S. Korea bolsters warning as N. Korea nears rocket launch

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea warned Thursday North Korea's planned
rocket launch amounts to a provocation that would further batter their ties and
stir regional stability, as the communist state appeared to take final steps
toward a suspected missile test.
Intelligence officials of South Korea, the United States and Japan said earlier
that North Korea has loaded its most advanced rocket onto a launch pad in its
northeastern province.
Pyongyang says it is preparing to send a satellite into orbit between April 4-8,
rejecting allegations it is in fact moving to test-fire a Taepodong-2 ballistic
missile capable of reaching Alaska.
U.S. and Japanese warships -- loaded with guided missiles -- have already begun
to patrol the East Sea, where South Korea also plans to deploy an Aegis-guided
destroyer.
"The Sejong the Great destroyer will conduct monitoring activities," a South
Korean official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The destroyer,
commissioned last year, can detect and track moving targets hundreds of
kilometers away.
Japan has indicated it may attempt an interception if its airspace is breached,
while U.S. commanders emphasize the capability of their forces to shoot down a
rocket approaching their territory.
Won Tae-jae, South Korean defense spokesman, said his country's military is
keeping maximum tabs on the North "around the clock."
He warned North Korea's planned rocket launch is "a serious challenge and
provocation to the security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asian regional
stability."
Other officials said the defense ministry has launched a special task force
dedicated to dealing with the planned launch, declining to elaborate.
South and North Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 Korean War
ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.
Their relations hit the lowest point in a decade after South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office last year with a pledge to stop providing aid unless the
impoverished North shows efforts to denuclearize under a multinational framework.
North Korea conducted its first known atomic test in October 2006.
On Thursday, North Korea branded Lee as a traitor -- a routine epithet -- because
his administration backs sanctions against Pyongyang and fails to recognize its
rocket as a feat of the Korean nation.
In 2006, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution slapping sanctions and
banning North Korea from further testing any ballistic missile technology. It
came after North Korea test-fired an earlier version of the Taepodong-2, which
crashed soon after takeoff in July but is still believed to have a range of over
6,700 kilometers.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during her trip to Mexico on
Wednesday (local time) that North Korea's rocket launch would be "a provocative
act" to be addressed at the United Nations.
The launch "will not go unnoticed and there will be consequences," she said.
The tension comes as two U.S. journalists -- both working for San Francisco-based
Internet media -- remain detained by North Korean authorities after a reporting
trip to China.
North Korea claims the female reporters, including a Korean-American, "illegally
intruded" into its territory, while Washington says it is engaged in talks with
Pyongyang to secure their release despite the absence of diplomatic relations.
Analysts say North Korea's determination to launch a rocket appears "unstoppable."
"Nothing other than bad weather could stop the launch," Yang Moo-jin, a professor
at the University of North Korean Studies, said, noting the North is set to hold
the first meeting of its brand-new parliament on April 9, a day following the
planned launch.
"North Korea is stoking tension to pressure the U.S. to agree to a more sweeping
deal over its nuclear weapons programs," he said.
The two sides have been at odds with each other for months over ways to verify
North Korea's past nuclear activities, a key element in the
aid-for-denuclearization talks that also involve the U.S., South Korea, Japan,
Russia and China.
"The launch would also help bolster the North Korean leadership because it is
struggling with economic difficulties amid the deadlock in the six-nation talks,"
he said.
Lee Jung-chul, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Soongsil University, said the
rocket launch is closely tied to the six-nation talks, which began in 2003.
"It's a familiar scenario," he said, arguing North Korea would have test-fired a
missile long ago if no breakthrough agreement had been made to keep the talks
going last year.
North Korea threatened this week to boycott the talks if sanctions follow its
rocket launch. Lee said the U.S. remains the main partner for North Korea and
that Pyongyang is unlikely to be afraid of damaged relations with other partners,
especially Seoul and Tokyo.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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