Washed It!

Reporting from Seoul — North Korea has positioned its most sophisticated long-range ballistic missile at a launch site for a test firing that could come within weeks, a newspaper here reported today.

Pyongyang, which last month raised tensions worldwide by conducting a nuclear test, could even fire its missile June 16, when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meets with President Obama in Washington, according to the report.

The report, citing unnamed sources, said the missile had a range of up to 4,000 miles and could reach Alaska.

Both South Korea and Japan acknowledged today that a new North Korean long-range missile test could come within weeks.

“Given that North Korea has carried out a nuclear test, we can’t deny the possibility that they will further test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference in Tokyo.

Without mentioning the new North Korean missile, South Korean President Lee said in a radio address that his nation would not tolerate further provocations from Pyongyang.

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“North Korea’s second nuclear test last week brought great disappointment and shock not only to our people, but the entire world,” Lee said, who echoed U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ claim that the world would not accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.

During a news conference in Manila, where he is meeting with Filipino military officials, Gates confirmed that North Korea appears to be preparing a long-range missile. But, Gates added, “at this point, it’s not clear what they’re going to do.”

Following last month’s nuclear test by North Korea, Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons — by North Korea or any other nation.

Pyongyang responded with anger, implying that it would no longer abide by the armistice that was signed to bring an end to fighting between north and south in 1953. But Lee indicated today that Seoul would not back down.

If Pyongyang “refuses to take the path to dialogue and chooses the path of military threats and provocation, [South Korea] will never tolerate such threats.”

“We sincerely hope for peace but will sternly deal with any threats,” said Lee, who is attending an Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit on the southern island of Jeju.

South Korean newspapers have reported that a train carrying a long-range missile arrived at a missile base 120 miles northwest of Pyongyang, where a launch pad had been erected. The press reports speculated that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il might visit the site in early June.

In a release on Friday, Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said that the nation had “a right to conduct as many nuclear tests or missile launches as it wants in the event that the supreme interests of the state are infringed upon.”

“Such self-defensive measures do not run counter to any other international law,” the release stated.

Analysts say Pyongyang may be looking to disrupt the June summit between Lee and Obama, who will discuss the ongoing crisis on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang’s last rocket launch, in April, was timed to coincide with an international summit in Europe.

“North Korea could possibly launch its missile during the summit between South Korea and the United States,” said Choi Choon-heum, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. “The last rocket launch was in April when the G20 meeting took place.”

Other analysts agreed that a missile launch appeared certain if the U.N. lays out new sanctions.

“North Korea has said that if the U.N. Security Council agrees on sanctions, it would stage a nuclear test or missile test,” said Paik Hak-soon, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at Sejong Institute near Seoul.

“They think this is their chance to test fire an ICBM. They’re thinking: Let’s get a status of a nuclear state. And besides that, we can achieve a capability for the ICBM.”