U.S. warns N. Korea not to provoke with missile launch

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- The United States Tuesday warned North Korea not to test fire a ballistic missile, saying any such launch would be a provocation.

"A ballistic missile launch by North Korea would be unhelpful and, frankly,
provocative," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said in a daily news
briefing. "North Korea's missile activities and, you know, its missile programs
are of concern to the region. There's no secret there."
Wood was responding to reports that North Korea is preparing to test launch a
long-range missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S., in an apparent effort
to attract the attention of the new U.S. administration.
The spokesman would not confirm or deny reports of the North's imminent ballistic
missile launch. "First of all, we don't comment on intelligence matters," he
said.
Since taking office a couple of weeks ago, President Barack Obama has nominated a
special envoy for the Middle East, former Sen. George Mitchell, but has not yet
appointed a special envoy for North Korea amid reports that Christopher Hill, the
chief U.S. envoy for six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear dismantlement, has
been tapped as new U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Some U.S. officials and analysts say that the North Korean nuclear issue is not a
priority due to the ongoing economic crisis and heightening tension in the Gaza
Strip and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
North Korea test fired a Daepodong ballistic missile in 1998 that flew over Japan
and plunged into waters in the Pacific Ocean off Alaska, shocking the U.S. and
its allies.
The North test launched another Daepodong missile in the summer of 2006 after
years of a self-imposed moratorium, heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula
during the lackluster aid-for-denuclearization talks.
The North's first detonation of a nuclear device followed in October that year,
prompting the reluctant Bush administration to actively engage the North and
produce a landmark deal in the following months for the provision of energy and
other economic aid and diplomatic concessions in return for the North's nuclear
dismantlement.
Obama called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Monday to reaffirm their
commitment to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons through the six-party
talks.
The new U.S. president has said he will continue the six-party talks while
seeking more direct engagement with the reclusive, nuclear-armed communist state,
including a possible summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
The latest round of the multilateral nuclear talks, which date back to 2003,
stalled in December as the North stone-walled a verification regime for its
nuclear facilities.
The talks involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia are in
their second phase, in which North Korea is supposed to disable its nuclear
facilities in return for 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or the equivalent.
The third phase calls for the North to dismantle all of its nuclear facilities
and programs in exchange for massive economic aid and diplomatic recognition by
Washington and Tokyo.