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TOKYO -- North Korea may have test-fired a short-range into the East Sea on Wednesday, on the opening day of the third round of six-nation talks, reported the Japanese press on Saturday while quoting U.S. and Japanese military sources. Those people confirmed that the missile was fired from Dancheon in Southern Hamkyung Province.
Sankei Shimbun reported that the missile is assumed to be a ˇ°Guideineˇ± that has a shorter range than the Silkworm anti-ship missile, the same missile that North Korea fired last year. The newspaper indicated, pointing out the fact that North Korea fired missiles for two days during the APEC summit conference where the North Korean nuclear issue was discussed, that ˇ°There is high possibilities that it was to restrain the six-nation talks on North Korean nuclear issues.ˇ±
Tokyo Shimbun reported that the U.S. confirmed the fact that North Korea fired a missile through patrol satellites last week and conveyed the related information to Japan, but the Japanese government was unable to confirm the launch. The U.S. suggested that the missile may be a version of the Chinese Silkworm anti-ship missile, or a ballistic missile smaller in size than the short-range Scud missile and the missile was believed to have traveled between 100 and 200 km. The newspaper delivered that the missiles may have been used to restrain the six-nation talks. Tokyo Shimbun, however, did not exclude the possibilities that the testing had nothing to do with the talks and was done according to schedules or that it might have been ˇ°assumed informationˇ± from the U.S.
(Jung Kwon-hyun, khjung@chosun.com )
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