Japan and US warn N.Korea against missile launch

TOKYO (Reuters) – The United States and Japan issued new
warnings to North Korea amid further signs on Saturday that the
secretive state was planning a long-range missile launch.

North Korea has moved key components of a long-range
missile to a launch pad as well as 10 large liquid-gas tanks to
fuel it, a South Korean newspaper reported, citing government
officials.

In a separate report, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency
quoted diplomatic sources in Seoul as saying a missile test
could come as early as on Sunday or Monday.

The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo cited a South Korean
government official as saying North Korea had deployed its
long-range Taepodong-2 missile to a launch pad and had been
testing components of the launch platform.

“North Korea is testing operations of the missile launch
pad,” the paper cited an official as saying.

The sources said the information came from spy satellite
images analyzed by U.S. and South Korean officials.

“We take it very seriously that this is a grave and
provocative action that the North Koreans are contemplating and
we hope that they will turn back from launching a missile,”
U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told reporters after
meeting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso to discuss the
matter.

Yonhap quoted one diplomatic official as saying, “There is
a possibility that North Korea may test missiles on 18 or 19.”

South Korean government officials were not immediately
available for comment. Seoul has warned North Korea not to
test, saying a launch would create grave concern for regional
security.

Japan has conveyed a warning to North Korea through a
diplomatic channel in Beijing, and the United States has done
so through contacts in New York, a Japanese official said.

Asked if sanctions would be considered if North Korea
proceeded with a launch, Schieffer said: “We would have all
options on the table and would consider many different
alternatives to dissuade them from doing that in the future.”

North Korea has missiles that can hit all of South Korea
and probably all of Japan, many experts have said.

The launch, expected to involve a Taepodong-2 missile with
an estimated range of 3,500 to 4,300 km (2,175 to 2,670 miles),
could come as early as this weekend, U.S. officials have said.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency said North Korea may say that it
had put a satellite into orbit after carrying out a missile
test in a bid to deflect international criticism.

Quoting military intelligence sources in a report out of
Beijing, Kyodo said North Korean scientists had been working to
determine a satellite orbit since earlier this year.

North Korea shocked the world in 1998 by firing a
Taepodong-1 missile that flew over Japan and landed in the
Pacific Ocean.

Pyongyang, which maintains the 1998 launch was a rocket for
sending a satellite into orbit, promised in 1999 to adhere to a
moratorium on ballistic missile launches.