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NKor missile launch not imminent, SKors defence minister sez
SEOUL - North Korea’s planned test-firing of a long-range missile is not imminent, South Korea’s Defence Minister said Thursday, easing widespread international jitters over a feared early launch. “There are many processes to go through before firing such a missile. Given this, it (an imminent firing) is not the case,” Defence Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told a parliamentary hearing, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported.

“There have been no additional substantial moves towards a missile launch during the last several days,” said the official engaged in handling dialogue with North Korea, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the same day a Korean-language newspaper in Japan, which has been used in the past as a mouthpiece by the North Korean regime, suggested that a launch had already been put back. The Chosun Sinbo, published by pro-Pyongyang Koreans in Japan, said North Korea intended to launch a satellite rather than a missile and that the launch “can take place anytime. It may come in a month or in a year.”
Of course, you usually tell everyone you're going to launch a satellite just so as to allieviate concerns ...
But defense minister Yoon, asked about the satellite claim, said it was not right to say the move is designed to prepare to put a satellite into orbit. South Korea, which has been slow to criticize North Korea in the past, has also threatened to withhold rice and fertilizer aid if a test goes ahead.
Posted by: Steve White 2006-06-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=157004