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NKorea hints at missile launch as Kim turns 67
By JAESOON CHANG,Associated Press Writer AP - Tuesday, February 17
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea, celebrating the birthday of reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, vowed Monday to carry out what experts said would be a test-firing of its longest-range missile.
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South Korea's foreign minister cautioned against any kind of launch, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the country to follow through on abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
"One will come to know later what will be launched" from North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
North Korea claimed that the U.S. and other countries were spreading rumors about "preparations for launching a long-distance missile" and said it has the right to pursue "space development" _ a term the country has used in the past to disguise a missile test as a satellite launch.
It also accused the United States and other countries of trying to block the country's "peaceful scientific research" by linking it to a missile test.
When North Korea test-fired a long-range missile in 1998, it claimed to have put a satellite into orbit.
"It means they're going to fire a missile as a satellite launch," Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said of the KCNA report. He called the North's space-program claim a "preventive" measure because a missile launch could result in punitive steps from the international community.
In Pyongyang, North Koreans celebrated Kim's birthday by viewing a special exhibition of Kimjongilia flowers set beside a replica of a missile, APTN North Korea footage showed. People also paid homage to his late father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, and danced in the city's main square in freezing temperatures.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan warned the North that any launch _ whether a missile or satellite _ would be in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution in 2006 that demanded Pyongyang "suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program."
"A missile and a satellite are the same in principle, and are different only in their payload," Yu told lawmakers.
The KCNA report comes amid growing international pressure on Pyongyang to back out of apparent plans to carry out a test launch of a missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have repeatedly urged the North not to fire a missile. Clinton, before departing for Asia, also urged Pyongyang not to take any provocative actions.
Clinton arrived in Japan on Monday evening on the first leg of her trip that also includes stops in South Korea, China and Indonesia.
On Sunday, she said North Korea needs to live up to commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs, saying Washington is willing to normalize ties with it in return for nuclear disarmament.
"The North Koreans have already agreed to dismantling," she said. "We expect them to fulfill the obligations that they entered into."
Pyongyang has reportedly moved a long-range Taepodong-2 missile _ its most advanced _ to a launch site on the country's northeastern coast. South Korean media have said a launch could come late this month.
On Monday, Seoul's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said that the North had moved all necessary equipment to fire a missile to the Musudan-ni site on its northeastern coast and that a launch could be ready earlier than expected. The report cited unnamed government officials.
Analysts say North Korea's saber rattling appears to be an attempt to draw President Barack Obama's attention, to start negotiations where it can extract concessions.
North Korea has also been escalating tensions with the South, declaring all peace pacts with Seoul dead in anger over the hard-line stance that pro-U.S., conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has taken toward it.
South Korean media have speculated that Pyongyang may provoke an armed clash near their disputed sea border _ the scene of two deadly skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.
Kim's birthday on Monday comes months after the autocratic leader apparently suffered a stroke in August. His condition appears to have improved, and he met with a Chinese envoy last month _ his first known meeting with a foreign dignitary since August. Pyongyang has denied Kim was ever ill.
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Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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