North Korea 'preparing new long-range missile launch' [video report]

A sign denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong-II and the missile test burns during a protest in Seoul yesterday. Picture / Reuters

UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON - North Korea appears to be making preparations to launch another long-range Taepodong-2 missile but the missile is not yet on the launch pad, NBC News has reported.

The US network quoted unnamed sources as saying the missile was in its final assembly stage.

Japan, backed by the United States and Britain, earlier called for UN sanctions against North Korea's weapons program after the communist state tested a series of missiles on Wednesday, including a Taepodong-2.

Russia and China, who have veto power in the UN Security Council, opposed sanctions.

US President George W. Bush said the tests further isolated North Korea but did not diminish his desire to solve a stand-off over its nuclear and missile programs.

"I view this as an opportunity to remind the international community that we must work together to continue to work hard to convince the North Korean leader to give up any weapons program," Bush told reporters.

"They've agreed to do that in the past, and we will hold them to account."

Defying international warnings, North Korea launched at least six missiles early on Wednesday local time and a seventh some 12 hours later, officials in Japan and South Korea said.

The long-range Taepodong-2 missile failed 40 seconds into its flight, US officials said. Japanese and South Korean officials said the missiles fell into the sea separating the Korean peninsula from Japan.

Japan circulated a Security Council resolution demanding that nations withhold all funds, material and technology that could be used for North Korea's missile program.

Russia and China, after an emergency council meeting, made clear they would oppose any sanctions. Both nations, who have veto power, favour a council statement, which is weaker.

No agreement was reached and council members meet again on Thursday after consulting their respective capitals.

Though Washington had long warned of a harsh response if Pyongyang tested the Taepodong-2, Bush and other officials stopped short of threatening to push for UN sanctions.

Bush said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was conferring with her counterparts in the stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program to resolve the issue of Pyongyang's missile tests.

"We want to continue to send a clear message that there is a better way forward for the leader of North Korea," Bush said. "It's hard to understand his intentions. It's hard to understand why he would not only fire one missile that failed but five others..."

Chief US negotiator Chris Hill said the tests would not help Pyongyang in the six-party talks. "They're not going to get a better deal through this; in fact what they're going to face is a six-party (negotiating) process that's more united than ever before," he told PBS Television.

The six party talks are between the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan.

Experts believe North Korea has enough nuclear material to make at least a half dozen atomic bombs, while exports of missiles and related technology have been a key source of hard currency for the isolated and impoverished regime.

Missile testing by itself is not illegal. The United States, India and Pakistan, have conducted recent tests.

But the UN resolution states North Korea endangered civil aviation and shipping by failing to provide advance notice of the launches, and that Pyongyang was the world's leading proliferator of ballistic missiles and related technology.

- REUTERS