North Korea launches six missiles, including Taepodong 2, on US holiday
North Korea has launched six missiles, including a long-range Taepodong 2 capable of reaching US territory, in a move that US and Japanese government officials dubbed provocative.
Details of the launches are still being analyzed Tuesday, but a senior US government official confirmed that a Taepodong 2 was one of the missiles fired.
US officials said the North Korean military first fired two Scud-type short-range missiles that landed in the Sea of Japan and later the Taepodong 2 that "failed early in flight."
More launches were believed possible.
The US missile defense system, based in California, Alaska and onboard US Navy ships, was on high alert in anticipation of the Taepodong 2 test, and ready to shoot any missile down if it threatened US territory.
But since it failed at an early stage, "no action was taken," said a defense official.
A senior official announced the United States was sending its senior envoy for six-nation North Korean nuclear talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, to Asia to discuss the situation on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, held urgent consultations with his foreign counterparts, but no formal meeting of the UN Security Council was scheduled.
In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told reporters the missiles landed in the Sea of Japan several hundred kilometers (miles) from the coast of Japan.
"Today's launches were done despite advance warning by the relevant countries. This is a grave problem in terms of peace and stability not only of Japan but also of international society. We strongly protest against North Korea," said Abe, the government's top spokesman.
Japan is particularly sensitive to such moves by North Korea, which in 1998 fired a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan into the Pacific, prompting Tokyo and Washington to step up cooperation to build missile defenses.
A senior US official described the launches as a "provocative act," adding that one of the missiles launched by North Korea was the long-range Taepodong 2 capable of hitting US soil.
"We verified they have launched the long-range missile Taepodong 2," the official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
"It's a provocative act for them to do this in general," the official, who asked not to be named, said of the missile launches.
The White House had no immediate comment.
The launches came as millions of Americans celebrated Independence Day and minutes after the US space shuttle Discovery roared into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush celebrated his 60th birthday two days early with a group of friends at the White House after making a stay-the-course speech on Iraq at the sprawling Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said last Thursday that he and president Bush had agreed to impose unspecified "pressures" on North Korea if it launched a long-range missile.
The United States had been monitoring a potential launch of a Taepodong 2 missile and Bush criticized North Korea last Thursday -- during a meeting with Koizumi -- saying that Pyongyang had failed to inform the world of its missile intentions.
Assistant Secretary of State Hill warned last Thursday that a long-range missile launch by North Korea could derail future six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
He told US lawmakers that he remained uncertain whether North Korea intended to resume the stalled talks that also include China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
"The question that keeps me up at night is: are they serious?" Hill asked. He said that a potential North Korea missile test would have "the opposite effect" and actually compromise rather than strengthen the regime's future security.
Preparations for the launch of a multi-stage Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) have been underway for several weeks at Musudanri on the remote northeast coast of North Korea. US reports have said a launch was imminent.
North Korea said last year it would no longer keep to a moratorium on launches.
AFP
