NORTH KOREA: North Korea fired a cruise missile into the Sea of Japan yesterday, ratcheting up tension in an attempt to force the United States into nuclear negotiations at a time when Washington's eyes are firmly on Iraq.
However, the US had anticipated the firing of the missile, the second in as many weeks, and played down its significance. So also had South Korea, after Pyongyang declared a maritime exclusion zone in the Sea of Japan from March 8th to 11th.
The firing nonetheless caused Seoul's stock markets to dip and helped to push the won, the South's currency, to a four-month low, adding to fears voiced by a Seoul private-sector think-tank that a prolonged nuclear crisis and any protracted conflict in Iraq would slash 2003 growth prospects for Asia's fourth-largest economy.
A Seoul Defence Ministry spokesman said that the missile appeared to be the same type as the North test-fired on February 24th. The Yonhap news agency quoted a senior official as saying that the missile flew about 110km (68 miles).
The anti-ship missile North Korea fired into the same waters two weeks earlier was thought to be a version of a Chinese Silkworm missile. Last week, a Pentagon official said that Washington was "not overly concerned" about the expected repeat firing.
South Korea called for talks. "We regret any kind of action by North Korea to aggravate the situation that could threaten peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula," said Ms Lee Jihyun, foreign media spokeswoman for South Korea's president.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that a non-ballistic missile was "not considered a direct threat to Japan".
In 1998, North Korea shocked the world by firing a Taepodong ballistic missile which flew over Japan's main island of Honshu.
While the US and its allies remained calm, North Korea's state media was strongly critical of the US. "The \ plan for a forestalling nuclear attack on the North is in the stage of practice beyond the stage of argument. What remains is when and how to ignite a nuclear war," said the Rodong Sinmun daily, the mouthpiece of the North's ruling party.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said on Sunday that the United States would eventually hold talks with North Korea about that country's nuclear ambitions, but he reiterated the US view that others in Asia should help bring about an end to the stand-off.
"I think eventually we will be talking to North Korea, but we're not going to simply fall into what I believe is a bad practice of saying the only way you can talk to us is directly when it affects other nations in the region," Mr Powell said.
He said a 1994 deal under which North Korea had agreed to halt its nuclear programme had been the product of direct talks with the North which Pyongyang later set aside. - (Reuters)