marinefamily5
06-20-06, 11:13 AM
TOKYO -
North Korea asserted it has full autonomy to conduct missile tests, and outsiders do not have the right to criticize its plans, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.
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Before the latest statement, North Korea's apparent moves toward test launching a long-range ballistic missile already spiked tensions in the region and drew warnings of serious repercussions from the United States and others.
Australia on Tuesday strengthened its warning to North Korea, saying Canberra could downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang if the launch goes ahead.
In Paris, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said any North Korean missile test must draw "firm and just" international response.
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan urged North Korean leaders for restraint.
"I hope that the leaders of North Korea will listen to and hear what the world is saying. We are all worried," said Annan, who was in Paris to attend the inauguration of a new museum.
Earlier Tuesday, North Korea lashed out at the United States over its plans to build a missile defense shield but did not directly address concerns that it was preparing to test-fire a missile capable of reaching the United States.
There were conflicting reports about whether a missile launch was imminent.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK said Tuesday that satellite images showed fueling vehicles still positioned around the suspected launch site in the country's northeast, but workers spotted near the head of the missile Monday weren't visible Tuesday.
The launch site appears to be guarded by about 1,000 troops, the report added.
U.S. officials in Washington said Monday the missile was apparently fully assembled and fueled, but Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Jinen Nagase said Tuesday he could not confirm that fueling had been completed.
South Korea's spy agency also believes North Korea hasn't yet completed fueling the rocket because the 40 fuel tanks seen around a launch site weren't enough to fuel a projectile estimated to be 65 tons, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting lawmakers who attended an intelligence briefing.
Bad weather over the purported launch site in North Korea on Tuesday also dimmed chances of an immediate launch. The area was cloudy, with rain expected through Wednesday morning, said South's Korea Meteorological Administration.
Kyodo News quoted an unidentified official from the North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying that Pyongyang did not regard itself as bound by prior agreements to refrain from missile testing.
"Our actions are not bound by the Pyongyang Declaration, the joint declaration made at the six-party talks in September last year or any other statements," Kyodo quoted the official as telling Japanese reporters in North Korea.
The official said his remarks represented Pyongyang's official line on the matter, Kyodo said.
There was nothing in Tuesday's Kyodo report to explain Pyongyang's declaration.
An agreement reached at six-party nuclear disarmament talks in September does not specifically address missile tests by the North. However, negotiators pledged to work toward establishing peace in the region. The six countries participating in the talks — the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States — also agreed to work toward normalizing relations.
Three years earlier, North Korea and Japan agreed to a moratorium on missile tests. Signed by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the Pyongyang Declaration said the two countries agreed on cooperation to maintain and strengthen the peace and stability of Northeast Asia. It also stated that North Korea "would further maintain the moratorium on missile launching in and after 2003."
On Monday, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice warned the North that it will face consequences if it launches a missile, calling it a "very serious matter."
North Korea responded Tuesday by saying that U.S. moves to build a missile shield are fueling a dangerous arms race in space.
"The world is not allowed to avert its face from the grave situation in which it is facing the danger of a nuclear shower from the blue sky," the North's Minju Joson newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country's Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea also criticized a Japanese move to buy missiles and associated equipment from the U.S. to upgrade its missile defense system, claiming it showed an intent to become "a military giant" and mount "overseas aggression," the North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in commentary carried by KCNA.
As tensions grew, meanwhile, the U.S. staged war games in the western Pacific on Tuesday with 22,000 troops, 280 aircraft and three aircraft carriers.
U.S. officials have said the missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, has a firing range of 9,300 miles and could reach as far as the U.S. West Coast. Most analysts, however, say North Korea is still a long way from perfecting technology that would make the missile accurate and capable of carrying a nuclear payload.
The North's missile program has been a major security concern in the region, adding to worries about its pursuit of nuclear bombs. North Korea shocked its neighbors when it test-fired an earlier missile version over northern Japan in 1998.
In Seoul on Tuesday, Woo Sang-ho, a spokesman for South Korea's ruling party, said, "The government explained to North Korea the serious repercussions a missile launch would bring and strongly demanded that test fire plans be scrapped."
The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said the U.S. would like to achieve normal relations with the North, saying a missile test "would only further compound North Korea's isolation and put it more apart from the international community."
China, the North's staunchest ally, said it had "taken note of the report that North Korea is likely to fire a missile," according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. She declined to elaborate further.
Japan has said that a new launch would threaten Japanese security and violate an agreement North Korea signed in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2004. Rice said it would also end a self-imposed moratorium on test firings that North Korea has observed since 1999 and a disarmament bargain it struck with the United States and other powers last year.
After its last long-range missile launch in August 1998, the North had said it was seeking to put a satellite in orbit. Pyongyang is widely expected to make a similar claim if it goes ahead with another test launch.
North Korea has boycotted international nuclear talks since November over a U.S. crackdown on its alleged illegal financial activity.
Despite the latest standoff, North and South Korea opened two days of meetings in the North Korean border city of Kaesong on Tuesday to work out details over expanding a joint industrial zone there. Some experts believe the South would curtail its economic cooperation with the North in the event of a missile launch.
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung is also set to travel to Pyongyang next week to reprise the historic June 2000 summit between leaders from the North and South, although the reports of a possible missile test were complicating the arrangements, one of the former president's aides said Monday.
North Korea asserted it has full autonomy to conduct missile tests, and outsiders do not have the right to criticize its plans, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.
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Before the latest statement, North Korea's apparent moves toward test launching a long-range ballistic missile already spiked tensions in the region and drew warnings of serious repercussions from the United States and others.
Australia on Tuesday strengthened its warning to North Korea, saying Canberra could downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang if the launch goes ahead.
In Paris, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said any North Korean missile test must draw "firm and just" international response.
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan urged North Korean leaders for restraint.
"I hope that the leaders of North Korea will listen to and hear what the world is saying. We are all worried," said Annan, who was in Paris to attend the inauguration of a new museum.
Earlier Tuesday, North Korea lashed out at the United States over its plans to build a missile defense shield but did not directly address concerns that it was preparing to test-fire a missile capable of reaching the United States.
There were conflicting reports about whether a missile launch was imminent.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK said Tuesday that satellite images showed fueling vehicles still positioned around the suspected launch site in the country's northeast, but workers spotted near the head of the missile Monday weren't visible Tuesday.
The launch site appears to be guarded by about 1,000 troops, the report added.
U.S. officials in Washington said Monday the missile was apparently fully assembled and fueled, but Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Jinen Nagase said Tuesday he could not confirm that fueling had been completed.
South Korea's spy agency also believes North Korea hasn't yet completed fueling the rocket because the 40 fuel tanks seen around a launch site weren't enough to fuel a projectile estimated to be 65 tons, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting lawmakers who attended an intelligence briefing.
Bad weather over the purported launch site in North Korea on Tuesday also dimmed chances of an immediate launch. The area was cloudy, with rain expected through Wednesday morning, said South's Korea Meteorological Administration.
Kyodo News quoted an unidentified official from the North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying that Pyongyang did not regard itself as bound by prior agreements to refrain from missile testing.
"Our actions are not bound by the Pyongyang Declaration, the joint declaration made at the six-party talks in September last year or any other statements," Kyodo quoted the official as telling Japanese reporters in North Korea.
The official said his remarks represented Pyongyang's official line on the matter, Kyodo said.
There was nothing in Tuesday's Kyodo report to explain Pyongyang's declaration.
An agreement reached at six-party nuclear disarmament talks in September does not specifically address missile tests by the North. However, negotiators pledged to work toward establishing peace in the region. The six countries participating in the talks — the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States — also agreed to work toward normalizing relations.
Three years earlier, North Korea and Japan agreed to a moratorium on missile tests. Signed by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the Pyongyang Declaration said the two countries agreed on cooperation to maintain and strengthen the peace and stability of Northeast Asia. It also stated that North Korea "would further maintain the moratorium on missile launching in and after 2003."
On Monday, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice warned the North that it will face consequences if it launches a missile, calling it a "very serious matter."
North Korea responded Tuesday by saying that U.S. moves to build a missile shield are fueling a dangerous arms race in space.
"The world is not allowed to avert its face from the grave situation in which it is facing the danger of a nuclear shower from the blue sky," the North's Minju Joson newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country's Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea also criticized a Japanese move to buy missiles and associated equipment from the U.S. to upgrade its missile defense system, claiming it showed an intent to become "a military giant" and mount "overseas aggression," the North's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in commentary carried by KCNA.
As tensions grew, meanwhile, the U.S. staged war games in the western Pacific on Tuesday with 22,000 troops, 280 aircraft and three aircraft carriers.
U.S. officials have said the missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, has a firing range of 9,300 miles and could reach as far as the U.S. West Coast. Most analysts, however, say North Korea is still a long way from perfecting technology that would make the missile accurate and capable of carrying a nuclear payload.
The North's missile program has been a major security concern in the region, adding to worries about its pursuit of nuclear bombs. North Korea shocked its neighbors when it test-fired an earlier missile version over northern Japan in 1998.
In Seoul on Tuesday, Woo Sang-ho, a spokesman for South Korea's ruling party, said, "The government explained to North Korea the serious repercussions a missile launch would bring and strongly demanded that test fire plans be scrapped."
The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said the U.S. would like to achieve normal relations with the North, saying a missile test "would only further compound North Korea's isolation and put it more apart from the international community."
China, the North's staunchest ally, said it had "taken note of the report that North Korea is likely to fire a missile," according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu. She declined to elaborate further.
Japan has said that a new launch would threaten Japanese security and violate an agreement North Korea signed in 2002 and reaffirmed in 2004. Rice said it would also end a self-imposed moratorium on test firings that North Korea has observed since 1999 and a disarmament bargain it struck with the United States and other powers last year.
After its last long-range missile launch in August 1998, the North had said it was seeking to put a satellite in orbit. Pyongyang is widely expected to make a similar claim if it goes ahead with another test launch.
North Korea has boycotted international nuclear talks since November over a U.S. crackdown on its alleged illegal financial activity.
Despite the latest standoff, North and South Korea opened two days of meetings in the North Korean border city of Kaesong on Tuesday to work out details over expanding a joint industrial zone there. Some experts believe the South would curtail its economic cooperation with the North in the event of a missile launch.
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung is also set to travel to Pyongyang next week to reprise the historic June 2000 summit between leaders from the North and South, although the reports of a possible missile test were complicating the arrangements, one of the former president's aides said Monday.