North Korea may tie possible missile test to satellite launching

Kyodo News (Japan) ^ | June 17, 2006

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North Korea has been working to determine an artificial satellite orbit since earlier this year in an apparent bid to cover up its possibly imminent test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile, military intelligence sources said Saturday.

Pyongyang plans to announce the orbit of what it calls a satellite after it test-fires the missile so as not to draw flak from such countries as the United States, the sources told Kyodo News.

On Thursday, a U.S. administration official said North Korea has stepped up its preparations for test-firing a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile in the past 48 hours and may be ready for a launch in a few days.

North Korea has to date kept to the moratorium on missile launches it agreed with the United States in 1998 after it fired a multistage missile, part of which flew over Japan into the Pacific Ocean, in August that year.

Pyongyang maintains the 1998 launch was a rocket for sending a satellite into orbit.

If it breaks the moratorium and fires the missile, it could derail the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program and lead to a crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

The six-party talks -- involving China, Japan, South and North Korea, Russia and the United States -- have been stalled since the fifth round in November due to Pyongyang's refusal to return to the table.

Pyongyang maintains that it will not resume talking unless Washington removes the sanctions against a Macao-based bank for allegedly distributing counterfeit U.S. dollars and laundering money for North Korea.