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US warns North Korea against 'provocative' missile test
Fri Jun 16, 4:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States sharply warned
North Korea against testing a ballistic missile, saying it would take steps to protect itself as speculation mounts about an imminent launch.
Together, our diplomacy and that of our allies has made clear to North Korea that a missile launch would be a provocative act that is not in their interests and will further isolate them from the world," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"We have a variety of national technical means that we could use to monitor the situation. We, of course, will take necessary preparatory steps to track any potential activities and to protect ourselves," he told reporters.
North Korea on Friday accused a US reconnaissance plane of intruding over its territorial space to spy on strategic targets, amid jitters over the Stalinist country's apparent preparations for a missile test.
South Korean and US officials have said that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.
On Friday, South Korean officials and analysts said that North Korea had not yet begun fueling a long-range missile on its northeast coast, the final step before a possible launch.
"It will take at least two days to fill the rocket with liquid fuel and if they finish it, we can say they are ready to start the countdown," Baek Seung-Joo from the government-backed Korean Institute for Defence Analyses told AFP.
Also on Friday, Japan warned North Korea against testing a ballistic missile, saying it would set back efforts to normalize diplomatic relations.
"If a ballistic missile is launched, it would directly affect our nation's security and constitute a violation of the Pyongyang Declaration," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the government spokesman, told reporters.
North Korea is believed to be developing the missile for a range of up to 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).
It shocked the world in August 1998 by firing a long-range Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. The North claimed that was a satellite launch.
Asked about the possible missile test, White House national security spokesman Fred Jones replied: "We're not going to discuss or speculate about intelligence matters. Our concerns about North Korea's missile program are well-known."
"North Korea should abide by the long-range missile test moratorium it has observed since 1999 and return to the six-party talks" aimed at ending the crisis over its nuclear weapons, said Jones.
Jones said North Korea should "negotiate steps to implement" an agreement in principle, made in September 2005, "in which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs."
The latest developments led prominent Democratic senators
Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin to send
President George W. Bush a letter on Thursday pushing for a policy change after "largely fruitless" six-party talks.
"We may be approaching the nightmare scenario in which our only option is to negotiate with a North Korea that can attack the United States with a nuclear weapon instead of a North Korea that is still working towards that capability," they wrote.
The lawmakers urged Bush to craft a "single, coordinated presidential strategy" to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, led by a senior envoy.
The United States had been involved with China, Russia, Japan and
South Korea in talks with North Korea to disband the reclusive state's nuclear arms program in return for security and diplomatic guarantees and energy aid.
Six-party talks came to a head in September 2005, with North Korea agreeing in principle to end its atomic weapons program.
But talks collapsed two months later, after the United States imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged US dollar counterfeiting and money laundering activities.
North Korea refused to come back to the table unless sanctions were lifted, while the United States did not budge, saying it cannot compromise on issues such as counterfeiting that threaten national sovereignty.
On Wednesday, White House national security adviser
Stephen Hadley said that a missile launch "would be a bad idea for North Korea."
North Korea's Air Force Command said Friday that a US RC-135 plane had spied on strategic targets for hours after flying over North Korean waters off the northeast coast.
"The ceaseless illegal intrusions of their strategic reconnaissance planes on spy missions have created an imminent danger of military clash in the sky above those waters," it warned in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency.
On Sunday, the North Korean air force threatened to "punish" US spy flights, recalling the fate of a US Navy plane it shot down in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) in 1969.
Another US-North Korean incident occurred when North Korea fired missiles at a SR-71 spy plane in August 1981. The jet was undamaged.
Fri Jun 16, 4:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States sharply warned
North Korea against testing a ballistic missile, saying it would take steps to protect itself as speculation mounts about an imminent launch.
Together, our diplomacy and that of our allies has made clear to North Korea that a missile launch would be a provocative act that is not in their interests and will further isolate them from the world," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"We have a variety of national technical means that we could use to monitor the situation. We, of course, will take necessary preparatory steps to track any potential activities and to protect ourselves," he told reporters.
North Korea on Friday accused a US reconnaissance plane of intruding over its territorial space to spy on strategic targets, amid jitters over the Stalinist country's apparent preparations for a missile test.
South Korean and US officials have said that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.
On Friday, South Korean officials and analysts said that North Korea had not yet begun fueling a long-range missile on its northeast coast, the final step before a possible launch.
"It will take at least two days to fill the rocket with liquid fuel and if they finish it, we can say they are ready to start the countdown," Baek Seung-Joo from the government-backed Korean Institute for Defence Analyses told AFP.
Also on Friday, Japan warned North Korea against testing a ballistic missile, saying it would set back efforts to normalize diplomatic relations.
"If a ballistic missile is launched, it would directly affect our nation's security and constitute a violation of the Pyongyang Declaration," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the government spokesman, told reporters.
North Korea is believed to be developing the missile for a range of up to 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).
It shocked the world in August 1998 by firing a long-range Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. The North claimed that was a satellite launch.
Asked about the possible missile test, White House national security spokesman Fred Jones replied: "We're not going to discuss or speculate about intelligence matters. Our concerns about North Korea's missile program are well-known."
"North Korea should abide by the long-range missile test moratorium it has observed since 1999 and return to the six-party talks" aimed at ending the crisis over its nuclear weapons, said Jones.
Jones said North Korea should "negotiate steps to implement" an agreement in principle, made in September 2005, "in which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs."
The latest developments led prominent Democratic senators
Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin to send
President George W. Bush a letter on Thursday pushing for a policy change after "largely fruitless" six-party talks.
"We may be approaching the nightmare scenario in which our only option is to negotiate with a North Korea that can attack the United States with a nuclear weapon instead of a North Korea that is still working towards that capability," they wrote.
The lawmakers urged Bush to craft a "single, coordinated presidential strategy" to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, led by a senior envoy.
The United States had been involved with China, Russia, Japan and
South Korea in talks with North Korea to disband the reclusive state's nuclear arms program in return for security and diplomatic guarantees and energy aid.
Six-party talks came to a head in September 2005, with North Korea agreeing in principle to end its atomic weapons program.
But talks collapsed two months later, after the United States imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged US dollar counterfeiting and money laundering activities.
North Korea refused to come back to the table unless sanctions were lifted, while the United States did not budge, saying it cannot compromise on issues such as counterfeiting that threaten national sovereignty.
On Wednesday, White House national security adviser
Stephen Hadley said that a missile launch "would be a bad idea for North Korea."
North Korea's Air Force Command said Friday that a US RC-135 plane had spied on strategic targets for hours after flying over North Korean waters off the northeast coast.
"The ceaseless illegal intrusions of their strategic reconnaissance planes on spy missions have created an imminent danger of military clash in the sky above those waters," it warned in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency.
On Sunday, the North Korean air force threatened to "punish" US spy flights, recalling the fate of a US Navy plane it shot down in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) in 1969.
Another US-North Korean incident occurred when North Korea fired missiles at a SR-71 spy plane in August 1981. The jet was undamaged.