Reports: N. Korea on verge of missile test

Heads up, West Coasties!

Reports: N. Korea on verge of missile test:

"SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea appeared close yesterday to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, prompting the White House to warn of an appropriate response and Japan to threaten a 'fierce' protest to the United Nations.

North Korea was silent on the issue but vowed to bolster its 'military deterrent' in a burst of fiery rhetoric carried by its state news agency.

A test launch of what is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile would inflame a region already tense over the North's continuing nuclear weapons program.

'There are signs' of an imminent missile launch, said Jung Tae Ho, a spokesman at the South Korean president's office. He said security officials were 'closely watching the situation.'
North Korea last conducted such a launch in August 1998. It imposed a moratorium on testing long-range missiles in 1999.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday that the United States expected the North to abide by that freeze.
'We do not want to have a missile test out of North Korea,' Snow said on Fox News Sunday. 'The North Koreans themselves decided in 1999 that they would place a moratorium on this kind of testing, and we expect them to maintain the moratorium.'

Snow said North Korea had made a series of commitments in six-nation talks over its nuclear program in September, including that it would 'bargain in good faith.'

'We expect them to come back to the table,' Snow said. 'And we hope there's not going to be a launch.'

President Bush, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been in contact with more than a dozen countries and have communicated with North Korea through its U.N. representative, Snow said.