China said Thursday that all parties should focus on finding a peaceful
solution to the issue and urged a return to the nuclear talks.
The sides should "be determined to realize a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula
and ... the notion of the process of the six-party talks," Jiang said. "China
stands ready to work with relevant parties in the international community to
press ahead with the process."
The North agreed at the those talks in September to abandon its nuclear
program in exchange for security guarantees and aid, but no progress has been
made on implementing the accord.
North Korea has issued repeated complaints in recent weeks about alleged
American spy flights, including in skies off the coast where the missile test
facility is located. On Thursday, the North admonished Washington again.
"The U.S. imperialist warmongers have been intensifying military provocations
against" the North, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said. "The
ceaseless illegal intrusion of the planes has created a grave danger of military
conflict in the air above the region."
The U.S. has sent ships off the Korean coast that would be capable of
detecting and tracking a missile launch, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.
South Korean aircraft have also been flying reconnaissance over the waters
between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, said the military official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.
Japan said Thursday that it was also keeping an eye on its neighbor. Tokyo
has sent ships and planes to monitor North Korea, officials said, while playing
down Pyongyang's capacity to possibly load a nuclear warhead atop its rockets.
Japan's Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga confirmed in Tokyo that naval
ships and patrol planes have been deployed to monitor developments in North
Korea. Nukaga did not elaborate on the monitoring effort, but Japanese media
said his agency has sent a destroyer with advanced reconnaissance equipment and
an attack aircraft loaded with radar-jamming electronics.
"We have deployed naval ships and patrol planes to maximize our information
gathering effort," Nukaga said. "But we do not have accurate information,
including details of its technology."
The North has claimed to have a nuclear weapon, but isn't thought to have an
advanced design that could be placed on a warhead -- a belief backed at the same
hearing by Senior Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki.
"At this point, we have encountered no information that indicates North Korea
has the technology," he said. "It requires tremendous technology to miniaturize
an atomic weapon in order to load into a missile warhead."
Defense Agency Counselor Shinshiro Yamazaki, also at the same parliamentary
hearing, said Japan doesn't have details about North Korea's capability to load
biological and chemical weapons atop its missile, although "as a matter of logic
it is possible."
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso vowed continuing efforts to persuade North
Korea to give up on a missile launch.
"It's crucial to get North Korea to restrain itself from a missile launch,"
Aso said. "We should gather efforts before it happens, not afterward."
Japanese police are preparing for a "worst-case scenario," including the
possibility that parts of a missile could fall on Japanese soil, said Iwao
Uruma, commissioner general of the National Police Agency.
"We'll need rescue operations if there is any damage, and we'll need to
locate the missile if we don't immediately know where it lands," Uruma said.
