AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
TOKYO: North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland, but the threat is not imminent, Japanese ministers said Friday.
The communist regime, which is boycotting nuclear disarmament talks, could fire for the first time a 35-meter (116-feet) Taepodong-2, which has a range of 3,500 to 6,000 kilometers (2,200 to 3,750 miles), officials said.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso, however, doubted the launch would come immediately.
“We have known that information for a long time,” Aso told a legislative committee.
He was responding to media reports from Tokyo and Seoul that satellite data have shown increased movement by trailers and other vehicles near the Musudan-ri missile test site in northeastern North Korea, facing the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
Aso declined to comment on when Tokyo acquired the information, citing the sensitivity of intelligence matters.
Other senior officials also played down the risks.
“At this point, we do not regard the situation as critical,” said Fukushiro Nukaga, head of the Defense Agency.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the government spokesman, said separately: “We do not hold a view that this is an urgent situation.”
The news reports said Japanese officials learned about the increased activity at the testing site from US forces in Japan.
North Korea shocked the world in August 1998 by firing a long-range Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, claiming it was a satellite launch.
It has since carried out a series of tests on smaller-range missiles.
Tokyo has been in a hurry to bolster its missile defenses and in March hailed the successful testing of an interceptor missile being researched with the United States.
North Korea, which says it has nuclear arms, has refused to return to six-nation disarmament talks since November, protesting US financial sanctions against the impoverished regime over money-laundering and counterfeiting.
