There are further signs that North Korea is planning another test-launch of its long-range Taepodong 2 missile, according to news reports this week (see GSN, Feb. 6).
(Feb. 11) -
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, shown last month, played down warnings that North Korea could test a next-generation ballistic missile (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).
Satellite imagery indicates that personnel at an east coast missile launch site are setting up electronic telemetry equipment, which would be used to monitor the test, a high-level U.S. official told CNN yesterday (Barbara Starr, CNN, Feb. 10).
South Korean media reported that it appeared that equipment -- possibly some sort of radar -- was being transported to the launch pad at the Musudan-ri missile facility, the Associated Press reported.
"It can be analyzed that the North is proceeding with a missile launch preparation in stages," a South Korean official told the Yonhap News Agency.
Chinese fishing boats have also apparently moved away from the disputed Yellow Sea border dividing the territories of North and South Korea. The area has been designated a no-sail sector prior to earlier North Korean short-range missile tests. The same area was emptied of Chinese vessels before naval battles between the Koreas in 1999 and 2002, the South Korean Dong-a Ilbo newspaper stated (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 11).
The apparent launch preparations come amid the latest deadlock in the multilateral effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal and associated infrastructure (see related GSN story, today). Experts have said that Pyongyang might test the weapon in order to grab the attention of the Obama administration and to send a message to the South Korean government, which has taken a hard line n relations with its neighbor.
The missile itself is believed to have arrived at the site last week. A U.S. official said it did not appear yet to be headed for the launch pad, Reuters reported (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters I/Washington Post, Feb. 11).
Should that occur, "it would get folks spun up," the U.S. official told CNN. The Defense Department might in response put missile interceptors in Alaska on alert. The state is believed to be at the far end of the range of the Taepodong 2.
Experts have said it would take one to two months for North Korea to prepare for a launch. Its last test of the Taepodong 2 ended when the missile failed in less than one minute in July 2006.
"The range of the Taepodong 2 remains to be seen. So far, it's very short," said U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates (Starr, CNN).
Nonetheless, the Pentagon is moving "assets" around the Pacific in order to boost monitoring of North Korea, a U.S. military official told Reuters.
"We're watching those things closely with all the assets we have," U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Marine Major Bradley Gordon said. "We've got all sorts of sensors all around the area. But I won't say what or where they are" (David Morgan, Reuters II/Washington Post, Feb. 10).