North Korea prepares long-range missile launch

SEOUL – North Korea has transported its most advanced missile, believed to be capable of reaching Alaska, to a site where it could be ready for launch in a week or two, news reports said yesterday.

The reclusive communist country was also reportedly strengthening its defences and conducting amphibious assault exercises along its western shore, near disputed waters where deadly naval clashes with South Korea have occurred in the past.
With the launch, Pyongyang could also thumb its nose at UN Security Council attempts to rein it in after last week’s nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches.
South Korean media have speculated that the North wants to time the launch for around June 16, when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has a summit in Washington with President Barack Obama.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the missile had been sent by train to the newly completed missile facility of Dongchang-ni, about 60 kilometres from the Chinese border.
Yonhap, quoting government sources, said the missile could be ready to launch in a week or two. South Korean defence and intelligence officials refused to comment.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at a news conference in the Philippines, said North Korea appears to be working on a long-range missile, but it’s not clear yet what they plan to do with it.
Lee, hosting a conference of Southeast Asian leaders, warned the North against any provocation.
‘If North Korea turns its back on dialogue and peace and dares to carry out military threats and provocations, the Republic of Korea will never tolerate that,’ Lee said in his regular radio address.
Adding to tensions this week, the trial starts on Thursday in Pyongyang of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in ‘hostile acts.’
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband said yesterday the UK and other members of the council were drafting tough sanctions to rebuke North Korea over its ‘wrong, misguided, dangerous’ nuclear test.
Officials say financial sanctions, a toughened arms embargo and searches of ships carrying suspected nuclear cargo could be included.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the progress of the Security Council response during a telephone conversation Sunday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
– Nampa-AP