Reuters July 4, 2006
North Korea launches missiles, US hold UN talks
By George Nishiyama
North Korea launched at least five missiles on Wednesday, including a long-range Taepodong-2, a move President Bush said defied the international community.
The Taepodong-2, a multi-stage missile that might be able to reach Alaska, apparently failed 40 seconds into its flight, U.S. officials said.
The United States said it was urgently consulting other U.N. Security Council members after the launches, which occurred despite repeated warnings from the reclusive Stalinist country's neighbors and from Washington.
The yen slid against the dollar and euro on the news and South Korea's economic authorities were due to hold early talks to discuss the threat to their financial markets.
Bush sees the missile firing as "defiance" of the international community by North Korea," a senior U.S. administration official said. "This is further indication of the isolation of North Korea."
U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley called the launches "provocative behavior," but said they were not a threat to U.S. territory.
"We are urgently consulting with other delegations of Security Council on the situation," the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said in a statement.
Japan said it would consider economic sanctions against North Korea and said it wanted to take the issue to the Security Council. The Council already has a scheduled meeting for Wednesday at which the issue is likely to be taken up.
Tokyo also called for Pyongyang to return to six-country talks on ending its nuclear weapons program, which have been stalled since the end of last year.
"It is regrettable and we protest strongly against North Korea for going ahead with a launch despite warnings from relevant countries, including Japan," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told a news conference in Tokyo.
"It is a serious problem from the standpoint of our national security, peace and stability of the international community and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
South Korea said it had called an emergency meeting of its ministers involved in national security to discuss the launches.
LONG-RANGE MISSILE
A State Department official in Washington told Reuters a long-range missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2, failed 40 seconds after it was launched.
Experts say the Taepodong-2 has a possible range of 3,500-4,300 km (2,190-2,690 miles).
Daniel Pinkston, director of the East Asia non-proliferation program for the California-based Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the failure of the rocket would be a blow to Pyongyang.
"If there was failure that early on in the flight, there is no way they could make any claims of test-launching a satellite as they did in 1998. They will not be able to exploit the propaganda value of that after that type of failure," he said.
The first time North Korea test-fired a long-range missile -- in 1998 over Japan -- it triggered a sharp increase in tension in the region and sent shockwaves through regional financial markets.
Last week, President Bush echoed earlier U.S. threats of a harsh response if North Korea went ahead with a launch. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tokyo would "apply various pressures" but declined to give details.
Japanese NHK television said one missile landed in the Japan Sea 600 km (370 miles) from the Japanese mainland.
The missile launches occurred as the United States marked its July 4 Independence Day and shortly after the U.S. space shuttle Discovery blasted off from its Florida launch-pad.
"It got everybody's attention on the Fourth of July. (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Il can set off fireworks, too," said John Pike, director of the security Web site GlobalSecurity.org.
Experts say North Korea is developing long-range missiles to have the capability one day to deliver a nuclear bomb, but that Pyongyang is years away from having such a weapons system.
North Korea said in February 2005 it possessed nuclear weapons. It has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal several times since then in response to what it perceives as increased U.S. threats.
U.S. officials said earlier an air force complex protecting the nerve center of U.S. homeland defense at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, had been put on heightened alert amid persistent reports North Korea might test-fire a long-range missile.
On Monday, Pyongyang vowed to respond with an "annihilating" nuclear strike if attacked pre-emptively by the United States.
(Additional reporting by Jim Wolf, Paul Eckert, Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Jack Kim and Jon Herskovitz in Seoul)
© Copyright 2006, Reuters
