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A message on the official Cheong Wa Dae website highlights the gulf between Seoul and Washington over North Korea¡¯s recent missile launch. The post says the missiles Pyongyang test-fired last Wednesday were ¡°not designed to target anyone in particular.¡± Since "a possible test of a long-range Taepodong 2 missile was already widely expected, South Korean military authorities issued no crisis warnings, nor did any other countries,¡± it explains. The post is signed by the office of the presidential public relations secretary.
¡°Though some may try to turn the situation into a crisis for political motives, it is essentially a political matter and should not be made into a national security crisis,¡± the statement said. It added it was the president¡¯ decision to deal with the issue calmly.
The message seems framed to stress Cheong Wa Dae¡¯s judgment that the missile test was not a shot across the bow for South Korea, the U.S. and Japan -- as observers concluded from the range of the three types of missiles the North launched -- but rather carried out with a non-military ulterior motive. It echoes Roh¡¯s remarks in November 2004 that there was ¡°some sense¡± in Pyongyang¡¯s attempt to obtain nuclear weapons. North Korea maintains it carried out the missile test for self-defense and was within its rights as a sovereign nation to do so.
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The Gwangmyeongseong No.1, which North Korea claims is a satellite launched in 1998. /Yonhap
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By effectively disregarding the military threat altogether, the message is bound to fuel controversy both at home and abroad. Washington and Tokyo have portrayed the missile tests as a direct threat since the failed Taepodong-2 missile was said to be capable of reaching Alaska and the Rodong missile Japan.
The post was reportedly written by Roh¡¯s public relations secretary Lee Baek-man.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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