SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday vowed to retaliate if punitive U.N. sanctions are imposed for its latest nuclear test, and U.S. officials said there are increasing signs Pyongyang may be planning more long-range missile launches.
With tensions rising, the communist nation punctuated its barrage of rhetoric with yet another short-range missile launch — the sixth this week.
Perhaps more significantly, officials in Washington said there are indications of increased activity at a site used to fire long-range missiles.
The officials, spoke on condition of anonymity, also said an initial U.S. air sampling from near the underground test site was inconclusive.
They said the initial analysis doesn’t prove the North successfully completed an atomic reaction. At least one more test is coming, they said.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the latest test launch was a surface-to-air missile designed to defend against aircraft or other missile attacks. It said the missile was believed to be a modified version of the Russian SA-5.
The nuclear test and flurry of missile launches, coupled with the rhetoric from Pyongyang that it won’t honor a 1953 truce ending the fighting in the Korean War, have raised tensions in the region and heightened concerns that the North may provoke a skirmish along the border or off its western coast — the site of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002.
But officials said the border remains calm and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington does not see the situation as a crisis warranting any more troops to augment the 28,000 U.S. forces already in South Korea.
"I don’t think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis,” Gates said.
by the associated press
With tensions rising, the communist nation punctuated its barrage of rhetoric with yet another short-range missile launch — the sixth this week.
Perhaps more significantly, officials in Washington said there are indications of increased activity at a site used to fire long-range missiles.
The officials, spoke on condition of anonymity, also said an initial U.S. air sampling from near the underground test site was inconclusive.
They said the initial analysis doesn’t prove the North successfully completed an atomic reaction. At least one more test is coming, they said.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the latest test launch was a surface-to-air missile designed to defend against aircraft or other missile attacks. It said the missile was believed to be a modified version of the Russian SA-5.
The nuclear test and flurry of missile launches, coupled with the rhetoric from Pyongyang that it won’t honor a 1953 truce ending the fighting in the Korean War, have raised tensions in the region and heightened concerns that the North may provoke a skirmish along the border or off its western coast — the site of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002.
But officials said the border remains calm and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Washington does not see the situation as a crisis warranting any more troops to augment the 28,000 U.S. forces already in South Korea.
"I don’t think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis,” Gates said.
by the associated press
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