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NKorks Load Boosters On Pad
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea loaded booster rockets onto a launch pad in preparation to test-fire a long-range missile that could reach as far as the U.S. mainland, with the launch expected as early as Sunday, South Korean and Japanese media reports said. The reports follows warnings by the U.S. government that the communist state is accelerating preparations for testing a Taepodong-2 missile. A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said Friday that a test may be imminent. South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities had made an assessment based on recent satellite images that the North had loaded booster rockets onto a launch pad and moved about 10 large tanks of liquid fuel close by. The Taepodong-2 is a three-stage missile, but the warhead section hasn't been loaded yet, the paper said, quoting an unnamed high-level South Korean government official. It wasn't clear if the fuel had been unloaded, it said. South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho couldn't confirm the report. Japan's mainstream conservative Sankei Shimbun, also citing unnamed government sources, said the North could test the missile as early as Sunday. Japan has dispatched two Aegis destroyers to the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, the paper said. Hidetsugu Iwamasa, a Japanese naval official, said he could not comment on the reported Aegis deployment.
Posted by: Steve 2006-06-17 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=156425 |