North Korea warned yesterday that US moves to build a missile shield are fueling a dangerous arms race in space, as countries in the region urged Pyongyang to halt apparent plans to launch a long-range missile.
The US ambassador to South Korea conveyed Washington's concerns over a possible missile launch to former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, who plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il next week.
Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports about whether a launch of a missile believed to be capable of reaching the US was imminent.
Bad weather over the purported launch site in North Korea yesterday dimmed chances of an immediate launch. The area was very cloudy, with rain expected in the afternoon and into this morning, said Kim Seung-bae of the South's Korea Meteorological Administration.
A US official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that US intelligence indicated that North Korea had finished fueling its long-range missile.
However, Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Jinen Nagase said yesterday that Japan could not confirm that the fueling was completed.
South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, believes North Korea hasn't yet completed fueling the rocket because the 40 fuel tanks seen around a launch site weren't enough to fuel a projectile estimated to be 59 tonnes, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting lawmakers who attended an intelligence briefing.
There have also been varying expert comments on whether fueling would mean a launch was imminent -- due to the corrosive fuels inside the rocket -- or whether Pyongyang could wait up to a month. Siphoning the fuel back out of a missile is believed to be difficult.
North Korea lashed out yesterday at the US for its missile defense plans, which it said would "lead to fierce strife for supremacy among the powers in space that was not witnessed even in the Cold War days and touch off a space war in the long run," the North's Minju Joson newspaper wrote in a commentary, according to the country's Korean Central News Agency.
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