Japan warns North Korea on possible missile test

TOKYO - Japan warned North Korea today of "a harsh response" from Tokyo and Washington if it went ahead with the launch of a long-range missile.

Amid reports that a launch was imminent, a Japanese official quoted by the Sankei Shimbun daily said North Korea's leadership had told people to raise the flag at 2.00pm (5.00pm NZT) and monitor television for a "message to the people".

The time came and went without any reports of a missile test. Japan's Jiji Press news agency reported that Japanese Defence Agency officials had concluded that a launch was not imminent, but that monitoring would continue.

A South Korean government official had cautioned against reading too much into Pyongyang's instructions to its people.

The official, quoted by Yonhap news agency, noted tomorrow marked the 42nd anniversary of the start of leader Kim Jong-il's career at the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and that people were urged to watch TV on June 18 last year.

The Korea Central News Agency later issued a statement noting the anniversary, but also lambasting the United States and Japan for their bellicose attitude towards North Korea.

"The Korean army and people will do their best to increase the military deterrent with sharp vigilance to cope with the moves of the US, which is hell-bent on provocations for war of aggression on the DPRK," it said without mentioning a missile.

The DPRK refers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

CBS News reported that South Korea's ambassador to the United States, Lee Tae-sik, had told Korean correspondents in Washington that Pyongyang may have fuelled a missile already.

"Satellite photos confirmed scores of fuel tanks near the missile launch pad," he said.

"We are not sure whether they had already completed fuelling or located (the tanks) there to fuel it."

White House spokesman Tony Snow on CBS television show Face the Nation, reminded viewers that in 1999 North Korea declared a moratorium on missile testing and had signed a memorandum in September 2005, which committed it to pursuing peace and security within the region.

"We certainly hope they're going to continue to abide by their agreement," Snow said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said in a television interview his country would seek an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council if Pyongyang went ahead with a test.

He voiced concern about the possibility of a missile landing on Japan, but toned down a remark made in an earlier interview that Japan would automatically regard this as an attack.

"We will not right away view it as a military act," he said.

Aso stopped short of saying what Japan and the United States would do in the event of a launch.

But he said: "The responses will be rather harsh".

Reports of test preparations come as six-country talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programmes are locked in a stalemate and attention has shifted to concerns about Iran's atomic ambitions.

Many experts have said North Korea has missiles that can hit all of South Korea and probably all of Japan. The secretive communist state has been modernising its arsenal and trying to improve problems with accuracy.

A launch would almost certainly involve a Taepodong-2 missile with an estimated range of 3,500 to 4,300 km, US officials have said, putting parts of Alaska within reach.

North Korea shocked the world in 1998 when it fired a Taepodong-1 missile, part of which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.

- REUTERS