U.S. underscores warning against N. Korean ballistic missile launch

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Yonhap) -- The United States insisted Monday that North Korea refrain from test-launching a long-range missile in violation of a United Nations resolution.

"It certainly would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 that
prohibits North Korea from, you know, engaging in ballistic missile activities,
so -- but I don't have anything new to update you with regard to North Korea,
other than what we have said previously," State Department spokesman Robert Wood
said in a daily news briefing.
"We've seen plenty of reports about the North planning to launch these types of
missiles. Look, we've been very clear from here about where we stand on -- with
regards to those missiles," Wood said.
North Korea is currently under a trade embargo involving weapons of mass
destruction and their parts, under the resolution adopted soon after Pyongyang
test-fired a ballistic missile in 2006.
The resolution calls for the North to "suspend all activities related to its
ballistic missile program," and abandon the program in a "complete, verifiable
and irreversible manner."
The U.S. statement comes as the South Korean military asserts in a white book
that North Korea has deployed medium-range ballistic missiles that can travel up
to 3,000 kilometers, possibly to Guam, a U.S. base in the Pacific.
South Korea previously said that North Korea has deployed hundreds of Scud and
Nodong missiles with ranges of 500 kilometers and 1,500 kilometers respectively,
with possible targets in South Korea and Japan. The North's Daepodong missiles,
still in development, are believed capable of hitting the mainland U.S.
In Seoul last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged North Korea to
forgo any ballistic missile launch, refrain from provocative statements and
action and return to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs.
In return, Clinton said, the Barack Obama administration will be ready to
normalize ties with Pyongyang, provide hefty economic assistance, and establish a
permanent peace regime to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean
War.
Those benefits are the same as those described at six-party deals signed in 2005
and 2007, each in exchange for the North's dismantlement of its nuclear weapons
programs.
North Korea is threatening to test launch a Daepodong missile under the guise of
a rocket to place a satellite in orbit. Such missiles were also launched in 1998
and 2006.
The 1998 launch of the Daepodong I missile, which Pyongyang insists was a rocket
alarmed the U.S. as its debris plunged into the sea off Alaska.
The Clinton administration subsequently undertook ill-fated negotiations on
ending North Korea's long-range missile program, with the North insisting on
being rewarded with up to US$1 billion annually.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton had agreed to visit Pyongyang to try to
resolve the North's nuclear and missile issues, but dropped what would have been
a historic tour of the reclusive communist state in his waning months in 2000,
citing a lack of time.
North Korea is said to be the biggest provider of missiles to Iran, Syria and
several other Middle Eastern countries.