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U.S. issues fresh warnings to Pyongyang
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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea (or D.P.R.K.) yesterday in Singapore that the United States would not accept it as a nuclear weapons state, and it will have to help defend its Asian allies, South Korea and Japan, from a possible attack.
"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia — or on us," Secretary Gates told a major defense conference in Singapore that has been dominated by Pyongyang's latest test of a nuclear device and the firing of at least six short-range missiles, in defiance of UN sanctions.
Gates said that he did not consider Pyongyang's nuclear program "a direct military threat" to the United States, but added that its recent progress "is a harbinger of a dark future." One of the chief concerns among United States officials is that North Korea will sell its nuclear technology to others.
In Washington Saturday, a senior American official confirmed South Korean news reports of indications that the North Korea was preparing to ship an inter-continental ballistic missile toward a missile testing site on the Sea of Japan, a sign that Pyongyang might be planning another long-range missile test.
It would likely take several weeks for the missile to reach the site and be put in place, and there is still no evidence that the North Koreans have the technology to create a nuclear device small enough to fit atop a missile, American reports said.
Pyongyang has conducted two such tests before, including one over Japanese territory, and American officials are particularly concerned about Japanese reaction to another test. Such missiles are theoretically capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii.
A CIA assessment has concluded that North Korea has built one or two nuclear weapons and harvested the fuel for six or more weapons.
Late on Saturday, Gates had a three-way meeting focused on North Korea with the defense ministers of South Korea and Japan. Military officials traveling with Gates said the tough talk was aimed in large part at increasing pressure on North Korea as well as reassuring allies in the region, particularly Japan and South Korea, that the United States was committed to their defense should North Korea make good on its talk of war this week.
Gates met early on Saturday with the highest-ranking official sent to the conference by China, Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army. "We are resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation," General Ma said, adding that "we hope that all parties concerned will remain cool-headed and take measured measures to address the problem."
In Moscow, the Kremlin issued a statement saying President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan had agreed on the need for a serious response to the nuclear test, Reuters reported. |
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