NKorea says rocket launch not a problem

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - North Korea insisted Thursday that plans to send a satellite into space posed no threat as it came under intense pressure to call off what Washington and its allies say would be a missile test.

A US counter-proliferation official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP in Washington that a missile - believed to be a Taepodong-2 - has been moved to a launch pad.

That triggered a call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and South Korea for a United Nations response to any blast-off.

Communist North Korea reaffirmed Thursday that it would launch a peaceful communications satellite, and has scheduled it for April 4-8.

The United States, South Korea and Japan however believe Pyongyang wants a pretext to test its longest-range Taepodong-2 missile, which in theory could reach Alaska.

Two missile stages were visible in satellite photos but the top was covered with a shroud supported by a crane, US television network NBC reported citing US officials.

'We intend to raise this violation of the UN Security Council resolution, if it goes forward, in the UN,' Clinton said Wednesday.

'This provocative action, in violation of the United Nations mandate, will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences.'

Washington and allies say a satellite launch uses the same technology as a missile test and would breach UN Resolution 1718, passed in 2006, which orders the North to halt nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches.

A South Korean foreign ministry task force met to discuss counter-measures, said spokesman Moon Tae-Young.

He said Seoul planned to take the issue to the Security Council, and that any launch 'would constitute a serious threat and provocation to security on the Korean peninsula and to stability in Northeast Asia.'

North Korea's cabinet newspaper Minju Joson blasted South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak's government for its opposition.

'The Lee Myung-Bak group of traitors are showing themselves in their true colour as confrontational maniacs who spread malicious insults at whatever their brethren does,' it said.

Unlike previous launches in 1998 and 2006, North Korea has this time given advance notice, telling the UN aviation watchdog that the first booster will plunge into the Sea of Japan and the second into the Pacific.

The newspaper said that 'these actions demonstrate that there would be no problem with our republic's satellite launch.'

Intelligence sources told Yonhap news agency in South Korea it would take three to four days to fuel the missile at the Musudan-ri site on the northeast coast, but they believed Pyongyang would wait until the dates it has given to international shipping and aviation bodies.

North Korea's missiles have particularly alarmed Japan since a Taepodong-1 overflew its territory in 1998. A Taepodong-2 was tested for the first time in 2006 but failed after 40 seconds.

Japan's security council will meet this week on the issue, Prime Minister Taro Aso said. Tokyo has already said it is prepared to shoot down any rocket that threatens to land on its territory.

Sources quoted by Yonhap said two US warships and two from Japan - all of them equipped with Aegis technology to track and destroy missiles - are now operating in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

They said South Korea's first Aegis-class destroyer would join them.

The US Navy confirmed it had deployed two such warships in waters off Japan but did not specify where.

North Korea has said it would regard any attempt to shoot down a rocket as an act of war.

It has also warned that six-party nuclear disarmament talks - which group the two Koreas and the United States, Japan, Russia and China - will collapse if new UN sanctions are imposed over the launch.

Analysts say new sanctions are likely to be opposed by China and possibly also Russia, both veto-holding members of the UN Security Council.
Thu, Mar 26, 2009
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Do you think any country should be allowed to test its missiles?

What kind of rules should the U.N. impose on countries who test ballistic and nuclear missiles?

Have you heard of other countries making international headlines by testing missiles in the last few years? If so, which ones?
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