North Korea to test fire long range ballistic missile capable of hitting US

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Tuesday June 20, 2006 11:24

by Tom

Bush desperately pressuring Kim regime.

U.S. President George W Bush has launched an intensive diplomatic effort to persuade North Korea not to test a long-range ballistic missile that could reach the United States.

Mr Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice spoke to a dozen heads of state over the weekend after it emerged that North Korea, which claims to have nuclear weapons, had fuelled the missile.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the US had spoken directly to North Korean representatives at the United Nations in New York in recent days.

"This is something that the president has been working vigorously through diplomatic channels to encourage the North Koreans to abide by their self-imposed moratorium on missile-testing," he said.

North Korea fired a missile over northern Japan in 1998 but has abided by a self-imposed moratorium on testing missiles since 1999. US officials say the long-range missile, believed to be a 35m Taepodong-2 with a firing range of 15,000km, is fully fuelled and could be launched at any time over the next month.

Weapon experts say fuelling the missile is a sign of clear intent to launch it, because siphoning fuel out of a missile is a complex undertaking. The US believes Pyongyang has produced a small number of nuclear weapons but it is not clear if the communist dictatorship has developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on the long-range missile.

Pyongyang has complained about US spy planes and a state television report said yesterday North Korea "has the due right to have a missile that can immediately halt the United States' reckless aerial espionage activity".

Japan, Australia and New Zealand have warned North Korea testing the missile would have serious consequences and would further isolate the impoverished country. Washington has warned it will meet any missile test with an "appropriate response", but Mr Snow yesterday declined to specify what form such a response might take.

"It's inappropriate to go into options and responses, especially because our efforts right now are trained toward making sure that North Korea continues to abide by the missile-testing moratorium and by its word given last year at the six-party talks," he said.