US deploys ships to intercept missiles off Korea

IN THE latest episode in a tense stand-off on the Korean peninsula, the US deployed missile-interceptor ships from South Korea…

IN THE latest episode in a tense stand-off on the Korean peninsula, the US deployed missile-interceptor ships from South Korea yesterday – just days ahead of a North Korean rocket launch seen as a long-range missile test that violates UN sanctions.

The ships are equipped with Aegis radar, a system that enables them to locate, track and shoot down missiles.

However, fearful that tensions over the missile launch could escalate into something far more dangerous, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak insisted South Korea opposed a military response to North Korea’s planned launch, while US secretary of defence Robert Gates said the US would not try to shoot it down.

North Korea has announced that it will launch a communications satellite into orbit between April 4th and 8th as part of its space development programme. But regional powers suspect it is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, while the US is concerned that Pyongyang is working on a rocket which could reach Hawaii or the US west coast.

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The launch presents the first significant challenge by the secretive state to US president Barack Obama, who will discuss Pyongyang’s intentions with global leaders including Hu Jintao of China this week at the G20 summit in London. Mr Obama’s predecessors struggled to deal effectively with the communist country’s nuclear ambitions.

Satellite imagery released at the weekend shows the rocket clearly visible at the Musudan-ri launch site in northeastern North Korea, casting a shadow on the ground.

South Korea, the US and Japan say the launch is a test of the Taepodong-2 missile and have warned the North that if it goes ahead, it could face international sanctions under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution prohibiting Pyongyang from launching ballistic missiles.

Pyongyang insists it merely wants to send a satellite into space, and has said that if sanctions are imposed it will nullify agreements reached on its nuclear ambitions in six-party talks with China, the US, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

Mr Gates said the US had no plans to try to intercept the North Korean rocket. “If we had an aberrant missile, one that looked like it was headed for Hawaii, we might consider it,” he said in an interview at the weekend, adding that the Pentagon believed the launch was a step towards developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear warhead and that the satellite launch was merely a cover.

The US, South Korea and Japan want the UN Security Council to sanction North Korea for the launch but China is likely to block such a move.