North Korea loaded booster rockets onto a launch pad in preparation to test-fire a long-range missile that could reach as far as the US mainland, with the launch coming as early as today, South Korean and Japanese media reports said.
The reports follows warnings by the US government that the communist state is accelerating preparations for testing a Taepodong-2 missile. A US government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said Friday that a test may be imminent.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said South Korean and US intelligence authorities had made an assessment based on recent satellite images that the North had loaded booster rockets onto a launch pad and moved about 10 large tanks of liquid fuel close by.
The Taepodong-2 is a three-stage missile, but the warhead section hasn't been loaded yet, the paper said, quoting an unnamed high-level South Korean government official. It wasn't clear if the fuel had been unloaded, it said.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho couldn't confirm the report.
Japan's mainstream conservative Sankei Shimbun, also citing unnamed government sources, said the North could test the missile as early as today.
Japan has dispatched two Aegis destroyers to the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, the paper said. Hidetsugu Iwamasa, a Japanese naval official, said he could not comment on the reported Aegis deployment.
The Sankei also said the US military has deployed a RC-135S electronic surveillance plane and a WC135W weather reconnaissance plane, which could detect nuclear weapon tests, around Okinawa.
The North's missile program has been a major security concern in the region, adding to worries about its pursuit of nuclear bombs.
North Korea sent shock waves through the region when it test-fired a ballistic missile over northern Japan in 1998.
On Friday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that any missile launch by the North Koreans would be a provocation and would violate their 1999 moratorium on long-range missile tests.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe also said on Friday that a launch would threaten Japanese security.
"If North Korea launches the reported ballistic missile, which will directly affect Japan's security, it would be a violation of the Japan-Pyongyang Declaration," Abe said.
The declaration was signed in 2002 at a Japan-North Korea summit in Pyongyang, and reaffirmed by the two nations in 2004, he said.
South Korea said earlier this week that it conveyed "grave concern" to North Korea last month when signs first emerged that the North was preparing to test-fire a missile.
North Korea has been under a self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile tests since 1999. Still, it has since test-fired short-range missiles many times, including two in March.
Yesterday, North Korea accused the US of repeatedly flying reconnaissance planes to spy on "strategic targets" along its east coast.
The reports of a possible launch come after a prolonged hiatus in six-party nuclear disarmament talks designed to create a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.
Persistent efforts by the US and other members of the group to persuade North Korea to resume the discussions have not been successful. There have been no discussions since November.
North Korea is demanding that the US revoke sanctions that Washington imposed several months ago in response to alleged North Korean counterfeiting of US dollars and other currency violations.
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