N Korea Missile/US -3: White House Has 'Concerns'
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*DJ Untested N Korea Missile Can Reach US - US Official
12 Feb 12:32
(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires
02-12-03 1232ET
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DJ N Korea Missile/US -2: Might Be Able To Reach Western US
12 Feb 12:46
WASHINGTON (AP)--North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of
reaching the western U.S., intelligence officials said Wednesday.
The North Korean missile is a three-stage version of the Taepo Dong 2, said
Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
It hasn't been flight-tested, Jacoby said, leaving some questions about the
North Korea's capability to successfully launch the missile.
CIA Director George J. Tenet, who joined Jacoby in briefing the Senate Armed
Services Committee, also acknowledged the North Koreans have the capability to
reach the western U.S. with a long-range missile.
Previous U.S. intelligence reports have said such a missile probably could
carry a nuclear weapon-sized payload across the Pacific Ocean.
(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires
02-12-03 1246ET
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DJ N Korea Missile/US -3: White House Has 'Concerns'
12 Feb 13:05
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he was unfamiliar with the testimony
but said: "Technology and time means regimes like North Korea will increasingly
have the ability to strike at the United States."
He said that is why President George W. Bush supports building an antimissile
shield.
"We do have concerns ... about North Korea's missile development programs,"
Fleischer told reporters.
The revelation was certain to raise questions about Bush's priorities - and
whether North Korea or Iraq pose a greater threat to the U.S. Baghdad doesn't
possess weapons that can strike America, officials have said.
"They are both important priorities," Fleischer said. "The question is, what
arethe means best used to deal with each priority."
He said diplomacy has failed to curb Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass
destruction program for more than a decade, thus Bush made military action a
front-and-center option. "That's not the case with North Korea," Fleischer
said, saying Bush believes diplomatic pressure can contain North Korea.
Tenet said North Korea probably has one or two nuclear weapons.
An unclassified U.S. intelligence estimate, released by CIA officials in
December 2001, said the three-stage Taepo Dong 2 missile was probably close to
being ready for flight testing.
But North Korea has held to a voluntary moratorium on flight tests of its
long-range missiles, although officials in Pyongyang likely will conduct new
tests.
The 2001 U.S. government report said a three-stage Taepo Dong could deliver
a several-hundred-pound payload from North Korea to targets about 9,300 miles
distant _ sufficient to strike all of North America.
A two-stage Taepo Dong 2, which would be easier to use successfully, may be
able to reach Alaska or Hawaii, it said.
In 1998, the North Koreans attempted to put a satellite into orbit with the
launch of a three-stage version of the earlier model of the Taepo Dong. It
failed when the third stage didn't ignite.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-12-03 1305ET |
