Global Security Newswire

South Korea and the United States over the last two days warned North Korea against conducting another test-launch of its long-range Taepodong 2 missile, according to news reports (see GSN, Feb. 11).

Satellite imagery has shown a large item that appears to be a missile being transported to the Musudan-ri launch site, along with apparent preparations for the test at the facility. Pyongyang last launched a Taepodong 2 in July 2006, only to see the missile fail in less than one minute.

"We've said, over and again, we remain concerned about some of North Korea's behavior in the international community," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said yesterday. "And we've encouraged the North not to take any steps that will ... create any kind of tensions in the region."

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said another missile test might undermine the six-party talks aimed at shuttering North Korea's nuclear operations and eliminating its atomic arsenal, the Yonhap News Agency reported (see related GSN story, today).

His boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, suggested that the Pentagon was prepared to use its missile defense capabilities to bring down a North Korean missile if necessary. "My colleagues, the secretary of state, national security adviser, president and vice president, understand what our capabilities are," he said (Yonhap News Agency, Feb. 12).

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan today said Pyongyang could face additional sanctions for carrying out a missile test, Agence France-Presse reported. It was hit with a set of U.N. Security Council penalties following the 2006 launch.

"Such an act would isolate it ... given various restrictions and sanctions which North Korea would incur with the missile launch, it would never be in the North's interest," he said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 12).