New signs of NKorea missile preparations: South Korea

Since last Monday’s nuclear blast,North Korea has test-launched six short-range missiles in a show of force and announced it won’t honor a 1953 truce ending fighting in the Korean War.

The reclusive communist state appears to be preparing to move a long-range missile by train from a weapons factory near Pyongyang to its northeastern Musudan-ni launch pad,a South Korean Defense Ministry official said. Images of the movements were captured by U.S. satellites,said the official,who was not allowed to be identified when discussing intelligence matters.

North Korea will need about two weeks to complete the launch preparation,South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported,citing an unidentified intelligence official. The missile might be tested around June 16 when the U.S. and South Korean presidents are to meet in Washington,Yonhap said.

Officials in Washington said Friday they noticed indications of increased activity at the missile test site,but did not provide many details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because methods of gathering information about North Korea are sensitive.

Yonhap said the size of the missile was similar to a long-range rocket the North tested in April. Experts have said the three-stage rocket has a potential range of more than 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometers),putting Alaska within its striking distance. Despite the rising tensions,the atmosphere was calm Saturday at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.

The area is a cluster of blue huts inside the 154-mile (248-kilometer) -long DMZ that is jointly administered by the U.S.-led United Nations Command and North Korea to supervise the cease-fire.

Another tense spot where fighting could break out was the disputed sea border in the West Sea,where the Koreas fought two naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002. On Saturday,South Korean forces held anti-aircraft drills on Yeonpyeong Island,just off the western coast. “We are fully ready to firmly counteract against any kind of enemy provocation,” said Chung Yeon-ik,a marine commander.

The United Nations has been negotiating a new resolution in response to the North’s nuclear test,the second it has conducted. A partial draft resolution – obtained Friday by The Associated Press calls on all countries to immediately enforce sanctions imposed by an earlier resolution after the North’s first test in 2006.

The sanctions include a partial arms embargo,a ban on luxury goods and ship searches for illegal weapons or material. They have been sporadically implemented,with many of the 192 U.N. member states ignoring them. The draft would also have the Security Council condemn “in the strongest terms” the North’s recent nuclear test “in flagrant violation and disregard” of the 2006 resolution.

Also at the defense meeting in Singapore,Chinese Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian said Beijing is “resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation.” But he called on nations to “remain cool-headed” in their responses. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said the test “has made a solution of the North Korean nuclear problem more difficult.”

Pyongyang has repeatedly said it conducted the nuclear test in self-defense,and that claim was repeated Saturday. North Korea also warned that it “will deal decisive and merciless blows at the enemies who desperately run amok to dare pre-empt an attack on it,” according to the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Some analysts say one of the aims of the North’s nuclear and missile tests is to strengthen its regime and boost morale in the impoverished nation. Rallies were being held across the country for citizens and soldiers who were celebrating the nuclear test,KCNA said Saturday.

It said speakers offered their “ardent congratulations” to nuclear scientists and engineers for bolstering the country’s dignity.