Missile launches show N. Korea's defiance

PYONGYANG, North Korea, July 7 (UPI) -- North Korea demonstrated its utter disregard of the U.N. Security Council's strong resolution against its May 25 nuclear test by launching seven ballistic missiles during the weekend.

As if to prove a point to the United States, the country it considers its greatest threat, North Korea fired off the missiles on U.S. Independence Day, but Washington showed little surprise as it had been prepared for Pyongyang's adventure well ahead of time.

China, while calling the missile launches "an act of defiance toward the United States on its Independence Day," appealed for calm and restraint and urged all sides to maintain regional peace and stability, China Daily reported. Chinese support is critical to fully implement the U.N. resolution.

A South Korean official told Yonhap news agency the launches may have been aimed at improving the missiles' accuracy.

"Five out of seven missiles North Korea fired (Saturday) landed within the same area in the East Sea, about 420 kilometers (260 miles) from the launch site," the official said. "This means the accuracy of North Korean missiles is improving."

The official was quoted as saying North Korea is said to have about 1,000 ballistic missiles deployed, but their poor accuracy has prevented their precision targeting.

The missiles may have included those capable of hitting South Korea and Japan.

What benefit the impoverished and isolated communist country will derive from its latest reckless adventure may not be clear for some time. But what appears certain is that its government, led by the unpredictable Kim Jong Il, will certainly face infinitely tighter sanctions and other tougher responses than those already enshrined in the Security Council resolution banning North Korea from all ballistic missile actions.

"If the North Koreans are trying to get our attention, it is difficult to see what they are actually trying to accomplish," Peter Beck, an expert on Korean affairs at American University in Washington, told the London Times.

Speaking to the BBC, Korean analyst Aidan Foster-Carter said the international community, while reprimanding North Korea, can wait to see what it wants.

The Financial Times reported the July 4 missile incidents were North Korea's biggest one-day launches since it fired off a long-range Taepodong-2 and six smaller missiles in 2006.

Ever since the May 25 nuclear test, North Korea has made much noise and numerous threats to show its defiance of world opinion, including that of China, its main benefactor, and to retaliate against the U.N. resolution.

In addition to the various short-range and the latest ballistic missile launches, North Korea scrapped the Armistice treaty that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and warned it would consider as an act of war any attempt to search its ships suspected of carrying materials or weapons of mass destruction permitted under the U.N. resolution.

North Korea also has restarted its plutonium plant, which was disabled as part of the six-nation effort to denuclearize the country.

Additionally, the country may also be proceeding with enriching uranium to have another means to build nuclear arms, Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean defense minister as saying. The United States has always suspected North Korea of running a uranium enrichment program.

These threats were seen as serious enough to prompt U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month to order substantial increase of missile and other defense systems in Hawaii in anticipation of the July 4 missile launches. At the time, there had been reports that North Korea was preparing to fire an improved version of its Taepodong-2 missile in the direction of Hawaii, even though experts had doubted it has a missile with that much range.

Gates' measures included the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles and the Sea Based X-Band radar in the waters off Hawaii to track and attack any North Korean missile.

Simultaneously, a U.S. Navy destroyer began tracking a North Korean vessel suspected of carrying missile parts in violation of the U.N. resolution. Since then the vessel has been unable to reach its reported destination of Myanmar and was soon expected to return home.

In an interview with CBS' "The Early Show," President Barack Obama said the United States is "prepared for any contingencies" if North Korea should conduct a long-range missile test in the Pacific Ocean and that the international community was united in its opposition to North Korea's violation of international law.

The Wall Street Journal said it would be some time before U.S. and other defense experts are able to say if the latest missile launches showed if North Korea is progressing to the point of arming these missiles with nuclear weapons.

For now, the United States may freeze a number of the bank accounts of North Korea, the London Times reported. Such actions could severely hurt the already crippled North Korean economy.

The United States has also begun taking similar steps against companies suspected of aiding North Korean trading of arms and supplies.

Last month the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of an Iranian company accused of being a front for North Korean activities. The department said the Hong Kong Electronics in Kish Island, Iran, transferred millions of dollars of proliferation-related funds on behalf of North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Mining Development Trading Corp., the department said Tuesday.

Tanchon, based in Pyongyang, was identified as the financial arm for Korea Mining, which, the department said, is North Korea's premier arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.

Separately, the U.S. State Department targeted North Korea's Namchongang Trading Corp., identified as a nuclear-related company in Pyongyang under the executive order.

The South Korean military also has said it is fully prepared to counter any North Korean threat and provocation.