31 May 2009: Independent on Sunday
US issues harshest warning yet as spy satellites spot signs of rocket being moved from weapons factory
By Eric Talmadge in Panmunjom, Korea
Spy satellites have picked up signs that North Korea may be preparing to transport another long-range missile to a launch site, South Korean officials said yesterday. The development came as the US issued its harshest warning to the North since the recent nuclear test. "We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia – or on us," US Secretary of Defence Robert
Gates told a regional defence meeting in Singapore. He said the North's nuclear programme was a "harbinger of a dark future", but wasn't yet a direct threat.
Impoverished North Korea has earned billions of dollars from exporting missile technology to Pakistan and the Middle East, and the fear is that it could do the same with its new nuclear know-how. Mr Gates did not elaborate on how the United States might respond to North Korea, but he had earlier said no additional troops were being deployed to the peninsula, where 28,000 US soldiers are stationed.
Britain announced yesterday that it has sent a military aircraft to help verify the strength of the nuclear device detonated by North Korea last week. The Ministry of Defence said a VC10 tanker plane had been sent to Japan to assist with examinations determining the strength of the blast and the type of nuclear material used.
Since last Monday's nuclear blast, North Korea has test-launched six short-range missiles in a show of force and announced it won't honour a 1953 truce that ended fighting in the Korean War. The reclusive communist state appears to be preparing to move a long-range missile by train from a weapons factory near Pyongyang to its northeastern Musudan-ni launch pad. Images of the movements were captured by US satellites. Experts have said the three-stage rocket has a potential range of more than 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometres), putting Alaska within its striking distance.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said the North is likely to fire the missile shortly after the UN Security Council adopts a resolution criticising its recent nuclear test.
A partial draft resolution calls on all countries to immediately enforce sanctions imposed by an earlier UN resolution after the North's first nuclear test in 2006. The sanctions include a partial arms embargo, a ban on luxury goods and ship searches for illegal weapons or material. They have been sporadically implemented, with many of the 192 UN member states ignoring them. The draft would also have the Security Council condemn "in the strongest terms" the recent nuclear test "in flagrant violation and disregard" of the 2006 resolution.
China, which ignored the previous sanctions, has been unusually outspoken in its criticism of Monday's blast. "As a close neighbour of North Korea, China has expressed a firm opposition and grave concern about the nuclear test," Lt-Gen Ma Xiaotian said at the Singapore defence meeting. North Korea says it conducted the nuclear test in self-defence. Its main Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned yesterday that it "will deal decisive and merciless blows at the enemies who desperately run amok to dare pre-empt an attack on it," according to its official Korean Central News Agency.
Despite the rising tensions, the atmosphere was calm yesterday at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the heavily armed Demilitarised Zone dividing the two Koreas.
