Asia-Pacific experiences a missile frenzy (Opinion)
A missile is launched during a drill of the Railway Mobile Missile Regiment in North Korea. (KCNA)
There can be no doubt that missiles are proliferating at an alarming rate in Asia-Pacific. Indeed, the past couple of weeks alone have seen almost a daily flurry of missile launches or developments.
China, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Japan, Australia. All are already, or will be soon, bristling with even more missiles of various shapes and sizes.
Brooding ominously in the background are China’s missiles. Over the past couple of months, satellite imagery analysts have discovered no fewer than three massive intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo fields deep in China’s interior.
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