US sends ships toward North Korea

WASHINGTON -- The US military moved ships into position off the coast of North Korea yesterday to detect the launch of any long-range ballistic missiles and prepared its new, unproven missile-interception system to attempt a response if necessary.

It is apparently the first time that the US government has readied its rudimentary missile-defense system other than to test it. But officials played down the possibility that the interceptors might be used against a North Korean missile.

The South Korean government expressed doubt that Pyongyang is preparing a test of its first intercontinental missile. It suggested that the government of Kim Jong Il might be readying only to send a satellite into space.

North Korea declared yesterday that it has a right to carry out long-range missile tests, despite international calls for it to refrain from launching a rocket that is believed to be capable of reaching the United States.

The bristling statement from North Korea to Japanese reporters in Pyongyang was made as France and the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, voiced alarm over what are believed to be North Korea's preparations for a test of the Taepodong-2, with a range of up to 9,300 miles.

The North's declaration prompted Japan and South Korea to pledge to cooperate against plans for a launch.

The United States and Japan have said they could consider sanctions and push the UN Security Council for retaliatory action should the launch go ahead. Pyongyang demonstrated its ability to hit Tokyo when it fired a missile over northern Japan and into the Pacific in 1998.

``This issue concerns our autonomy. Nobody has a right to slander that right," a North Korean Foreign Ministry official, Ri Pyong Dok, told Japanese reporters, the Kyodo News agency reported in Tokyo.

Kyodo also quoted Ri as saying the North is not bound by the joint declaration at international nuclear disarmament talks last year or a missile moratorium agreed to by Tokyo and Pyongyang in 2002. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reaffirmed the moratorium in 2004.

There were conflicting reports yesterday on whether North Korea had completed fueling the missile. Fueling, analysts said, would increase the likelihood of a launch because of the difficulty of removing the fuel.

Two US Navy ships with sensors that would swiftly detect and track a missile's flight were operating off the North Korean coast yesterday.

They are the USS Curtis Wilbur and the USS Fitzgerald, both Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers based at Yokosuka, Japan.

Also, as part of a long-planned exercise, the Navy has three carrier battle groups operating near Guam in the western Pacific for the first time since the Vietnam War, along with dozens of aircraft, including several heavy bombers.

Pentagon officials said that steps had been taken to ready the US missile interceptors in much the same way that they would proceed for a test of the system -- which is still being built -- because of recent satellite imagery indicating that North Korea might be preparing a test launch.

There are nine interceptor missiles based in Alaska and two in California. They are at the core of a complex system that connects launch data from satellites and radars on land and aboard ships and transmits the data to command-and-control facilities, where senior commanders make decisions about whether to launch interceptors. The system has not successfully intercepted a missile in its current configuration.

US government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, played down the likelihood of the new antimissile system being used in this situation.

This, they said, was because it is not yet clear whether North Korea will send a missile aloft -- or if it does, whether it would head anywhere near US territory.

In Seoul, a South Korean official said his government is skeptical of US intelligence indicating the North is preparing to launch a new, larger version of the Taepodong-2 . He said his government ``doesn't understand why there is such fuss in other countries on this."

He also said it is too early to say whether the North Koreans are trying to launch a satellite or test a missile.

A South Korean parliamentary panel concluded that North Korea ``does not seem" to have completed injecting fuel into the missile, citing information from South Korea's National Intelligence Service.

``The 40 fuel tanks spotted at the site do not contain enough to launch a missile that needs 65 tons of liquid fuel," Representative Chung Hyung Keun, secretary of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, said.

The US national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, told reporters on Air Force One as President Bush flew to Vienna yesterday that ``it's hard to tell" whether North Korea has fueled the missile.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.