SEOUL, June 20 (UPI) -- North Korea's renewed missile threat highlights differences between South Korea and the United States over how to deal with the defiant communist country.
South Korean officials have moved to calm the missile concerns and downplayed news reports on an imminent launch at a time when U.S. officials are considering it as provocation and seeking punitive measures against North Korea.
Washington believes North Korea is set to launch a long-range ballistic missile that could reach the continental United States, citing satellite photos that showed launch preparations at the Musudan-ri missile facility in North Hamgyong province in North Korea's northeast.
U.S. reports say North Korea has completed fueling the Taepodong-2 missile after loading booster rockets onto a launch pad at the missile site. The fueling is considered a key final step before launching a missile as it is hard to remove the fuel, indicating the launch is just a matter of time.
But South Korean officials said on Tuesday there is no certainty North Korea is ready to test the missile. The country's intelligence agency told lawmakers that North Korea appears yet to have completed injecting fuel into the rocket.
"The National Intelligence Service reported that it is hard to believe the missile has already been fully fueled, with some 40 units of fuel spotted around the launch pad (in the North)," said Rep. Chung Hyung-keun, a leading member of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee.
The Taepodong-2 is reported to be a 35-meter-long, multi-staged missile with a range of around 6,700 kilometers and could potentially reach parts of the United States, including Alaska. The payload is estimated to be around 1 tons.
"The number of fuel units is insufficient to operate a propellant that weighs 65 tons," the opposition lawmaker quoted the country's intelligence chief as saying. "It is difficult to determine that fueling has been completed, judging from the number and size of the fuel cans that are seen on the site," the intelligence chief added.
Woo Sang-ho, the ruling Uri Party spokesman, also said the Seoul government cannot be sure of North Korea's intentions of a missile test. "Under the current circumstances, it is hard to predict whether North Korea will fire the missile or not," Woo said after a Party-government policy consultations meeting.
The comments contrasted U.S. news reports that the North has finished the fueling process after weeks of what appeared to be preparations to test-fire the missile.
Citing a senior U.S. official, the New York Times said on Monday that satellite images suggest that fuelling had been completed and booster rockets had been loaded onto a launch pad and liquid fuel tanks fitted to the missile.
Contrary to Seoul, U.S. officials further believe the North's rocket is for launching the Taepodong-2 missile; South Korean officials say it may be a satellite.
"It is difficult to discern whether the launch vehicle is a missile or a satellite," South Korea's top security policymaker, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok was quoted as saying by Uri's Woo.
But analysts here said if the long-range missile is tested, North Korea will describe it as a satellite launch as it did in 1998 when it fired the Taepoding-1 missile over Japan.
North Korea shocked the world in August 1998 by firing a Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. It later claimed it had succeeded in launching a satellite into orbit.
The United States and South Korea also differed over reactions to the North's possible missile launch. The United States is vowing to take punitive measures against North Korea if it fires the missile, while South Korea has ruled out strong reactions, saying it could raise tensions on the Korean peninsula.
At U.N. headquarters, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said he was holding preliminary consultations with Security Council members on steps that might be taken if North Korea fires a missile, "because it would obviously be very serious."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would regard a launch as an abrogation of North Korea's 1999 commitment not to test long-range missiles.
But South Korea vows to maintain its reconciliation and cooperation projects with the North despite the missile crisis. Seoul has provided massive economic aid programs to help the North ease its food shortages and rebuild its shattered economy.
"South Korea will be considering shelving economic assistances to the North if it launches a missile, but would not review its reconciliatory policy toward the North," a government official said.
South Korea is, however, concerned North Korea's possible missile launch could upset the fragile years-long reconciliation across the border and increase South Korea's geopolitical risks, delivering a blow to its much-awaited economic recovery.
"Whereas Seoul considers the North's missile move as a card to break the nuclear standoff with the United States, Washington sees it as a real threat to its security and remains doubtful about the North Korean regime," said Kim Tae-hyo, a political science professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul,
Kim and other analysts warn the row between Seoul and Washington over the North's missile ambitions could further weaken the bilateral security alliance between the two countries, which have already been strained over policy options over North Korea's nuclear weapons program and human rights abuse.
