Japan warns North Korea over any missile launch

TOKYO, June 18 (Reuters) Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso warned North Korea today Tokyo would regard any missile that dropped on Japan as an attack.

Aso made the comments amid reports North Korea could test fire an intercontinental ballistic missile as early as Sunday.

''If it is dropped on Japan, it will complicate the story. It will be regarded as an attack,'' Aso said on a Fuji TV programme.

''The possibility is not zero of a missile dropping on Japan.

That's why we are worried,'' said Aso.

Kyodo news agency, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, reported Japan and the United States would seek immediate action by the United Nations Security Council if North Korea conducted a missile test.

North Korea had moved components of a long-range missile to a launch pad along with 10 liquid-gas tanks to fuel it, a South Korean daily newspaper reported yesterday, citing government officials for its information.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted diplomatic sources in Seoul as saying yesterday a missile test could come as early as today or tomorrow.

Many experts have said North Korea has missiles that can hit all of South Korea and probably all of Japan.

The launch was expected to involve a Taepodong-2 missile with an estimated range of 3,500 to 4,300 km (2,175 to 2,670 miles), US officials have said.

North Korea shocked the world in 1998 by firing a Taepodong-1 missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.

Pyongyang, which maintains the 1998 launch involved a rocket designed to send a satellite into orbit, promised in 1999 to adhere to a moratorium on ballistic missile launches.

Kyodo said yesterday North Korea may say it had put a satellite into orbit after carrying out a missile test in a bid to deflect international criticism.

Quoting military intelligence sources in a report out of Beijing, Kyodo said North Korean scientists had been working to determine a satellite orbit since earlier this year.

REUTERS PDS RAI0617