S. Korea seeks longer-range missiles

SEOUL, March 22 (UPI) -- South Korea says it is seeking ballistic missiles that can reach further in North Korea amid concerns about the North's weapons capabilities.

North Korea last week announced plans to put a satellite into orbit.

South Korea said it is working to revise a pact with the United States that that limits the range of its ballistic missiles to 186 miles and the payload weight to 1,100 pounds, Yonhap News Agency reported Friday.

"It is for defense against North Korean attacks at times of contingencies that we say we need to expand our missile range," President Lee Myung-bak was quoted as saying in the newspaper Dong-a Ilbo. "We need an appropriate range."

North Korea's plans to put a satellite into orbit are seen as a pretext to disguise banned missile tests, Yonhap said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan Thursday called on North Korea to abandon its planned rocket launch.

Yonhap said the issue will be discussed on the sidelines of the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, which starts Monday in Seoul. Kim said the rocket launch is a clear violation of a 2009 U.N. resolution that bans the launch of any rocket using ballistic missile technology.

"The government strongly urges North Korea to immediately stop such a provocative action and comply with its international obligations," Kim said. He called the planned launch a "highly provocative act to develop a long-distance delivery means for nuclear weapons by using ballistic missile technology."

The North's planned launch would mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un, Yonhap said.