AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Chicago: President George W. Bush said the US missile defense system is modest but had a “reasonable chance” of shooting down a long-range North Korean missile fired at the United States. “Yeah, I think we had a reasonable chance of shooting it down. At least that's what the military commanders told me,” Bush said at a news conference.
US interceptor missiles were on alert but not used during North Korea's launch this week of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which failed early in flight.
“Our anti-ballistic systems are modest, they're new, they're new research, we're testing them. And so … it's hard for me to give you a probability of success,” he said.
“But nevertheless, the fact that a nontransparent society would be willing to tee up a rocket and fire it without identifying where it was going or what was on it means we need a ballistic missile system,” he said.
