Enlarge imageBy Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea test-launched what appeared to be a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, U.S. officials said, in a move that stoked fears Pyongyang may be headed next toward a nuclear test.
The White House called the missile launch a bullying tactic and cast North Korea’s Kim Jong-il as a cruel and untrustworthy leader.
The State Department said it was consulting closely with governments in the region about the incident, which came on the eve of a U.N.-hosted conference expected to focus on nuclear proliferation concerns including North Korea.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card acknowledged "increasing evidence" that Pyongyang may be developing the capability to arm missiles with a nuclear bomb. But he said the United States believed North Korea was having little success in testing multistage rockets.
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"It appears that there was a test of a short-range missile by the North Koreans and it landed in the Sea of Japan," Card told CNN’s "Late Edition." "We’re not surprised by this. The North Koreans have tested their missiles before."
Kyodo news agency, citing unnamed Japanese government sources, said the launch occurred around 8 a.m. Japanese time (Midnight Saturday British time). It said the Japanese government believes the missile may have been a land-to-ship or small ballistic missile.
APPARENT EARLIER TEST
Sunday’s missile, which had a likely range of around 60 miles, may have been launched from North Korea’s east coast, Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported, quoting unnamed defence sources.
Officials said the U.S. military picked up indications that there was a test and contacted the Japanese government. U.S. intelligence agencies were assessing the information to determine exactly what took place.
"It does seem this is real in terms of the firing," said one official briefed on the incident.
A senior Bush administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the latest test followed an apparent missile test attempt, on Friday, that failed.
Card said, "They’ve had some failures. ... We don’t think they have had much success in their testing of all of these rockets, multistage rockets."
Kurtis Cooper, a State Department spokesman, said North Korea had conducted similar launches and that "such tests did not contradict North Korea’s voluntary moratorium on ballistic missile tests."
But Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan said it was troubling. "It’s additional, very discouraging evidence that this administration’s policy towards North Korea is failing," the Senate Armed Services Committee member said.
"We have long been concerned about North Korea’s missile program and activities and urge North Korea to continue its moratorium on ballistic missile tests," said Cooper.
The incident comes amid what officials said were growing U.S. concerns that North Korea might be trying to harvest nuclear material from a shut-down reactor and may be preparing for an underground nuclear test.
U.S. WITHIN REACH?
The U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency warned last week that North Korea has the ability to mount a nuclear device on a long-range missile and the communist state could hit U.S. territory.
Asked what North Korea hoped to achieve by testing the missile, Card told "Fox News Sunday": "I think they’re looking to kind of be bullies in the world. And they’re causing others to stand up and take notice."
Card accused the North Korean leader of flaunting his weapons programs and violating past agreements.
"He is not a good person. He is not a good leader," Card said of Kim after Pyongyang on Saturday branded U.S. President George W. Bush "a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with."
Card called Kim a "very, very cruel" leader who lacked the credibility to question the U.S. president’s morality.
Bush has urged North Korea to return to six-party talks aimed at ending the reclusive state’s nuclear program. The talks have been stalled for almost a year, and recent efforts to restart them have shown little progress.
North Korea has occasionally test fired short-range missiles before. In 1998, it fired a long-range missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, stunning the Japanese government.
In March, Pyongyang threatened to resume testing, saying it was no longer bound by a 1999 missile test moratorium to which it agreed when it was in talks with the United States.
"We have to work together with our allies around the world, especially the Japanese, the South Koreans, the Russians and the Chinese, to demonstrate that North Korea’s actions are inappropriate," Card said.
