US Says Yes... And It Could Happen This Weekend
Defense department
officials believe North Korea has accelerated its preparations for
testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) -- and
what's more, that test could come as early as this weekend.
The unidentified officials told Reuters it seems likely the
communist stalwart will go through with the test, and not just make
preparations in a ploy to get international attention.
"The North Koreans have been working on it for a while without
much of a let up ... We think they are speeding up," said one
official. Others confirmed that assessment.
Satellite pictures indicate many people are working at a North
Korean test site, and assembly of components may have already
begun.
Should the rumors be proven true, it would be Pyongyang's first
long-range missile test since it surprised the world -- especially
Japan -- with its August 1998 firing of a Taepodong 1 ICBM over its
neighboring country. That missile fell harmlessly into the Pacific
Ocean.
Japanese media outlets have reported signs of preparations by
North Korea to test its new, multi-stage Taepodong 2 missile since
early May. Many believe the ICBM is capable of reaching US
territory.
Additionally, satellites recently spotted a missile on a flatbed
truck at a launch facility in the North Hamgyong province in the
northeast part of the country.
"Removing it from its storage site and erecting it for launch,
and then filling it with extremely volatile liquid oxygen and other
liquid fuels, and then finally commencing the countdown to the
actual launch point, that would take at least the better part of a
day and might well take much longer," said defense analyst Loren
Thompson of the Lexington Institute.
With global attention currently focused on the Mideast -- in
particular, Iran -- officials in Washington believe North Korea
feels slighted, as well as aggravated that America joined five
other countries this week in offering a proposal to end the Iranian
nuclear crisis that includes, among other incentives, light-water
nuclear power reactors.
That technology has been denied to North Korea.
US intelligence estimates state the still-untested Taepodong 2
could, in theory, reach portions of US territory. A three-stage
version of the rocket could hit "most of the continental United
States," according to a recent report by Monterey Institute's
Center for Non-proliferation Studies.
Fortunately, that report also stressed the missile's "probable
inaccuracy", and the fact that North Korea has not proven it can
make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit a missile.