North Korea said to have missile that could reach United States; nuclear dispute goes to Security Council

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of reaching the western United States, top U.S. intelligence officials told Congress. In Vienna, the U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation for its nuclear program and reported the country to the Security Council.

The U.N. move could lead to punishing sanctions, which North Korea has said it would consider an act of war.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said his agency would continue to press for a peaceful solution, but he said months of intransigence by North Korea's communist regime had left the U.N. nuclear watchdog no choice.

"The current situation sets a dangerous precedent," ElBaradei said. He said North Korea was only a "month or two" from producing "a significant amount of plutonium" that could used to make weapons, now that IAEA inspectors no longer controlled the country's nuclear programs.

In Washington, U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Wednesday that North Korea has a ballistic missile capable of hitting the western United States and possibly targets farther inland.

The weapon is an untested, three-stage version of its Taepo Dong 2 missile, Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told reporters. CIA Director George J. Tenet, who joined Jacoby before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, acknowledged that North Korea has a missile that can at least reach the West Coast.

Their statements seemed to be the strongest from U.S. officials saying that Pyongyang can strike the United States with a long-range nuclear missile launched from the interior of North Korea.

However, U.S. intelligence officials said later North Korea has demonstrated no new missile capabilities in the last year. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Tenet and Jacoby's statements were based on the same information that led U.S. intelligence to conclude a few years ago that North Korea was close to being able to flight-test a three-stage Taepo Dong 2.

Without flight-testing, the reliability of such a missile fired in anger is questionable. For several years, North Korea has held to a voluntary moratorium on flight tests of its long-range missiles, although American officials say the country may renew them at any time.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer sought to play down the statements. He said, "This old news is why it's important to proceed with deployment of missile defense and also why the president is focused on multilateral diplomatic talks to deal with North Korea."

Some Democratic senators, however, criticized the Bush administration's handling of the standoff.

"It seems to me that's a threat that's as imminent, or perhaps more so, directly to the United States than is Iraq," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.

Tenet also told the senators that "it's a very good judgment" that North Korea has already built one or two nuclear weapons.

At issue in the current standoff is North Korea's ability to make more. It has taken steps to restart its plutonium-production line at a mothballed reactor, and U.S. intelligence officials say it is also pursuing a uranium-enrichment program that would allow for additional nuclear weapons. It also expelled U.N. inspectors who were monitoring the shut-down reactor.

In its resolution that sent the standoff to the Security Council, the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors said North Korea had not met its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and other accords.

Because the North has expelled U.N. inspectors, the agency "remains unable to verify that there has been no diversion of nuclear material" for weapons use, it said.

The head of North Korea's diplomatic representation in Germany, Pak Hyon Bo, told the German daily Financial Times Deutschland on Wednesday that his country will not respect any resolutions or suggestions by the U.N. Security Council.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying, "We hope the U.N. Security Council can prevent the situation from deteriorating and can handle the issue in a way that encourages a diplomatic solution."

Fleischer praised the IAEA action, calling it a "clear indication that the international community will not accept North Korea's nuclear program."

It was unclear whether the Security Council would impose sanctions, especially in light of objections from Russia and China, permanent council members with veto power.

The current Security Council president, Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, said, "Once I receive the letter from the IAEA, in consultation with the council, I will take a decision when to put this on the agenda of the council."

However, Russia's U.N. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov, asked about bringing the issue to the council, said, "We think it's counterproductive."

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Yingfan said: "We have to handle this. That's our responsibility. But how to, and when, I think we need some consultation among the council members."

Cuba also refused to endorse the IAEA action.

The U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, John Bolton, said the IAEA action demonstrates "the international concern over North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons" in contrast to Pyongyang's insistence that the issue is merely a Washington-Pyongyang matter.

He said it is difficult to see how North Korea can be persuaded to dismantle its nuclear weapons program without the help of China, which provides vast aid to North Korea. Secretary of State Colin Powell told a Senate committee Wednesday the United States is pressing China do to more.

The Press Enterprise
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and on that note. . .

The US has no signifigant defence:

"We do not have an intercept," said Colonel Lehner of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.

more... intercept missile tests fail

it's just califonia

like everything else surrounding the current state of affairs, i don't understand how bush is prioritizing threats...

Anyone else notice that in a world with such technology as we have, that these poverty-stricken countries with despots in power are causing such a problem? Does that add up?

Ask yourself "How did North Korea build the bomb".

Remember 1994? North Korea had a nuclear power plant that was being used to build atomic bombs. Things were looking grim as president Clinton might be forced to bomb the North Korean nuclear power plant to prevent them from developing the bomb.

Enter the pacifist Jimmy Carter who brokered a peace agreement where North Korea promised not to build atomic bombs in exchange for food, medicines, and other foriegn aid from the United States.

Well we can see how that endeavor failed as the North Korean Communist regime went ahead making atomic bombs anyway.

Now the pacifists want to do the same thing in Iraq....

If this keeps up then every tin horn dictator will soon have the bomb.

those people are idiots.. they should all enjoy life more.. yawn.. i'm going to go to sleep now.

so then by your reasoning, iraq is at a stage that was the same as N korea was in back 9 years ago? thats why we need to attack now? well then, if this is the ultimate destination of "tin horn" dictators its time to take care of N korea 1st, THEN Iraq since we still have some time there before they aquire any real weapons liable to hit the US. You never addressed the point that N Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq is.... its funny most rightists dont, i wonder why that is. Is it because N Korea is a war we cant win and it wouldnt be as lucretive to inheret i country full of starving peasants than it owuld to be to take over iraq with thier oil rich properties?

kind of hard to do when you havent eaten in 2 days, but then what do you know about that?

I'd say that explains it.

I have in other threads here on DF.

Read those other threads, the B2 Stealth Bomber and F117 Stealth Fighter will likely be used to destroy North Korea's nukes.

If the war with Iraq was about oil, then it would have been all ours when we whooped Saddam's ass a decade ago in Operation Desert Storm.

-Entirely agree that this should take precedence (As I had commented before "I'm more about the guy with the gun to our head than the one still looking for his bullets".) The 3-stage rocket that N. Korea has have never been tested (1 test failed). That is still closer than looking for pieces and parts, however.

-Thanks for the article Doll, like the conversation it started.

B2 Stealth bombers and F117 Stealth fighters will likely be used to destroy North Korea's nukes on the ground.

Some B-52 carpet bombing of North Korean Army positions will hamper any invasion of South Korea. The S. Koreans might even use the opportunity to unite Korea with an invasion of their own.