|
N.Korea launches missiles, UN to meet
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-05 12:43 LONG-RANGE MISSILE
North Korean media made no mention of the multiple launches,
Japanese reporters in Pyongyang said. Television channels had no programming on
Wednesday morning, they said, and state radio led its bulletins on Kim Jong Il's
visit to a tyre factory.
Experts say the Taepodong-2 has a possible
range of 3,500-4,300 km (2,190-2,690 miles).
A U.S. State Department
official told Reuters the long-range missile had failed 40 seconds after it was
launched. A senior South Korean security official said the Taepodong-2 had
splashed down in the Sea of Japan, off the peninsula's east coast.
Such
a flop, said Daniel Pinkston, director of the East Asia non-proliferation
programme for the California-based Center for Nonproliferation Studies, would be
a blow to Pyongyang.
"If there was failure that early on in the flight,
there is no way they could make any claims of test-launching a satellite as they
did in 1998. They will not be able to exploit the propaganda value of that after
that type of failure," he said.
Experts say that Pyongyang is developing
long-range missiles to have the capability one day to deliver a nuclear bomb,
but that it is years away from acquiring such a weapons system.
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
| Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours |
|
|
|
|
