SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appears to be preparing to test an advanced missile designed to reach the United States, a U.S. official said Monday, ratcheting up tensions after its second underground nuclear test.
The reclusive communist country also reportedly bolstered its defenses and conducted amphibious assault exercises along its western shore, near disputed waters where deadly naval clashes with the South have occurred in the past decade.
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Satellite images and other intelligence indicated the North had transported its most advanced long-range missile to the new Dongchang-ni facility near China and could be ready to be fired in the next week or so, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
A U.S. official confirmed the Yonhap report and said the missile was moved by train, although he did not comment on where it was moved to, and said it could be more than a week before Pyongyang was ready to launch. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue involved intelligence.
The activity at the launch site came as the United Nations Security Council mulled punitive action for North Korea’s May 25 nuclear test, and ahead of a June 16 summit in Washington between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and President Barack Obama.
Complicating the situation further, a trial was set to begin Thursday in Pyongyang of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in “hostile acts.”
The missile being prepared for launch was believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unnamed South Korean official.
That distance would put Alaska and U.S. bases on the Pacific island of Guam — along with all of Japan — within striking range.
Even so, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, visiting Manila in the Philippines, said that although North Korea does appear to be working on its long range missiles, it was not yet clear what its plans were for them.
President Lee, hosting a conference of Southeast Asian leaders on the southern island of Jeju, warned in his weekly radio address that the South would “never tolerate” military threats.
Lee Sang-hyun, director of the Security Studies Program at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, said the North’s moves were calculated to get international attention.
“North Korea wants to become a full nuclear state, then negotiate,” he said. “As a nuclear state, it will have more to gain from the U.S.”
