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President Roh Moo-hyun, referring to North Korea's missile tests in July, said Thursday the Taepodong-2 missile the North unsuccessfully launched ¡°was not capable of reaching U.S. territory but its range was too long to target South Korea,¡± and concluded the test was therefore conducted ¡°for political purposes.¡± He added South Korea sees ¡°no signs or evidence that North Korea will carry out a nuclear test or if so, when.¡± Speculation without evidence or signs just makes people feel uneasy, he added, and makes inter-Korean relations difficult to boot.
On Sept. 1, the U.S. carried out a missile intercept test in which a missile launched in California hit a missile similar in size and speed as the North's Taepodong-2 fired earlier from Alaska. Had Washington thought North Korean missiles shoddy, it would not have conducted a test that cost US$85 million. Had the countries that unanimously passed the UN Security Council resolution condemning the North's missile tests thought the missiles shoddy, they would not have voted for it. Even China, the North's closest ally, and Russia, approved the resolution. But the president of the country that has the missiles over its head insists they are not for actual military use. Let us hope the president does not think the four scud missiles (550 km range) and two Rodong missiles (1,000-1,300 km) Pyongyang also tested are shoddy as well.
The head of the National Intelligence Service, Kim Seung-kyu, said North Korea is believed to have facilities for a nuclear test. ¡°North Korea could conduct a nuclear test at any time if leader Kim Jong-il makes the decision." U.S. President George W. £Âush last month asked Chinese President Hu Jintao to stop North Korea from conducting a nuclear test. If the two made those remarks without evidence or signs, as the president claims, they must be deranged.
Roh Moo-hyun¡¯s summit with the U.S. president is a week away, and here he is trumpeting a position on North Korea¡¯s nuclear weapons and missiles, point 1 on their agenda, that is totally different from Washington¡¯s. He has consistently said that Pyongyang is developing nuclear arms and missiles as a ¡°deterrent.¡±
The president's views of North Korea and security, defiant of signs and evidence as every last one of them is, appear to have been cemented into doctrine. What will that doctrine mean for the Korean Peninsula when we exercise independent operational control of our forces and Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command is dismantled? The mind boggles.
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