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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| North Korea reportedly has not fueled missile for test | |
| 2006-06-17 | |
| SEOUL - North Korea has not yet begun fueling a long-range missile on its northeast coast, the final step before a possible launch, South Korean officials and analysts said on Friday. Activity around the site at Musudanri has been brisk over the past month, they said, but there is no sign that fuel injection had started. “North Korea has not yet reached the final stage of preparations to fire it. It has not yet started fuel injection,” said Baek Seung-Joo from the government-backed Korean Institute for Defence Analyses. “It will take at least two days to fill the rocket with liquid fuel and if they finish it, we can say they are ready to start the countdown,” he told AFP.
An unidentified military intelligence official was quoted as saying in a news report Friday that a long trailer, usually used to carry missiles, was spotted in the area but that there were “no signs of trucks carrying fuel.” South Korea this week urged Pyongyang to abandon plans for the missile test that would have a “negative impact on the international geopolitical situation and the settlement of North Korea’s nuclear issue.” A top official of the presidential Blue House said Thursday that the warning had been based on the government’s judgment that North Korea might test-fire a missile but said the “explicit movement” for such a move had not begun. Japan on Thursday downplayed the possibility of an imminent missile test after its ally the United States warned of a response if Pyongyang carried out a long-range launch. “We are not in an extremely serious situation,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 They're distilling the diesel for the fuel delivery truck from the fuel oil we gave them last winter. Ya just gotta hope it goes 'pop' when they light it. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2006-06-17 23:34 |
| #1 Experts describe rocket fueling as the point of no return for a launch, because the process is both difficult and dangerous to reverse. For North Koreans, countries with an average calorie intake above 1500 have solved this problem, that's right, drill bits are involved. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-06-17 09:51 |