North Korea last year tested a rocket to carry long-range missiles in an apparent attempt to showcase its weapons capability to the US, a report said yesterday.
The country conducted the rocket engine test at the new Tongchang-ri missile base on the west coast in October, Yonhap news agency said, citing a senior Seoul official.
“We believed that the test, carried out at an hour when the US military satellite could detect it, was aimed at showcasing its missile threats,” Yonhap quoted the official as saying.
Satellite images taken in January showed that North Korea had completed a launch tower at the Tongchang-ri missile base, which was bigger and more advanced than the older Musudan-ri base on the east coast.
The North launched long-range missiles at Musudan-ri in 1998, 2006 and 2009, sending its Taepodong-2 missile to land some 3,200km in the Pacific ocean in April 2009.
Analysts said the new base in Tongchang-ri, whose construction was believed to be almost complete, was seen as a key in the North’s quest for an intercontinental ballistic missile that could possibly strike the US.
The North has started to build new railways to transport materials needed to complete the new base, said the official quoted by Yonhap, adding Seoul saw no immediate signs that the North was about to launch long-range missiles at the site.
Seoul intelligence believe that the North’s Taepodong-2 missile, whose maximum range is estimated at 6,700km, could reach the US west coast within about 20 minutes if successfully launched at the new base, Yonhap said.
Meanwhile, a high-ranking North Korean diplomat plans to visit New York later this week for talks with US officials, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported yesterday.
North Korean First Vice Minister Kim Kye-gwan intends to meet Stephen Bosworth, the chief US envoy on Korean affairs, Yonhap said, quoting unidentified “multiple diplomatic sources.”
What would be a rare visit to the US by a top Pyongyang diplomat is expected on or around Thursday.
Kim’s visit would come a week after a surprise meeting on Friday between the two Koreas’ top nuclear envoys on the sidelines of a key Asian regional security forum in Indonesia, and the next day’s brief encounter between the two Korean foreign ministers.
The contacts were interpreted as hinting at progress towards unblocking the deadlock in inter-Korean relations.
Kim’s trip would also mean the resumption of US-North Korean dialogue, 19 months after Bosworth visited Pyongyang in -December 2009.
“The South Korean and the US government have had sufficient consultations on vice foreign minister Kim’s trip to New York,” a source was quoted as saying. “The US plans to make an announcement in the near future.”
Officials in Seoul were not immediately available. for comment.
Kim was North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator for years before being promoted last year. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to head from Indonesia to Hong Kong where she could make an announcement on Washington’s position on possible dialogue with Pyongyang, Yonhap said.
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