Obama urged not to downsize missile defense amid N.K. rocket launch

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Yonhap) -- The Barack Obama administration was urged Monday not to shrink its missile defense system in light of recent rocket launches by North Korea and Iran.

"The ballistic missile threat has not diminished; in fact, it is growing," said
James Carafano, senior research fellow at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center
for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. "The need to defend the
United States and Western Europe has not changed. Abrupt changes in missile
defense programs that have been under development for over a decade make no
sense."
The conservative scholar was discussing Obama's decision to cut about 15 percent
of the Pentagon budget for missile defense and scrap the previous Bush
administration's plans to deploy missile defenses in Western Europe, which is
vehemently opposed by Russia.
Carafano also urged Obama to get tougher on North Korea.
"Despite the advance of the North Korean and Iranian long-range missile programs,
the administration justified its decision by declaring it was more important to
focus on regional missile threats," he said in a contribution to the foundation's
Web site under the title "100 Days of Obama's Presidency: Serious Questions on
National Security Strategies."
"In addition, the White House downplayed the U.S. response to provocative missile
launches by Iran and North Korea, as well as failing to obtain a serious U.N.
Security Council response to either incident," he said.
He was referring to the failure by the U.S. government to have the U.N. Security
Council adopt a legally binding resolution to condemn North Korea's April 5
rocket launch, which Pyongyang insists was part of its space program to orbit a
satellite.
Washington agreed to a council presidential statement that condemned the rocket
launch and called for financial and trade embargoes for three North Korean firms
involved in trading parts for missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
Critics denounced the statement as an opinion that carries no action.
Carafano urged the administration to "reconsider dramatic and unwarranted missile
defense and Pentagon procurement cuts."
On other pressing national security issues such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan, he said, "the Obama Administration has largely continued the strategic
course laid out by the Bush Administration."
hdh@yna.co.kr