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Breaking on Yahoo News in Japan (link). Begin my translation: Yonhap News reporting out of South Korea on Tuesday afternoon local, North Korea is preparing for a possible intermediate range misssile (or missiles) launch from its southern central Gangwon Province from the Kittaeryung area.... The South Korean military command has revealed this to Korean parlimentarians today. These intermediate range missile has the potential to any part of the territory of Japan. (Rodong Missiles) ....They previously had a range of 1300 kilometers, but since have be revised to have a range of 3000 kilometers. ....North Korean fired six missiles toward Japan...

North Korea already has the capacity to launch a nuclear missile strike against Seoul and Tokyo, even before the long-range rocket test that it is promising in the next few days, an international think-tank has reported.

North Korea has the ability to put a nuclear warhead onto a medium-range missile and threaten its regional neighbors, especially Japan, some U.S. experts believe. With North Korea preparing to return to six-party talks on its nuclear program, scientists and other analysts stress that few facts are known about the reclusive country's capabilities and conclusions depend largely on circumstantial evidence. U.S. intelligence officials say there is no evidence that North Korea has physically "mated" a warhead to a medium-range Rodong missile, let alone has nuclear-armed Rodongs ready for launch. Some officials believe Pyongyang has yet to meet the engineering challenge...

/begin my translation N. Korea: 'Missile Vehicle' Movements Spotted in Kittaeryong "Watching out for a possibility of launch in mid-September" (Seoul=Yonhap News) Kim Kwi-keun = Recently, S. Korea and U.S. intelligence agencies are  watching out for the possibility of more missile launches in N. Korea, after spotting large vehicles at Kittaeryong, Anbyun County, where N. Korea's missile training base are located. The sources revealed on Sept. 3, "The agencies spotted movements of many large vehicles recently, at Kittaeryong, N. Korea. We do not rule out the possibility that they are preparing for another launch of Rodong and Scud missiles." On...

HONG KONG ¯ North Korea is operating 18 missile bases and 10 research and development facilities, and is increasingly shipping its weapons by air to avoid detection, a military journal and news agency reported yesterday. Nine missile bases have been constructed since 1994, while North Korea has deployed 1,200 Rodong and Scud missiles, which target all of South Korea, Defense International reported yesterday in its September issue. The security journal specializes in defense issues in the Northeast Asian region. The journal, citing intelligence data from Taiwan and the United States, said that prior to 1994 only three missile bases had...

After North Korea's July 5 missile tests, Japan, for the first time since 1945, is asking America to beef up its military presence in Japan. Why? Because Japan's hedging and tardiness in relation to missile defense has left its cities more vulnerable than they need be. That risks encouraging Pyongyang in its dangerous nuclear and missile brinkmanship. Senior U.S. and Japanese officials met in Washington on Aug. 7-8. The Japanese apparently asked the United States to send to Japan an additional U.S. warship equipped with the sophisticated Aegis radar system and the interceptor missile SM-3 (Standard Missile 3). This is...

DPRK Scud, Rodong tests 'successful' The Yomiuri Shimbun Six of seven missiles that North Korea test-fired on July 5 fell inside a sea zone that was put off-limits for ships in advance by Pyongyang, government sources said Saturday, adding that the missiles' accuracy indicates the tests were successful. Soon after the launches, the government announced the six missiles, which were Rodong and Scud missiles and exclude the launch of a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile, were estimated to have hit points 400 to 500 kilometers out to sea. But the government later learned the six missiles likely slashed down in an...

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been constructing new underground missile bases and silos along its east coast in recent years to deploy intermediate-range rockets targeting Japan and U.S. military facilities on the archipelago, a report said Thursday. "The new bases clustered along the east coastal line, in particular, are short- and medium-range missile bases aiming at Japan and U.S. military installations in Japan," said a report written by Yun Deok-min, a security expert at the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. About 200 Rodong missiles with ranges of up to 2,200 kilometers and 50...

(LEAD) N. Korea building new missile bases, silos along east coast: Report SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been constructing new underground missile bases and silos along its east coast in recent years to deploy intermediate-range rockets targeting Japan and U.S. military facilities on the archipelago, a report said Thursday. "The new bases clustered along the east coastal line, in particular, are short- and medium-range missile bases aiming at Japan and U.S. military installations in Japan," said a report written by Yun Deok-min, a security expert at the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. About 200...

Intelligence services in Seoul and Washington are analyzing suspicions that the seven missiles North Korea test-fired on July 5 include two new intermediate-range ballistic missiles with a range of 2,500-4,000 km. A government source said spy agencies detected electronic signals different from the North’s Rodong or Scud missiles from two of six medium-range missiles the North test-launched on July 5. Intelligence services considered whether they could be Scud-ERs with a range of up to 1,000 km, but additional analysis produced the suspicion that they could be a whole new type of IRBM, the source said. If so, they are...

N.Korea Has Eight Medium-Range Missile Pads: NIS The secret service says it has spotted eight launch pads for medium range missiles in North Korea. National Intelligence Service Director Kim Seung-gyu told a parliamentary committee Wednesday the launch pads were believed to be for Rodong-2 or Scud missiles. The NIS believes the missiles can be fired from the pads within three or four hours of preparation but the likelihood that they will be is small, a member of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee said. The NIS chief was quoted as saying that a long-range Taepodong-2 missile North Korea test-fired on July...

Starting on the Fourth of July, North Korea launched a salvo of seven short-, medium- and long-range missiles. Despite the failure of the single long-range missile, the Taepo Dong-2, the launches confirmed that North Korea is seeking to advance its missile arsenal in order to threaten both the United States and its allies in Asia. The short- and medium-range missiles, the Scud and No Dong respectively, all flew in the direction of Japan, so it seems that North Korea is focused on achieving a military capability to threaten Japan in particular. It remains unclear at this point whether North Korea...

The same North Korean ICBM efforts that throw a rock at Alaska can throw a large nuclear warhead at every ally the United States has in Northeast Asia. Japan and South Korea are not only close allies, they are critical trading partners. The risk of a war in this part of the world would inevitably threaten Chinese involvement in some form, and possible bloc trade with much of China for an extended period even if China did not become involved. Our troops and our bases in most of Asia would be at hazard as well. Americans need to stop thinking...

When it became clear that the Taepodong 2 missile North Korea test-launched early on July 4 had broken up less than a minute into flight and plunged into the Sea of Japan, many Americans felt a sense of relief. After all, the missile — belonging to a class that is thought capable of reaching the U.S. mainland — had failed, and Kim Jong Il had been embarrassed in the eyes of the world, if not those of the North Koreans who were told nothing of the test’s outcome. But an embarrassed menace is a menace nonetheless. Despite North Korea’s failure...

The US missile defense system was put to its first real test Tuesday and Wednesday with North Korea's launch of a long-range missile and a half dozen shorter range missiles. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was on and off the phone with top US commanders almost continuously for days before the missile tests. "I received the notification of the launch of these missiles probably within of a minute of when they occurred," he told reporters before a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Pentagon officials were circumspect, though, about how the multi-billion dollar missile defense system performed. "What...

TOKYO - A defiant North Korea test-fired a long-range missile Wednesday that may be capable of reaching America, but it failed seconds after launch, U.S. officials said. The North also tested four of shorter range in an exercise the White House termed "a provocation" but not an immediate threat. The audacious military tests by isolated communist nation came despite stern warnings from the United States and Japan — and carried out as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July and launched the space shuttle. None of the missiles made it as far as Japan. The Japanese government said all landed...

most things about North Korea, little is known for certain about the Taepodong 2 missile. But there is no doubt North Korea does have a very long standing and pretty sophisticated missile programme. North Korea's intentions are under the global spotlight In 1998, before it began observing a moratorium on tests, North Korea launched a Taepodong 1 missile which passed over northern Japan and surprised Western intelligence agencies by the use of three stages in the missile's propulsion system. What is striking about the Taepodong 2 is that it could well be North Korea's first genuine intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)...

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- The United States has found indications that North Korea may be preparing for a missile engine-combustion test, a high-level diplomatic source said Friday. "As far as I know, the U.S. has detected signs of North Korea conducting activities related to running a missile engine," the source said on condition of anonymity. "The U.S. sees this as a threatening sign, but its position is that it isn't shaken at all." The source did not provide any further details. North Korea is said to have carried out a missile engine-combustion test in May at its missile...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States and Japan have detected signs that North Korea is preparing to launch a ballistic missile with a range capable of hitting almost all of Japan, Japanese government sources said on Thursday. Tokyo and Washington had detected the signs after analyzing data from reconnaissance satellites and radio traffic, the government sources said. North Korean military vehicles, soldiers and possibly missile engineers were converging on several Rodong missile bases in the northeastern part of the isolated communist state, they said. The signs were first detected on Tuesday, the sources said. "At this stage we don't...

North succeeds in missile tests, diplomats say According to diplomatic sources, North Korea has recently succeeded in testing the main engine of a long-range ballistic missile. Tests of what the North calls its Taepodong-2 rocket occurred at a launching pad in Musudanri, North Hamgyeong province. They were the first engine firings since December 2002. Such tests are often the last step before an actual flight test of a missile. A foreign diplomatic source said that the experiments were successful, in contrast to an accident during the last round of tests when an explosion destroyed facilities at the launching pad. Intelligence...