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June 20, 2006
SouthAmerica: The Financial Times article said: âWashington stepped up diplomatic efforts to persuade the Stalinist nation not to launch a Taepodong-2, which could reach the US. John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said his government was consulting members of the UN Security Council on how to respond to any test.â
I would suggest the following:
Aah!!!!!
The North Korean long-range missile really works.
Congratulations.
Why donât you guys test one of your nuclear weapons next? - to see if your nukes really works.
**********
The Financial Times - UK
N Korea missile threat a âprovocative actâ
By Caroline Daniel and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: June 20 2006
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, warned North Korea on Monday that a long-range missile test would be âprovocative and seriousâ.
Washington stepped up diplomatic efforts to persuade the Stalinist nation not to launch a Taepodong-2, which could reach the US. John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said his government was consulting members of the UN Security Council on how to respond to any test.
âThe first preference is that the North Koreans not light the missile off. We have made that clear to them,â Mr Bolton said.
The US warnings came as officials said North Korea appeared to have fuelled the Taepodong-2, a move that significantly increases the likelihood of an imminent test because it is difficult and dangerous to reverse.
One official said that while the US had not witnessed North Korea actually fuelling the missile â which could have occurred in darkness to avoid detection by US spy satellites â all the indications suggested it was loaded with fuel.
âEverything is there to lead you to the reasonable assumption that they have [fuelled the missile],â said the official. It is clearly a North Korean decision at this point. Whenever they make the decision, off it goes.â
While siphoning out the fuel would be dangerous, North Korea can also not allow the fuel to sit in the Taepodong-2 for too long because it would corrode the missileâs casing.
A launch would be North Koreaâs first test of a longer-range missile since 1998, when Pyongyang generated an international crisis by unexpectedly firing an intermediate-range Taepodong-1 over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.
The yen fell to an all-time low against the euro and an eight-year low against sterling in European morning trade on Monday as fears grew about escalating regional tensions.
In a sign of heightened concern in Washington, Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said that administration officials, including President George W. Bush, âhave contacted more than a dozen heads of stateâ.
âThis is something that the President has been working vigorously through diplomatic channels, to encourage the North Koreans to abide by their self-imposed moratorium on missile testing and also return to the talks,â Mr Snow said.
Mr Snow would not identify which leaders Mr Bush had contacted. But one official said he was due to speak with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, on Monday.
Ms Rice and Steven Hadley, the national security adviser, had also been âworking the phonesâ, and that there had been contacts with North Korean representatives in New York, according to Mr Snow.
A senior administration official said: âItâs our strong desire to see North Korea abide by the 1998 moratorium.â
At the weekend Shinzo Abe, Japanâs chief cabinet secretary and a leading candidate to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister in September, warned that any launch of a missile that directly affected Japanâs security would be a violation of the 2002 Pyongyang Declaration which included a pledge to freeze indefinitely tests of missiles capable of reaching Japan.
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