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North Korea readies missile, U.S. warns
Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:44am EDT
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By Jonathan Thatcher
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has put a long-range missile in place for a launch the United States warned would violate U.N. sanctions already imposed on the reclusive state for past weapons tests.
South Korea said on Thursday the launch, which like the United States it considers a disguised military exercise, would be a serious challenge to regional security.
The planned launch is the first major test for U.S. President Barack Obama in dealing with the prickly North, whose efforts to build a nuclear arsenal is seen as a top security threat to one of the world's most economically powerful regions and which has plagued relations with Washington for years.
The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo quoted a diplomatic source saying the North could technically fire the missile, which has the range to hit U.S. territory, by the weekend. This is earlier than the April 4-8 timeframe Pyongyang announced for what it says is the launch of a communications satellite.
"Technically a launch is possible within three to four days," the Chosun Ilbo quoted a diplomatic source in Seoul as saying.
The U.S. has spy satellites trained on Taepodong-2 missile launch pad at North Korea's east coast Musudan-ri missile base.
On Wednesday, a U.S. counter-proliferation official told Reuters that North Korea had appeared to have positioned the rocket on its launch pad.
Another U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea had placed together two stages of what is expected to be a three-stage rocket.
Once it has been positioned on the launch pad, North Korea will need several days to fuel the rocket which could, in theory carry a warhead as far as Alaska. I blew apart seconds into its only test flight in July 2006.
GROWING TENSION
"We strongly urge the North to immediately stop the launch of a long-range missile, which would be a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution 1718," South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters, calling the move a serious challenge to regional security and an act of aggression.
The planned launch and growing tension on the Korean peninsula are beginning to worry financial markets in the South though so far there has been only minor impact.
"If they really fire something, it would definitely shake the financial markets, but only briefly, as has been the case in many previous cases of provocation and clashes," said Jung Sung-min, a fixed-income analyst at Eugene Futures.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Mexico, said the launch would deal a blow to six-party international talks to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
Those talks sputtered to a halt in December over disagreement on how to check the North was disabling its nuclear facilities. Continued...
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