Pat Dollard

Tweet

TOKYO (AP) – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday warned North Korea against following through on a threatened missile launch, saying it would damage its prospects for improved relations with the United States and the world.

Agencie France wussy:

North Korea will go ahead with a rocket launch but this would be part of a space programme and not an act of military provocation, official media said Monday.

“One will come to know later what will be launched in the DPRK (North Korea),” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, asserting the country’s right to “space development.”

US and South Korean officials say the North is preparing to test-launch its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which could theoretically target Alaska.

Media reports citing satellite photos say preparations at the Musudan-ri launch site on the northeast coast are well advanced.

KCNA complained that “hostile forces” were spreading rumours about a long-range missile launch without proper understanding.

“This is a vicious trick to put a brake on the wheel of not only the DPRK’s building of military capability for self-defence but also scientific researches for peaceful purpose,” it said.

“Space development is the independent right of the DPRK and the requirement of the developing reality.”

The official agency said “dishonest forces” were asserting that the North was planning an act of provocation to draw attention.

“The DPRK has no need to draw anyone’s attention and wants nobody to interfere or meddle in the issue of the Korean peninsula where only the Koreans live.”

Analysts believe a missile launch would be aimed at persuading the new US administration to make its negotiations with the nuclear-armed North a priority.

The United States has said any long-range missile test would be provocative and South Korea says it would bring new sanctions on the communist state.

In 1998, when the North tested its shorter-range Taepondong-1 missile, it said the purpose was to put a satellite into orbit.