SEOUL: Defying international pressure, North Korea was reported to have moved a long-range missile to a military base for a planned launch that would deepen tensions in the wake of its nuclear test.
As South Korea warned it would not tolerate military threats, the JoongAng Ilbo daily quoted unnamed intelligence officials as saying a train carrying the missile had arrived at the base at northwestern Dongchang-ri over the weekend.
The Dong-A Ilbo daily also reported the arrival of the missile from a factory near Pyongyang, citing unnamed government sources.
The North has another site at Musudan-ri on the east coast, where it launched a long-range rocket on April 5. It said it put a peaceful satellite into orbit but other nations saw the launch as a disguised missile test.
Tensions have been running high for the past week after Kim Jong-Il’s regime tested a nuclear bomb for the second time, launched a series of short-range missiles and threatened possible attacks on South Korea.
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak warned Monday that Seoul would “never tolerate” the North taking a “path of military threats and provocation.”
“We sincerely hope for peace, but will sternly deal with any threats,” he said in a regular radio address, urging the North to renounce nuclear weapons and join the international community.
Pyongyang, however, vowed to bolster its nuclear programme.
The North “will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent in order to safeguard its ideology and system,” the official KCNA news agency said in a commentary Monday.
Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council are discussing a new resolution which could impose fresh sanctions on the North to punish it for its latest nuclear test — its second since 2006.
But Pyongyang has warned it would take “additional self-defence measures” in response to any sanctions and Monday’s reports would appear to offer fresh evidence that it is preparing to test fire another long-range missile which is theoretically capable of reaching Alaska.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported over the weekend that North Korea was preparing to launch a long-range missile that may be a modified version of a Taepodong-2, which the North tested in 2006 and in April.
South Korean and US forces on the peninsula are on heightened alert for any border clashes following the North’s warning of a possible attack in response to Seoul’s decision to join a US-led international initiative to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea has banned ships from sailing in waters off the northwest coast until the end of July, according to the Chosun Ilbo, another major daily.
The growing security threat cast a shadow over a major summit bringing together the leaders of South Korea and Southeast Asian nations on the southern resort island of Jeju.
Seoul has imposed tight security for the June 1-2 meetings, with a surface-to-air missile unit set up next to the convention centre along with checkpoints on major roads and explosives-sniffing dogs.
The United States has stressed it will not accept the North as a nuclear-armed state and warned that more atomic tests could spark an arms race in East Asia.
Pyongyang walked out of six-nation nuclear disarmament talks after the Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch and tightened existing sanctions.
The United States has sent Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth to consult other partners in the six-nation talks. Both are currently in Japan, one of the nations involved.
