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North Korea May Be Preparing to Launch Satellite, Not Missile North Korea may be preparing to launch a satellite rather than testing a missile, South Korea's ruling party said, citing Unification Minister Lee Jong Seok. ``It is difficult to discern whether the launch vehicle is a missile or a satellite,'' Uri Party spokesman Woo Sang Ho said today after party leaders met Lee, who also serves as the nation's security chief. The meeting follows reports that North Korea is preparing to test a long-range ballistic missile. The missile may eventually have the capacity to strike the U.S., the New York Times reported yesterday, citing former National Security Council aide Gary Samore. The U.S., Japan and Australia have warned North Korea against test-firing such a missile. Concerns about North Korea are heightened because of the country's program to produce nuclear weapons. Multinational negotiations to persuade North Korean leaders to halt the program are stalled. South Korean intelligence officials are trying to determine the nature of the launch vehicle and whether North Korea plans to actually fire it, Woo said. South Korea has explained to North Korea the consequences of a launch and has repeatedly demanded North Korea scraps its plans, Woo said. He didn't elaborate on any response from North Korea. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said on June 18 its military wants to increase its capabilities ``to cope with the moves of the U.S., which is hell-bent on provocations for a war of aggression.'' `Provocative Act' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a North Korean missile test would be ``a provocative act,'' and asked the country to uphold its moratorium on such testing. A test ``would once again show North Korea determined to deepen its isolation, determined not to take a path that is a path of compromise and a path of peace, but rather instead to once again saber-rattle,'' Rice said yesterday in Washington. Japan will take severe action if North Korea goes ahead with the test, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday in Tokyo, without elaborating. Laws are already in place allowing for Japanese sanctions and the closing of ports to North Korean ships, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said yesterday. Last week, Japan said a long-range missile test would violate a 2002 agreement reached when Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il met in Pyongyang. Nuclear Talks Diplomats from the U.S., South Korea, China, Japan and Russia have been trying to persuade North Korea's leadership to abandon a nuclear arms program and resume talks aimed at dismantling it in exchange for technology and trade benefits. North Korea has refused to return to the six-party talks until the U.S. removes sanctions it imposed over allegations of money laundering and counterfeiting by North Korean companies. North Korea may have completed the fueling for the missile test, Reuters cited unidentified U.S. government officials as saying June 18 in Washington. It is unlikely North Korea will abandon the test once the missile is fueled because of the complex process of siphoning the fuel out, the report said. Rice, U.S. President George W. Bush and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley have contacted ``more than a dozen'' heads of state to discuss the missile, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters in Washington yesterday. North Korea fired a long-range Taepodong 1 missile that flew over Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean in 1998. It has test-fired short-range missiles since then, including a test of two missiles in March. The U.S. confirmed the tests. Army General Burwell Bell, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, said in testimony to a U.S. Senate hearing on March 7 that North Korea is preparing to field a new ballistic missile capable of reaching Okinawa in Japan, Guam and ``probably'' Alaska. ---------------------------------------------------
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