the hill, would be like the 1950s all over again. Only this time the weapons are much nastier. We are not dealing with rational people.

North Korea has been widely suspected of possesing this capability for at least ten years as I recall. Aviation Week & Space Technology has in particular mentioned this several times over the years. Unfortunately I never kept any of my back issues so I can't give you specific citations, but a visit to your local library should suffice.

I mentioned N. Korea had this capability, albeit only in passing, in The Politics of Dancing:

Everyone said George Bush was a bomb-throwing moron when he called North Korea part of the "axis of evil". It was only after more than a year of digging that the press quietly admitted that, well, yes, those things in that satellite photo do look an awful lot like giant concentration camps after all don't they, and gosh, did you realize they're working on ICBMs that could hit Los Angeles?

It's not the government that're causing the worry, it's the press slowly working itself into a frenzy. The capability has been there for years. Why didn't they report it until now? Why did it take a government press release? Why haven't the concentration camps been mentioned more often?

Because satellite photos don't sell advertising, and most journalism majors are too busy building careers to actually report the damned news.

It's that whole damn press thing again.
I say, let's put the press and politicians in the front lines as defense. They'll talk the enemy to death, or the enemy will be too busy bumping them off to notice our real army before it's too late.

I totally agree with Cindy's idea of a useful job for the press.