North Korea Test-Fires Two Missiles

[American Patriot]

U.S. warns North Korea
Missile test would be 'provocative act,' Rice says

Steven Edwards, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, June 20, 2006

UNITED NATIONS - Tensions with North Korea escalated yesterday as the Communist state appeared poised to test fire a long-range ballistic missile that experts say might have the capacity to reach the United States.

Japan, Australia and New Zealand joined Washington in warning North Korea not to proceed with the launch, which would give the clearest indication yet that the government of dictator Kim Jong-il seeks the ability to deliver nuclear, biological or chemical weapons over a wide area.

The launch would end a missile-test moratorium North Korea declared following its test of a shorter-range missile in 1998 that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.

This time, Japan said it would consider a new firing an act of war if the missile were to land on Japanese territory.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Washington would see it as a "very serious matter and indeed a provocative act."

U.S. intelligence officials believe that a launch could come any time in the next month after satellite photographs showed a 32-metre Taepodong-2 missile -- fitted with rocket boosters and filled with liquid fuel -- in Musudan-Ri, a remote village on North Korea's northeastern coast.

The United States and Japan were yesterday consulting at the United Nations, where Japan is expected to call for an immediate convening of the UN Security Council if the launch goes ahead.

"Even now, we hope they don't do this," said Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister

"But if they ignore our views and launch the missile, then the Japanese government, consulting with the United States, would have to respond harshly."

The United States believes North Korea has already developed a nuclear bomb, but several rounds of six-nation talks designed to convince the regime in Pyongyang to curb its nuclear ambitions have failed to make substantive progress.

"North Korea would be gravely mistaken if it thinks that a missile test would improve its bargaining position in the six-party talks," said Alexander Downer, Australia's Foreign Minister.

His country is one of the few in the West that has diplomatic relations with North Korea, and the Australian government yesterday summoned the North Korean ambassador in Canberra to express its opposition to a new test.

New Zealand will express its opposition when its new envoy to North Korea arrives in Pyongyang later in the week, said Winston Peters, New Zealand's Foreign Minister.

But South Korea sought to maintain a level of business-as-usual, saying the rising tensions would not prevent planned talks on economic ties from going ahead today.

In a reflection of Seoul's more conciliatory way of dealing with its neighbour, the country's governing Uri party urged Pyongyang "not put its friend in danger" by launching the missile.

A test may, however, lead to cancellation of a planned meeting this summer between Kim Dae Jung, former South Korean president, and Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.

Analysts said North Korea may be moving toward a new test to again make itself the focus of U.S. concern after seeing how Washington made concessions toward Iran when that country refused to back down over its nuclear program.

[American Patriot]

Japan, U.S. warn North Korea over possible missile test

Last Updated Tue, 20 Jun 2006 08:25:40 EDT
CBC News




The United States and Japan have warned North Korea against launching a long-range missile.

North Korea North Korea

The warning comes after reports that Pyongyang appears to have completed fueling for a test flight that could possibly reach as far as Alaska.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said in a television interview that his country would seek an immediate meeting of the United Nations Security Council if Pyongyang carries out the test.

Aso did not elaborate on what Japan and the United States would do in the event of a launch, only revealing that the "responses will be rather harsh."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington that she was taking the threat seriously since "it would once again show North Korea [is] determined to deepen its isolation, determined not to take a path that is a path of compromise a path of peace, but rather instead to once again to sabre rattle," she said.

Japanese Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga says officials are exchanging information "around the clock" on a possible launch of the North Korean Taepodong-2, which has a range of 3,500 to 6,000 kilometres.

North Korea fired a missile over Japan in 1998 without warning.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said Washington is aware of the possible threat. "We're not sitting around wringing our hands, either. We're preparing if we have to and consultations is the first step in that."

Pyongyang's only comment on the controversy came on its evening news program.

The announcer said "the U.S. claim that North Korea has a missile that can hit the U.S. is unconfirmed speculation. And they said North Korea has the due right to have a missile that can immediately halt the United States' reckless aerial espionage activity."

[American Patriot]

Jun. 20, 2006 13:52
Report: North Korea still fueling missile
By ASSOCIATED PRESS


Satellite images show North Korea is still fueling a missile in preparation for a possible test, a news report said Tuesday.

Many fueling vehicles have been spotted around the suspected launch site, suggesting that Pyongyang is still in the process of fueling what the United States contends is a long-range missile, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing US military sources in Japan.

But workers spotted near the head of the missile on Monday weren't visible Tuesday, NHK cited the sources as saying.

The site in the northeast of the country appears to be guarded by about 1,000 troops, the report added.

[American Patriot]

North Korea missile threat called "very disturbing" by Gregoire

By Seattle Times staff

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire said Monday the threat of a missile attack by North Korea reinforces the idea U.S. troops should leave Iraq as soon as possible.

Gregoire told reporters during her regular news briefing that she talked over the weekend with the head of the Washington National Guard, Major Gen. Timothy Lowenberg, who convinced her that America's defenses are down because of the war effort.

Several published reports Monday said North Korea may be on the verge of testing a missile that could reach the United States.

Gregoire brought up the possible missile threat at the end of her news briefing: "I've wanted to respond to the very disturbing news this morning of North Korea and a three-stage rocket that literally could reach Seattle."

"I'm disturbed by what we're hearing," she continued. "It is not the news that I think any of us should have to hear from North Korea, and I want Washingtonians to understand the security risks to the nation and to us. ... To me, this points out that we need to bring our troops home. This is another wake-up call."

Gregoire hadn't previously spoken on Iraq. News that North Korea may have a missile that potentially could reach Seattle prompted her comments, said communications director Holly Armstrong.

The governor is alarmed enough that she and Lowenberg talked about planning sessions for the National Guard "because the security and safety of Washingtonians has to be our No. 1 priority."

Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company

[American Patriot]

North Korea still fueling missile

http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/...82259-NKorea-0

NHK also quoted South Korean intelligence officials as saying the missile holds about 65 tons of liquid fuel. Even if the 40 fueling trucks spotted so far have all been used, that wouldn't be enough to complete the refueling process, the officials said, according to NHK, according to the AP.

Meanwhile, workers spotted near the head of the missile on Monday weren't visible Tuesday, NHK cited the U.S. sources as saying. The site in the northeast of the country appears to be guarded by about 1,000 troops, the report said.

[American Patriot]

Transcript

This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

US warns North Korea over long-range missiles

The World Today - Tuesday, 20 June , 2006 12:32:00
Reporter: Kim Landers


ELEANOR HALL: The United States is warning North Korea that if it launches a long-range ballistic missile, the US will consider it a "provocative act".

North Korea appears to be on the verge of test-firing a missile which could reach the American west coast.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this was a "very serious matter" and that the US Ambassador to the United Nations was already consulting the Security Council.

Australia and other countries have also cautioned North Korea against the test.

In Washington, Correspondent Kim Landers reports.

KIM LANDERS: US intelligence officials are saying North Korea's long-range ballistic missile is fully fuelled and ready to fire.

It's thought to be capable of reaching the west coast of the United States, but no one knows where the missile will go and what it might carry, including a nuclear weapon.

(sound of North Korean reporter speaking)

North Korea has just mentioned the missile program for the first time on the evening television news.

The report stated the country has "the due right to have a missile".

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has joined Australia, Japan and South Korea in warning North Korea not to launch the missile.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: And so it would be a very serious matter and indeed a provocative act should North Korea decide to launch that missile.

We will obviously consult on next steps, but I can assure everyone that it would be taken with utmost seriousness. I think it is already taken with utmost seriousness by regional states and by the world.

KIM LANDERS: US President George W. Bush has joined the frantic diplomatic effort. He's made phone calls to more than a dozen unidentified heads of state about it.

The US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, says he's holding preliminary consultations with Security Council members on steps that might be taken if North Korea fires a missile.

JOHN BOLTON: But we're not sitting around wringing our hands either, we're preparing, if we have to, and consultations is the first step I think.

KIM LANDERS: William Cohen, a former defence secretary in the Clinton administration, says the UN must act if the test goes ahead.

WILLIAM COHEN: The US should bring it before the Security Council. We have Australia, Japan, the United States. We have the South Koreans, who would certainly be urging action on the part of the Security Council.

China and Russia once again play a key role here, but to point out, China has a lot at stake here. If in fact North Korea fires this missile, test fires this, and it is seen as being supportive of that, or not coming out in strong opposition to it, that could certainly have an impact upon China as well.

KIM LANDERS: The US hasn't ruled out attempting to shoot the missile down.

William Cohen also says other military options must remain on the table.

WILLIAM COHEN: But we also want to make sure that we exhaust diplomacy. Taken military action when you have half a million, 800,000 troops just north of the DMZ (demilitarised zone) is not something that we should look upon lightly.

KIM LANDERS: Wendy Sherman is a former Clinton adviser on North Korea, and worked at the State Department when the regime last tested a missile in 1998.

She says what's needed is an approach similar to the one being taken with Iran, that is tough diplomacy.

WENDY SHERMAN: So I think that the sanctions that were suspended under the Clinton administration, when the moratorium was achieved, and when other diplomacy went forward, probably will be slapped back on.

I think we will see a referral to the Security Council. I think that we'll see a lot of punitive action, but I also hope that we see the Bush administration do what many of them urged us to do during the Clinton years, which is look at their policy.

They have been in six-party talks, the vehicle for negotiations with North Korea, but there really hasn't been any real diplomacy that's gone on. They have not approached this in the way they are now approaching Iran, at a high level, with a real package of disincentives, but also a real package of incentives.

KIM LANDERS: The fuelling of the missile reportedly gives North Korea a launch window of about a month, and some US experts say it's very difficult to reverse, meaning the test is more than likely to go ahead.

This is Kim Landers in Washington for The World Today.

[American Patriot]

20 June 2006

North Korea missile threat provocative, warns US

NORTH Korea has apparently finished loading fuel into a long-range ballistic missile, Bush administration officials said yesterday as signs continued that the reclusive communist state will soon test a weapon that could reach the US.

US intelligence indicates that the long-range missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, is assembled and fully fuelled, said two officials.

That reportedly gives the North a launch window of about a month. Unlike other preparatory steps the US has tracked, the fuelling process is very difficult to reverse, and most likely means the test will go ahead, another senior administration official said, although the precise timing is unclear.

The US assumes North Korea would only perform a test, not fire the weapon as an act of war, and could claim afterward that it was launching a space mission, the official said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that “it would be a very serious matter and indeed a provocative act” if North Korea tested a long-range ballistic missile.

Testing would abrogate several North Korean commitments and “it would be taken with utmost seriousness,” Ms Rice said at a news conference.

A test would be the North’s first significant missile launch since a 1998 test that send a missile over Japanese territory. Pyongyang began a self-imposed test moratorium in 1999, even while continuing separate development of a nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea says it needed nuclear weapons and a such potential delivery systems as a missile to counter what it claims are US intentions to invade or topple the government. The US has repeatedly denied this.

[American Patriot]

Rice Warns North Korea Not To Fire Missile

By ANNE GEARAN - Associated Press
June 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Rice leveled a warning yesterday that "it would be a very serious matter and indeed a provocative act" if North Korea tested a long-range ballistic missile.

Ms. Rice's remarks came after Bush administration officials said North Korea has apparently finished loading fuel into a ballistic missile, the latest signs that the reclusive communist state will soon test a weapon that could reach America.

Testing would abrogate several North Korean commitments and "it would be taken with utmost seriousness," Ms. Rice said at a news conference.

Ms. Rice cited North Korea's pledge of a missile moratorium in 1999 and its reiteration of the moratorium in 2002. She said North Korea also agreed in six party negotiations not to test long-range missiles.

She said America was working closely with its allies on the problem, but did not say what might be done if North Korea tested the missile.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said he was holding preliminary consultations with Security Council members on steps that might be taken if North Korea fires a missile, "because it would obviously be very serious."

[American Patriot]

HOT NEWS 06.20.2006 Tuesday - ISTANBUL 16:41

Bush and Putin Discuss Iran and North Korea
By Anadolu News Agency (aa), Washington
Published: Tuesday, June 20, 2006
zaman.com



US President George W. Bush scheduled a telephone conference call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the situations in Iran and North Korea, reporters said.

The statement released by an anonymous official from the White House reports that Bush and Putin agreed on the importance of remaining unanimous on pressing Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities and to begin negotiations on the incentive package.

Indicating Bush and Putin also conversed about the possibility of North Korea launching a ballistics rocket, the official told that the presidents decided to remain in close contact with each other.

The United States earlier announced that the launch of a long-range missile by North Korea would be a “provocative act.”

[American Patriot]

North Korea fuels long-range missile
U.S. warns Pyongyang that a test launch would be regarded as a 'provocative act'

PAUL KORING

WASHINGTON -- Pyongyang and Washington lurched closer to confrontation yesterday as a long-range North Korean missile was fuelled while top Bush administration officials warned any launch would be a serious provocation.

U.S. President George W. Bush and North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il have traded bellicose salvos before, but this time the as-yet-untested Taepodong-2 missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and possibly reaching North America's West Coast, lifted the confrontation to new levels.

"It would be a very serious matter and, indeed, a provocative act should North Korea decide to launch that missile," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned.

After months of escalating tension between the Bush administration and Tehran's ruling mullahs over Iran's nuclear program and its testing of ever-longer-range missiles, including some of North Korean origin, the spotlight suddenly shifted when it emerged that Pyongyang had moved its Taepodong-2 missile -- long rumoured but never previously seen -- to a launch pad.

Satellite photos and enigmatic North Korean news reports indicated the liquid-fuelled missile was loaded and ready for liftoff. But North Korea's self-styled "Dear Leader" may just be posturing.

"He likes to negotiate in crisis, so he has created one," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org and a leading analyst of illicit weapons programs. Mr. Pike suggested Pyongyang may have moved because of the apparent success Tehran has achieved in forcing Washington to blink in its confrontation over nuclear weapons.

"Kim is seeing [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad on the TV all the time," Mr. Pike said. "And he knows the White House has showed a little ankle" in its dealings with Tehran. The United States, in conjunction with its European allies, unveiled a package that would give Tehran a range of commercial and political advantages if it complies with international inspections of its nuclear programs and ends its uranium-enrichment programs.

Some analysts, such as Mr. Pike, regard the two efforts for nuclear warheads and missile development as one.

"It's one program, doing business at three locations," Mr. Pike said. He pointedly fingers Pakistan, now a key U.S. ally but formerly a shunned state conducting illicit proliferation efforts with Iran and North Korea. "If one of them has it, they all have it," Mr. Pike said.

International inspectors have found documents suggesting that Pakistan gave or sold key information about uranium enrichment to Iran. Last January, the latest version of a shorter-range North Korean missile was tested in Iran. It also seems clear that near-identical missiles bearing different names are being developed and tested in both countries.

The new crisis over North Korea may provoke a military response -- something Mr. Bush has always said remains a possibility -- if Pyongyang actually fires the missile, even in a test flight without a warhead.

Japan also warned of unspecified consequences. "If [the North Koreans] ignore our views and launch a missile, then the Japanese government, consulting with the United States, would have to respond harshly," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said.

A senior South Korean official, speaking on condition that he not be named, told news agencies that he expected a launch.

"We think North Korea has poured liquid fuel into the missile propellant built in the missile launching pad," he said. "It is at the finishing stage before launching."

The Taepodong-2 missile, under development for more than a decade, remains shrouded in secrecy and the subject of widely varying estimates of its capability.

Some believe it could loft a smallish nuclear warhead as far as 13,000 kilometres, far enough to hit most major cities in North America.

Others suggest its range at half that, or even less, sufficient only to hit sparsely populated parts of Alaska. However, even at the lower estimates of its range, the missile -- if fired from Tehran -- could target most of Western Europe.

[American Patriot]

North Korea makes first media mention of missile
Associated Press
Posted online: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 0000 hrs

SEOUL, June 19 :North Korea referred to its missile programme on Monday in its official media for the first time since it apparently began preparations for a test launch, even as a US official confirmed the country had completed fuelling a missile that is poised to fire.

US intelligence indicates that the long-range missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, is fully fuelled, a US official said in Washington, requesting anonymity because the information comes from sensitive intelligence methods.

That reportedly gives the North a launch window of as much as a month for the missile, its most advanced model that experts say could reach parts of the US. White House spokesman Tony Snow declined specific comment on reports that the fuelling is complete.

“North Korea has imposed a moratorium on launching missiles,” Snow said aboard Air Force One with US President George W Bush. “We hope it will continue that moratorium and we hope it also will abide by commitments it made last year to abandon nuclear weapons,” he said.

Burt Herman

editor@expressindia.com

[American Patriot]

Report: North Korea Says It Is Not Bound by Missile Test Moratorium
Tuesday, June 20, 2006


TOKYO — North Korea says 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.

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 to "listen to and hear what the world is saying" over its apparent plans to test launch a long-range ballistic missile.

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.

North Korea and Japan agreed in 2002 to place a moratorium on missile tests.

[American Patriot]

June 20, 2006, 8:33AM
North Korea Insists It Can Test Missiles

By HIROKO TABUCHI Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

TOKYO — North Korea asserted it has full autonomy to conduct missile tests, and that outsiders do not have the right to criticize its plans, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.

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.
Click to learn more...

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.

Two 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 claims it has nuclear weapons, but isn't believed to have a design that would be small and light enough to top a missile. The North 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.

___

Associated Press reporters Burt Herman, Jae-soon Chang and Kwang-tae Kim in Seoul and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

[American Patriot]

U.S. begins massive war games in Pacific

Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Posted: 9:33 a.m. EDT (13:33 GMT)

HAGATNA, Guam (AP) -- Three aircraft carriers filled the skies with fighters as one of the largest U.S. military exercises in decades got underway Tuesday off this island in the western Pacific.

For the first time ever, a Chinese delegation was sent to observe the U.S. war games. But as the show of American military power began, North Korea -- one of the region's most unpredictable countries -- was rattling some swords of its own.

The maneuvers, dubbed "Valiant Shield," bring three carriers together in the Pacific for the first time since the Vietnam War. Some 30 ships, 280 aircraft and 22,000 troops will be participating in the five-day war games, which end Friday.

The exercises are intended to boost the ability of the Navy, Air Force and Marines to work together and respond quickly to potential contingencies in this part of the world, U.S. military officials said. Even U.S. Coast Guard vessels were joining in the maneuvers.

"The exercises are taking place on land, sea, air, space and cyberspace," said Senior Master Sgt. Charles Ramey. "They cover the whole spectrum."

The maneuvers mark the first major operation in this remote U.S. territory about halfway between Hawaii and Japan since the announcement last month that 8,000 Marines would be moved here from Okinawa in part of the biggest realignment of the U.S. forces in Asia in decades.

Though planned months ago, they come amid heightened concern in Asia over North Korea.

Officials in the United States, South Korea and Japan say they believe North Korea is preparing to test launch a Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile. The missile is believed be able to reach parts of the western United States. (Full story)

Pyongyang shocked Tokyo by launching a Taepodong that flew over Japan's main island in 1998. North Korea claimed the launch successfully placed a satellite in orbit, but that claim has been widely disputed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il agreed on a moratorium on long-range missile launches during a summit with Japan in 1999. But Pyongyang said Tuesday it is no longer bound by that accord.

Military officials here had no comment on the activity in North Korea, or on what specific tactics or scenarios are being used in the exercises.

They stress, however, that the exercises have been opened to outside observation and are not intended to provoke North Korea.

"These exercises are not aimed at any one nation," Cmdr. Mike Brown said.

The exercises are instead intended to provide training in "detecting, locating, tracking and engaging" a wide range of threats in the air, land and sea.

Representatives from China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Russia and Singapore were invited to attend.

China's presence has been singled out as particularly significant.

Though military relations between Beijing and Washington cooled when an American spy plane was captured in 2001, senior U.S. military officials are cautiously trying to mend the rift. At the same time, the Pentagon has expressed strong concern over the secrecy that shrouds China's rapidly modernizing military.

Adm. William J. Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific, said before the exercises began that implicit in the invitation was the expectation that China would reciprocate.

China's 10-member delegation includes one top-ranking officer each from the People's Liberation Army, air force and navy, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

"The invitation to observe the U.S. military exercises is a very important component of exchanges between the militaries of China and the United States," Xinhua quoted an unidentified Defense Ministry official as saying.

Along with the USS Kitty Hawk, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups, U.S. force fighters and B-2 bombers operating out of Guam's Andersen Air Force Base will join the maneuvers.

Brown said the exercises were to be held again next year, and then become a biennial event.

[American Patriot]

Downer warns N Korea on tests

Cynthia Banham Foreign Affairs Reporter in Paris and agencies
June 21, 2006

AUSTRALIA is threatening to downgrade its diplomatic contacts and food aid to North Korea over its widely condemned plan to test a long-range intercontinental ballistics missile.

The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said the Government was "deeply concerned" over information that North Korea was considering testing the missile, which he said had the range to reach the US.

Mr Downer, who is in Paris for the opening of a new indigenous arts museum, said a test would be highly provocative. He had instructed his department to call in the North Korean ambassador to make it clear any testing was "completely unacceptable and would lead to deleterious consequences for North Korea's relationship with the broader international community".

"For our part, if they do proceed with the test we would look at what we might be able to do," he said. Mr Downer said Australia would have to "wait and see" what action it would take if North Korea went ahead with a test, but "certainly from our point of view in terms of the contacts we have with the North Koreans it would lead to some downgrading of those contacts".

He warned that Australian support to North Korea through the World Food Program, multilateral agencies and bilateral aid programs could be affected.

Mr Downer said the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, had called him on Saturday to discuss North Korea. Dr Rice warned in Washington on Monday that a launch would be a "provocative act" that would signal Pyongyang's rejection of international efforts to reach a compromise on its weapons program.

The prospect of a long-range missile in the hands of one of the world's most stridently anti-US regimes has spread alarm in Washington. A missile test would also be an embarrassing setback for the Bush Administration's efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation in Iran and elsewhere.

President George Bush joined overseas phone calls made by his staff on Monday as Pentagon officials pointed to US missile defence capabilities without indicating whether there were plans to use them.

The former United Nations chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, appealed yesterday to North Korea to return to the international talks on its nuclear program. "It's very urgent that they get back to the talks in Beijing," he said after meeting with Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has offered to play a mediating role.

[American Patriot]

A missile launching poses 'nuclear' threat
By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune

Published: June 20, 2006

SEOUL A long-range North Korean rocket reportedly being prepared for launching poses a grave security threat whether it tests an intercontinental missile or carries a communications satellite, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul said Tuesday.

The comment by Alexander Vershbow came as South Korean news media quoted government sources in Seoul who said that the Taepodong-2 missile booster being fueled in a remote base in northeastern North Korea, if launched, may carry a satellite. "The view of the U.S. government is that this missile has military capability," Vershbow said when reporters asked about the news reports. "We view it, therefore, as a serious matter, particularly in the context of North Korea's illegal development of nuclear weapons."

Vershbow spoke to reporters after a meeting with the former South Korean president, Kim Dae Jung, who hoped to travel to Pyongyang next week to meet the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. The missile threats have cast doubt on his plans.

Vershbow said that the North should cancel a missile test - which the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, on Monday called a "provocative act" - and end its boycott of six-party nuclear disarmament talks and win "more normal relations" with Washington.

When North Korea launched its Taepodong-1 system in 1998, it configured the missile as a space-launch vehicle. North Korea later claimed it had put a satellite into orbit, thereby attempting to deflect U.S. calls for sanctions.

Some analysts believe that North Korea will probably follow the same tactic should it launch the Taepodong-2.

A successful test would demonstrate that North Korea was developing a capability for carrying a nuclear payload to parts of the United States, analysts said.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have sternly warned North Korea not to launch the missile. But news media carried differing interpretations on how imminent a launching might be or whether or not the North had completed fueling.

Domestic media in South Korea are rife with theories that officials in the United States and Japan who advocate a hard line are exploiting the current situation because they can use the threat to push a harsher approach on North Korea.

While denying any rift with Washington, South Korean officials point out that they should take a "more cautious and prudent" approach on North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, because their country's economy is more vulnerable to military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Emerging from closed-door government briefings, South Korean lawmakers said that it was still too early to determine whether the North would launch its missile or whether the launching would be a military test or an attempt to launch a satellite.

The fact that North Korea was preparing the rocket on an aboveground test site, under full surveillance from U.S. reconnaissance satellites, rather than from a silo facility, "holds that this is a satellite launch attempt, not a strategic ballistic missile operation," said Charles Vick, a senior fellow at GlobalSecurity.org, based in Alexandria, Virginia. Since its test in 1998, Kim has been portrayed as a tech-savvy visionary who would thwart hostile outside forces. During national holidays, posters of a science rocket soaring through a starry night and a mock satellite in a museum are displayed.

[American Patriot]

Now, this is the first I heard this is a "Satellite Launch Attempt".... that's new.

[American Patriot]

Above is a satellite image of the No Dong Missile Test site taken roughly in 2001.

I have noted that there were other images on the internet that I've not been able to GET to in the last two days. This is the only one that appears to be public domain now.

[American Patriot]

Opps, I lied. There's a good one.




A commercial satellite photo of North Korea's Nodong missile launch site taken on by a Digital Globe satellite and annotated and released by analysts at GlobalSecurity.org on May 24, 2006. Clouds and storms closed in on Tuesday on a site where North Korea may be preparing to test a long-range missile, potentially delaying a flight regional powers have warned the reclusive state not to launch. REUTERS/Digital Globe via GlobalSecurity.org

[American Patriot]

North Korea satellite image.



Map to look over to see where things are in the satellite image