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N. Korea launches anti-ship missile
02/25/2003
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile that landed in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said Tuesday.
U.S. and Korean officials said the missile was likely a small, conventional one, not the ballistic rocket that U.S. officials fear can possibly hit parts of the western United States.
But the testing -- which coincided with the arrival in Seoul of Secretary of State Colin Powell -- was virtually certain to raise tensions in a region already reeling from a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program, which U.S. officials say could lead to nuclear weapons production.
"We believe that this is part of North Korea's usual tests of its weapons during the military exercise," said Col. Kim Sung-ok, an officer at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The missile launch came on the eve of the inauguration of South Korea's new president, Roh Moo-hyun. Powell arrived in Seoul on Monday evening to attend.
A senior State Department official accompanying Powell said, "We understand the missile test was short range." The official said it was fired from Hamkyong Province in northeastern North Korea.
The missile crashed into the Sea of Japan, known to Koreans as the East Sea, but it was not clear where in the 180-mile-wide body of water separating the two nations it landed.
In 2001, North Korea imposed a voluntary moratorium on ballistic missile testing through 2003. The North reaffirmed the moratorium in a statement issued after a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Sept. 17.
In recent months, fears have risen that North Korea may resume missile tests amid the international standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Pyongyang has recently hinted it may resume testing.
Besides admitting to a secret nuclear weapons program, the North has pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and threatened to abandon the armistice that ended the Korean War five decades ago.
Earlier this month, U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of reaching the western United States. Washington also considers North Korea the top peddler of missile parts and technology to the Middle East.
U.S. envoy Charles Twining, a veteran retired ambassador who is attending the Non-Alignment Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as an observer, called the timing of the launch strange.
"Our Secretary of State is in Seoul today and this just happened obviously at the time of the American visit and it happens at the time of the presidential inauguration, and it's very strange timing," he said.
"It just makes it even clearer that something has to be done to persuade North Korea by diplomatic means to work with the international community."
This month, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Howard H. Baker, warned of a possible North Korean missile test over Japan, and said Washington and Tokyo apparently have no concrete plans for intercepting such a rocket or otherwise reacting.
In August 1998, North Korea fired a multistage missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific, proving that Pyongyang is capable of striking any part of Japanese territory. U.S. officials believe that missile to have been a Taepo Dong-1 missile.
North Korea has a two-stage Taepo Dong 2, which may be able to reach Alaska or Hawaii, the United States government has said.
It is also believed to have developed a three-stage version of its Taepo Dong 2 missile. But it has not been flight-tested, U.S. officials said. That leaves some questions about the North Korea's capability to successfully launch the missile.
CIA Director George J. Tenet acknowledged the North Koreans have the capability to reach the western United States with a long-range missile.
However, U.S. intelligence officials had earlier said that North Korea has demonstrated no new missile capabilities in the last year.
A 2001 U.S. government report said a three-stage Taepo Dong could deliver a several-hundred-pound payload from North Korea to targets about 9,300 miles away -- sufficient to strike all of North America.
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=60374
02/25/2003
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile that landed in the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said Tuesday.
U.S. and Korean officials said the missile was likely a small, conventional one, not the ballistic rocket that U.S. officials fear can possibly hit parts of the western United States.
But the testing -- which coincided with the arrival in Seoul of Secretary of State Colin Powell -- was virtually certain to raise tensions in a region already reeling from a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program, which U.S. officials say could lead to nuclear weapons production.
"We believe that this is part of North Korea's usual tests of its weapons during the military exercise," said Col. Kim Sung-ok, an officer at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The missile launch came on the eve of the inauguration of South Korea's new president, Roh Moo-hyun. Powell arrived in Seoul on Monday evening to attend.
A senior State Department official accompanying Powell said, "We understand the missile test was short range." The official said it was fired from Hamkyong Province in northeastern North Korea.
The missile crashed into the Sea of Japan, known to Koreans as the East Sea, but it was not clear where in the 180-mile-wide body of water separating the two nations it landed.
In 2001, North Korea imposed a voluntary moratorium on ballistic missile testing through 2003. The North reaffirmed the moratorium in a statement issued after a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Sept. 17.
In recent months, fears have risen that North Korea may resume missile tests amid the international standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Pyongyang has recently hinted it may resume testing.
Besides admitting to a secret nuclear weapons program, the North has pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and threatened to abandon the armistice that ended the Korean War five decades ago.
Earlier this month, U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of reaching the western United States. Washington also considers North Korea the top peddler of missile parts and technology to the Middle East.
U.S. envoy Charles Twining, a veteran retired ambassador who is attending the Non-Alignment Movement summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as an observer, called the timing of the launch strange.
"Our Secretary of State is in Seoul today and this just happened obviously at the time of the American visit and it happens at the time of the presidential inauguration, and it's very strange timing," he said.
"It just makes it even clearer that something has to be done to persuade North Korea by diplomatic means to work with the international community."
This month, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Howard H. Baker, warned of a possible North Korean missile test over Japan, and said Washington and Tokyo apparently have no concrete plans for intercepting such a rocket or otherwise reacting.
In August 1998, North Korea fired a multistage missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific, proving that Pyongyang is capable of striking any part of Japanese territory. U.S. officials believe that missile to have been a Taepo Dong-1 missile.
North Korea has a two-stage Taepo Dong 2, which may be able to reach Alaska or Hawaii, the United States government has said.
It is also believed to have developed a three-stage version of its Taepo Dong 2 missile. But it has not been flight-tested, U.S. officials said. That leaves some questions about the North Korea's capability to successfully launch the missile.
CIA Director George J. Tenet acknowledged the North Koreans have the capability to reach the western United States with a long-range missile.
However, U.S. intelligence officials had earlier said that North Korea has demonstrated no new missile capabilities in the last year.
A 2001 U.S. government report said a three-stage Taepo Dong could deliver a several-hundred-pound payload from North Korea to targets about 9,300 miles away -- sufficient to strike all of North America.
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=60374
