South Korea, US bases brace for missile test
SEOUL — SOUTH Korea and the US were on high alert for a North Korean missile launch yesterday as the reclusive and poverty-stricken country turned its attention to celebrating the ruling Kim dynasty and appeared to tone down rhetoric of impending war.
Despite threats that it will attack US bases and the South in response to any hostile acts, North Korea started to welcome a stream of visitors for Monday’s celebrations marking the birthday of founding father, Kim Il-sung.
North Korea has stationed as many as five medium-range missiles on its east coast, according to defence assessments made by Washington and Seoul, possibly in readiness for a test launch that would demonstrate its ability to hit US bases on Guam.
“There are signs that the North could fire off Musudan missiles any time soon,” an unnamed intelligence source in Seoul told Yonhap news agency yesterday.
Musudan missiles are mediumrange missiles that have the potential to hit US bases on Guam, although it is not known whether they have been tested or can travel that far.
“But the North has been repeatedly moving its missiles in and out of a shed, which needs close monitoring,” the source said.
Most observers say that Pyongyang has no intention of igniting a conflict that could bring its own destruction but warn of the risks of miscalculation on the militarised Korean peninsula.
There did not appear to be any signs of panic in Seoul, the South Korean capital, and financial markets shrugged off the risk of conflict with stocks posting a third day of gains. South Korean President Park Geun-hye met foreign businessmen yesterday and reassured them that the country was safe and that it was working closely with the US and China, the North’s only major diplomatic ally.
Taiwan appeared to become the first country to warn its citizens against travelling to South Korea after Pyongyang said that foreigners should leave, but hotels were reporting brisk business.
Pyongyang issued a statement that appeared to soften the government’s tone on closure of the joint Kaesong industrial zone that was shuttered this week. It called the North-South venture “the pinnacle of Gen Kim Jong-il’s limitless love for his people and brothers”.
The statement on the country’s KCNA news agency blamed the South’s president for bringing the money-spinning venture to “the brink of shutting down”.
Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung’s son, ruled North Korea until his death in December 2011. He was succeeded by Kim Jong-un, who presides over one of the world’s poorest and most heavily militarised countries. SapaAFP