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There is new evidence that North Korea may be preparing to for an underground test of nuclear bomb, U.S. officials tell ABC News. "It is the view of the intelligence community that a test is real possibility," says a senior State Department official. A senior military official tells ABC News that a U.S. intelligence agency has recently observed "suspicious vehicle movement" at a suspected North Korean test site. The activity includes the unloading of large reels of cable outside an underground facility called Pungyee-yok in northeast North Korea. Cables can be used in nuclear testing to connect an underground test...

(LEAD) N. Korea building new missile bases, silos along east coast: Report SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been constructing new underground missile bases and silos along its east coast in recent years to deploy intermediate-range rockets targeting Japan and U.S. military facilities on the archipelago, a report said Thursday. "The new bases clustered along the east coastal line, in particular, are short- and medium-range missile bases aiming at Japan and U.S. military installations in Japan," said a report written by Yun Deok-min, a security expert at the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. About 200...

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been constructing new underground missile bases and silos along its east coast in recent years to deploy intermediate-range rockets targeting Japan and U.S. military facilities on the archipelago, a report said Thursday. "The new bases clustered along the east coastal line, in particular, are short- and medium-range missile bases aiming at Japan and U.S. military installations in Japan," said a report written by Yun Deok-min, a security expert at the state-funded Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security. About 200 Rodong missiles with ranges of up to 2,200 kilometers and 50...

Excerpt - SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has been working closely with Iran to develop its long-range ballistic missiles, possibly using Chinese technology, and is building large bases to prepare for their deployment, a South Korean state-run think tank said. Communist North Korea is also building new sites near the Demilitarised Zone border for short-range missiles and is deploying missiles with improved precision that can strike most of Japan, the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) said in a report. "The development of Taepodong-2 is conducted jointly with Iran, and it is possible China's technology is used in...

Intelligence services in Seoul and Washington are analyzing suspicions that the seven missiles North Korea test-fired on July 5 include two new intermediate-range ballistic missiles with a range of 2,500-4,000 km. A government source said spy agencies detected electronic signals different from the North’s Rodong or Scud missiles from two of six medium-range missiles the North test-launched on July 5. Intelligence services considered whether they could be Scud-ERs with a range of up to 1,000 km, but additional analysis produced the suspicion that they could be a whole new type of IRBM, the source said. If so, they are...

ALARM - the North Korea rejects the resolution of UNO aiming it New York (the United Nations) - the North Korea firmly rejected Saturday the constraining resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations condemning it for its recent shootings of test of missiles.

/begin my translationN. Korea: Nuclear Test Possible If UN Sanction Is Imposed 2006.07.13 If UN passes sanction against N. Korea, N. Korea may resort to nuclear test, according to some expert. Peter Hayes, a professor at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia argued during an interview with RFA that Kim Jong-il may carry it out to show that he does not succumb to U.S. pressure.Professor Hayes is an expert on energy and security issues. He has been running a project to build small power plants in N. Korea to solve its energy problem. He has visited N. Korea seven...

A program of clandestine action against nuclear and missile traffic to North Korea and Iran is to be intensified after last week's missile tests by the Pyongyang regime. Intelligence agencies, navies and air forces from at least 13 nations are quietly co-operating in a secret war against Pyongyang and Tehran. It has so far involved interceptions of North Korean ships at sea, US agents prowling the waterfronts in Taiwan, multinational naval and air surveillance missions out of Singapore, investigators poring over the books of dubious banks in the former Portuguese colony of Macau and a fleet of planes and...

The leader north-Korean Kim Jong it refuses "the least concession" SEOUL - the number one north-Korean Kim Jong it refused Sunday to make "the least concession" in the United States and informed that its country was ready with a "all-out war" after the shootings of test of seven missiles, according to the north-Korean television collected in Seoul. "the General (Kim Jong it) declared that not the least concession would not be made to the invaders American imperialists, our enemy of always", according to an emission diffused by the north-Korean television of State and taken again by the South Korean...

A top North Korean propagandist raised the threat of nuclear war yesterday as the fighting talk triggered by the isolated regime's missile launches got scarier than any disintegrating Taepodong-2. Kim Myong-chol, a freelance propagandist for the Stalinist state, claimed North Korea would treat any country supporting UN sanctions against it - and that would definitely include Australia - as a nuclear missile target. "Now the US is seeking sanctions for us doing nothing in violation of international law - this is outrageous," he said in Tokyo yesterday. "North Korea considers this an act of war and North Korea will...

the People’s Republic of China won’t help the U.S. rein in the rogue regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il -- which this week conducted a failed test of a missile designed to reach American cities -- then the U.S. should stop helping China with its own economic and technological development. China must support the U.S. position on North Korea in the U.N. Security Council or pay a price for not doing so. In response to North Korea’s missile tests, Japan has sponsored a resolution in the Security Council that would bar nations from giving North Korea money, material...

The same North Korean ICBM efforts that throw a rock at Alaska can throw a large nuclear warhead at every ally the United States has in Northeast Asia. Japan and South Korea are not only close allies, they are critical trading partners. The risk of a war in this part of the world would inevitably threaten Chinese involvement in some form, and possible bloc trade with much of China for an extended period even if China did not become involved. Our troops and our bases in most of Asia would be at hazard as well. Americans need to stop thinking...

BEIJING, July 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea informed China of its plan to test-fire missiles prior to the North's missile launches this week, a top U.S. diplomatic envoy said Friday. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said at a press conference that he heard from Chinese officials the North informed China of its plan for the test-firing of ballistic missiles earlier Wednesday. Hill, who has visited China as part of his tour of nations involved in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear arms, made the remarks before he headed to Seoul. On Wednesday, the North shocked the...

When it became clear that the Taepodong 2 missile North Korea test-launched early on July 4 had broken up less than a minute into flight and plunged into the Sea of Japan, many Americans felt a sense of relief. After all, the missile — belonging to a class that is thought capable of reaching the U.S. mainland — had failed, and Kim Jong Il had been embarrassed in the eyes of the world, if not those of the North Koreans who were told nothing of the test’s outcome. But an embarrassed menace is a menace nonetheless. Despite North Korea’s failure...

The latest disinformation from North Korea's propaganda agency - Pyongyang, July 6 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA Thursday as regards the missile launches in the DPRK: In the wake of the missile launches by the Korean People's Army the U.S. and some other countries following it, including Japan, are making much ado about a serious development. They are terming them "violation" and "provocation" and calling for "sanctions" and "their referral to the UN Security Council." The latest successful missile launches were part of the routine military...

Excerpt - North Korea on Friday demanded that Japan halt sanctions it has imposed on the country in reaction to Pyongyang's test-firing of ballistic missiles, warning that the North would take ''stronger measures'' should Tokyo continue along the current path. ''Japan is translating its criticism against us into action,'' Song Il Ho, North Korea's ambassador in charge of diplomatic normalization talks with Japan, told reporters in Pyongyang. ''This may force us to take stronger physical actions'' as a response, he said. Asked what the steps may be, he said, ''I leave that to your imagination.'' ~ snip ~

(ATTN: CORRECTS missile's flight distance from '390km' to '490km' in para 4) SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's long-range Taepodong-2 missile travelled for about 7 minutes after liftoff before it plunged into the East Sea, a top South Korean military officer said Thursday. The North's multistage missile was initially believed to have gone down 42 seconds after it blasted off from its launching pad in the reclusive country on Wednesday, sparking questions over whether the flight was a technical failure or was aborted.

The US missile defense system was put to its first real test Tuesday and Wednesday with North Korea's launch of a long-range missile and a half dozen shorter range missiles. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was on and off the phone with top US commanders almost continuously for days before the missile tests. "I received the notification of the launch of these missiles probably within of a minute of when they occurred," he told reporters before a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Pentagon officials were circumspect, though, about how the multi-billion dollar missile defense system performed. "What...

The following is the gist of a draft text of a resolution circulated by Japan on Wednesday among U.N. Security Council members on North Korea's test-firing of missiles. The U.N. Security Council: -- reaffirms that proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security. -- deplores that North Korea is the world's leading proliferators of ballistic missiles and related technology. -- expresses grave concern that North Korea's launch of ballistic missiles, given the potential of such vehicles to be used as a means to deliver nuclear,...

SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday claimed its successfully conducted missile launches were part of routine military drills to raise self-defense capabilities, and will be continued. "The successful launches of missiles this time were part of our normal military exercises that were aimed at reinforcing our self-defense capabilities," a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the country's Korean Central News Agency. The statement came one day after the communist state fired seven long- and medium-range missiles, including a Taepodong-2, which is believed to be capable of reaching as far as...