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06-19-2006, 07:12 PM
June 19, 2006
3 Neighbors of North Korea Back U.S. Warning
By CHOE SANG-HUN, International Herald Tribune
SEOUL, June 19 — Tensions over North Korea's missile program escalated sharply today as Japan, Australia and New Zealand joined Washington in warning the the communist state not test an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say could reach parts of the United States.
The 115-foot Taepodong-2 missile stands ready to take off from Musudan-Ri, a remote village on the northeast coast of North Korea, after engineers apparently completed loading liquid fuel into its rocket boosters.
A successful test would provide the strongest indication yet that North Korea was developing the capacity to deliver chemical, biological or perhaps nuclear warheads to targets as far away as the continental United States.
Such a development would drastically increase international concerns over the regime's arsenal and its potential for working with terrorist groups.
"Even now, we hope that they will not do this," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said today. "But if they ignore our views and launch a missile, then the Japanese government, consulting with the United States, would have to respond harshly."
J. Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, said in Tokyo that Washington would seek action by the United Nations Security Council if there was a missile test.
"I think sanctions would have to be considered, but I wouldn't want to describe what actions we might take," Mr. Schieffer said. "I think we would regard it as a very, very serious matter, worthy of discussion and worthy of action by the Security Council."
Australia, one of the few Western counties with diplomatic relations with North Korea, said it had summoned the North Korean ambassador in Canberra and warned against a test.
"North Korea would be gravely mistaken if it thinks that a missile test would improve its bargaining position in the six-party talks," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
New Zealand's new envoy to North Korea will state her country's opposition to a test when she presents her credentials later this week in Pyongyang, said Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
In Seoul, South Korea's governing Uri Party urged North Korea to "not put its friend in danger" by testing a missile. The missile test could also thwart a planned trip by the former president, Kim Dae Jung, who wants to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang this summer.
South Korea also said today that tensions over missiles would not stop the two Koreas from opening economic talks Tuesday to discuss cooperation in an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North, a project South Korean officials have already said will continue.
Some analysts believe that North Korea will probably carry out a test to regain world attention that has been shifted to concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, and to force the Bush administration to engage in direct negotiations with Pyongyang.
"If they have loaded the fuel, all they got left is a countdown," said Sohn Young Hwan, a former South Korean government missile expert who now works at Security Management Institute, a Seoul-based research agency affiliated with the National Assembly. "It means that they have pushed the situation to the very brink."
Mr. Sohn said he saw "a more than 90 percent chance" of North Korea testing the missile. Siphoning off the highly poisonous and corrosive liquid fuel from the missile to cancel a test is technically complicated, he said.
A successful test would make North Korean missiles more marketable to Iran and other clients in the Middle East.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/world/asia/19cnd-japan.html?hp&ex=1150776000&en=7f4c938972c1fd51&ei=5094&partner=homepage)
3 Neighbors of North Korea Back U.S. Warning
By CHOE SANG-HUN, International Herald Tribune
SEOUL, June 19 — Tensions over North Korea's missile program escalated sharply today as Japan, Australia and New Zealand joined Washington in warning the the communist state not test an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say could reach parts of the United States.
The 115-foot Taepodong-2 missile stands ready to take off from Musudan-Ri, a remote village on the northeast coast of North Korea, after engineers apparently completed loading liquid fuel into its rocket boosters.
A successful test would provide the strongest indication yet that North Korea was developing the capacity to deliver chemical, biological or perhaps nuclear warheads to targets as far away as the continental United States.
Such a development would drastically increase international concerns over the regime's arsenal and its potential for working with terrorist groups.
"Even now, we hope that they will not do this," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said today. "But if they ignore our views and launch a missile, then the Japanese government, consulting with the United States, would have to respond harshly."
J. Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, said in Tokyo that Washington would seek action by the United Nations Security Council if there was a missile test.
"I think sanctions would have to be considered, but I wouldn't want to describe what actions we might take," Mr. Schieffer said. "I think we would regard it as a very, very serious matter, worthy of discussion and worthy of action by the Security Council."
Australia, one of the few Western counties with diplomatic relations with North Korea, said it had summoned the North Korean ambassador in Canberra and warned against a test.
"North Korea would be gravely mistaken if it thinks that a missile test would improve its bargaining position in the six-party talks," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
New Zealand's new envoy to North Korea will state her country's opposition to a test when she presents her credentials later this week in Pyongyang, said Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
In Seoul, South Korea's governing Uri Party urged North Korea to "not put its friend in danger" by testing a missile. The missile test could also thwart a planned trip by the former president, Kim Dae Jung, who wants to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang this summer.
South Korea also said today that tensions over missiles would not stop the two Koreas from opening economic talks Tuesday to discuss cooperation in an inter-Korean industrial complex in the North, a project South Korean officials have already said will continue.
Some analysts believe that North Korea will probably carry out a test to regain world attention that has been shifted to concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, and to force the Bush administration to engage in direct negotiations with Pyongyang.
"If they have loaded the fuel, all they got left is a countdown," said Sohn Young Hwan, a former South Korean government missile expert who now works at Security Management Institute, a Seoul-based research agency affiliated with the National Assembly. "It means that they have pushed the situation to the very brink."
Mr. Sohn said he saw "a more than 90 percent chance" of North Korea testing the missile. Siphoning off the highly poisonous and corrosive liquid fuel from the missile to cancel a test is technically complicated, he said.
A successful test would make North Korean missiles more marketable to Iran and other clients in the Middle East.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/world/asia/19cnd-japan.html?hp&ex=1150776000&en=7f4c938972c1fd51&ei=5094&partner=homepage)