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US, SKorea, Japan coordinate on NKorea launch
Washington (AFP) March 30, 2009 US, South Korean and Japanese envoys to the North Korean nuclear disarmament talks have discussed how to "maintain close coordination" if Pyongyang test fires a missile, an official said Monday. US envoys Stephen Bosworth and Sung Kim each held separate meetings on Friday with their counterparts Wi Sung-lac of South Korea and Akitaka Saiki of Japan, according to Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman. "The discussions were constructive and substantive," Duguid said. "The parties discussed how to maintain close coordination in the event of needing to respond to a North Korean missile test, and how to improve the six-party process to move forward," Duguid said. The remaining parties in the six-party disarmament negotiations are China and Russia. Kim, the representative to the six-party disarmament talks, also hosted an informal trilateral meeting with his two counterparts on Friday, Duguid added. Duguid had no further details on the talks involving Kim and Bosworth, who is the US representative on overall North Korea policy. Global concern has been mounting about North Korea's announcement that it would launch a communications satellite between April 4 and 8. The United States, Japan and other allies believe Pyongyang is actually testing a missile that could, in theory, reach across the Pacific to Alaska or Hawaii. In Tokyo on Monday, Kyodo News reported that Rear Admiral James Kelly, the commander of the US Naval Forces in Japan, said that US forces in Japan were prepared. "I wouldn't lose sleep at night. Japan is very safe," Kelly said at the US naval base of Yokosuka at the mouth of Tokyo Bay, Kyodo News reported. The US forces are "postured the right way" to respond to the launch, Kelly said. In Washington on Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told US television that the United States would probably not shoot down the missile -- although it might reconsider if the rocket were headed for Hawaii. Gates said the US government believed the launch was "intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile," but that this type of missile did not have the range to reach Alaska. Duguid said a rocket launch is not only barred by UN Security Council resolution 1718 but preceding resolutions as well, but he had no details. "There are precedent UN Security Council resolutions that also have stopped or called for North Korea to stop any ballistic missile development," he said. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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SKorea, US say NKorea's rocket plan a serious concern
Seoul (AFP) March 30, 2009South Korea and the United States expressed renewed concern at North Korea's upcoming rocket launch, saying it seems linked to a nuclear weapons drive rather than a space programme as Pyongyang claims. |
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