World Apr. 01, 2009 - 03:32PM JST ( 28 )

SEOUL —

North Korea accused the United States of spying on the site of an impending rocket launch and threatened Wednesday to shoot down any U.S. planes that intrude into its airspace.
 
North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket between April 4 and 8. The U.S., South Korea and Japan think the reclusive country is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, and they warn Pyongyang would face sanctions under a U.N. Security Council resolution banning the country from ballistic activity.
 
Pyongyang’s state radio accused U.S. RC-135 surveillance aircraft of spying on the launch site on its northeast coast, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which is in charge of monitoring the North.
 
“If the brigandish U.S. imperialists dare to infiltrate spy planes into our airspace to interfere with our peaceful satellite launch preparations, our revolutionary armed forces will mercilessly shoot them down,” the ministry quoted the radio as saying.
 
It is unclear what capability the North Korea has to shoot down the high-flying Boeing RC-135, which can reach altitudes of nearly 15 kilometers high. The threat came a day after the North claimed the U.S. and South Korea conducted about 190 spy flights over its territory in March, including over the sea off the launch site.
 
The U.S. military in South Korea declined to comment on the spying allegations or the North’s threat.
 
The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank that provides detailed analysis about North Korea—said in a report that the country is believed to have “assembled and deployed nuclear warheads” recently for its medium-range Rodong missiles, which are capable of striking Japan.
 
But its Seoul-based expert, Daniel Pinkston, said it is unclear if it has mastered the technology necessary to miniaturize the warheads and put them on Rodong missiles, which have a range of 1,000 to 1,500 kilometers.
 
The group called for a “calm, coordinated” response to the launch, saying overreaction could jeopardize six-nation talks aimed at ridding the North of nuclear weapons programs. Pyongyang has threatened to quit the negotiations if its “peaceful” space program is taken up by the Security Council.
 
Kim Tae-woo, a missile expert at Seoul’s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said a recent commercial image shows a round-shaped top at the North’s rocket, possibly suggesting it could be a satellite as Pyongyang claims. But he stressed the object could be designed to disguise a missile test.
 
“It was not shaped like a warhead,” Kim said. “But the North can put anything atop the rocket for a missile test as long as it weighs the same as a warhead.”
 
Two U.S. destroyers are believed to have departed from South Korea to monitor the rocket launch. South Korea is also dispatching its Aegis-equipped destroyer, according to a Seoul military official who asked not to be named, citing department policy.
 
Adding to the complexity of the situation, the North announced Tuesday it will indict and try two American journalists accused of crossing the border illegally from China on March 17 and engaging in “hostile acts.”

Wire reports