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A satellite image showing North
Korea's Dongchang-ri missile launch site Photo:
EPA/YONHAP/GOOGLE
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Reuters is reporting that the United States is shifting warships into position to track and possibly defend against a planned North Korean rocket launch while urging Pyongyang to cancel its second such attempt this year, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command said on Thursday.
"It should seem logical that we'll move them around so we have the best situational awareness," he said. "To the degree that those ships are capable of participating in ballistic missile defense, then we will position them to be able to do that."The United States and many other countries view it as a test of a long-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile that would violate U.N. resolutions and further destabilize the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean launch attempt in April failed
Meanwhile in Japan, the order to destroy the missile should any part of it threaten to fall onto Japanese territory was issued after a meeting of the Security Council of Japan met in the morning and was informed that North Korea has begun has filling a fuel tank alongside the launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in preparation for the launch.
Japan has already deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile batteries in
Tokyo, as well as in Okinawa and at locations along the northern and eastern
coasts facing the Korean Peninsula.
Three Japanese destroyers equipped with the advanced Aegis detect-and-destroy
weapons system have been deployed in the Sea of Japan.
Pyongyang claims the launch is an attempt to put an earth-observation
satellite into orbit. But analysts and foreign governments share the belief that
the it is part of North Korea's development of long-range missiles.
The head of US forces in Japan, Lt. Gen. Salvatore Angelella, told reporters
on Thursday that the launch threatens the stability of the region..