Japan and US warn N. Korea against missile launch

The United States and Japan issued new warnings to North Korea amid further signs yesterday that the secretive state was planning a long-range missile launch.

North Korea has moved key components of a long-range missile to a launch pad as well as 10 large liquid-gas tanks to fuel it, a South Korean newspaper reported, citing government officials. In a separate report, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted diplomatic sources in Seoul as saying a missile test could come as early as on today or tomorrow.

The South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo cited a South Korean government official as saying North Korea had deployed its long-range Taepodong-two missile to a launch pad and had been testing components of the launch platform.

The sources said the information came from spy satellite images analysed by US and South Korean officials.

"We take it very seriously that this is a grave and provocative action that the North Koreans are contemplating and we hope that they will turn back from launching a missile," US ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told reporters after meeting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso to discuss the matter.

Yonhap quoted one diplomatic official as saying, "There is a possibility that North Korea may test missiles on 18 or 19."

South Korean government officials were not immediately available for comment. Seoul has warned North Korea not to test, saying a launch would create grave concern for regional security. Japan has conveyed a warning to North Korea through a diplomatic channel in Beijing, and the United States has done so through contacts in New York, a Japanese official said.

North Korea has missiles that can hit all of South Korea and probably all of Japan, many experts have said.

The launch, expected to involve a Taepodong-two missile with an estimated range of 3,500 to 4,300 km, could come as early as this weekend, US officials have said.