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Japan raises defenses on north korea missile test plans { September 24 2004 }

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   http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/international/asia/24nkorea.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/international/asia/24nkorea.html

September 24, 2004
Japan Raises Defenses on Signs North Korea Plans Missile Test
By JAMES BROOKE

TOKYO, Sept. 23 - Japan sent two destroyers and a surveillance airplane to the Sea of Japan on Thursday, American and Japanese government officials said, after the United States and Japan detected signs that North Korea was preparing to test a ballistic missile capable of reaching the main islands of Japan.

At the same time, the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun warned Japan that its military cooperation with the United States "would serve as a detonating fuse to turn Japan into a nuclear sea of fire," the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

These tensions across the Sea of Japan, where the two countries are separated by as little as 350 miles, surfaced on the day when North Korea was to have taken part in a fourth round of six-nation talks intended to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. But, rebuffing appeals from its neighbors and the United States, North Korea has made it clear that it will not resume substantive talks until the American presidential election is decided and Washington's policies are defined.

North Korea's harsh polemics and the easily detectable activity of soldiers and vehicles around North Korean missile bases may be intended to influence the elections, some analysts in the region speculated. North Korea has complained that the Bush administration has not taken its military power seriously enough to engage in bilateral talks.

On Thursday, Japan, China, South Korea and the United States sought to calm tensions and minimize the possibility of a missile or nuclear test.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said, "The reports I've had say it is nothing to make a fuss about," Kyodo News reported. "I think the possibility of launching one is low."

In 1998, North Korea shocked the world by firing a missile over Japan. The test of the Taepodong ballistic missile showed that Japan's biggest cities, including Tokyo, were within its estimated 800-mile range.

In New York, Japan's foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, said at a news conference that the Japanese government had "reports, information about their possible missile activities." But Kyodo reported that she added, "Information that we have as of now indicates that this firing is not imminent."

Largely because of public alarm in recent years about North Korea's missile capabilities, Japan is joining the United States in developing an antimissile system that could protect Japan from missiles fired by North Korea or China. One of the Japanese destroyers patrolling off the coast of North Korea has American-made Aegis missile detection systems.

In Seoul, South Korea, where officials usually take the mildest view of events in North Korea, Reuters reported that Lee Bong Jo, the deputy unification minister, said, "There is a high possibility that these were part of the annual, routine activities of North Korean missile units."



Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company


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