Seoul: Japan warned on Sunday it would consider ‘all options’- including severe sanctions - in response to a possible missile test by North Korea, and accused the communist country of intimidation.
Tensions have risen in the region over alleged actions by the North that analysts say would enable the communist nation to test-launch a missile capable of reaching Japan, and possibly parts of the US.
However, Pyongyang has given no hint whether it will fire a long-range missile as widely feared, Jane Coombs, New Zealand's ambassador to both Koreas, said on Saturday after meeting with top North Korean officials.
"They did not confirm that such a test was imminent nor did they deny that such a test was not imminent," Coombs said in Beijing after her four-day trip to Pyongyang, where she presented her credentials for her new post as ambassador to North Korea.
Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso said on Sunday that Tokyo would consider sanctions, including suspension of aid to the impoverished North, if it launches a long-range missile. "All options are on the table," Aso said on public broadcaster NHK. "I believe public opinion would condone sanctions, even on oil or food."
Intelligence reports say fuel tanks have been seen around a missile at the North's launch site on its northeastern coast, but officials say it's difficult to determine from satellite photos if the rocket is being fueled.
In Washington, the Pentagon's missile defense chief, General Henry A Obering III, said he has little doubt that US interceptor rockets would hit and destroy a North Korean missile on a flight path toward US territory if President George W Bush gave the order to do so.
In New York, US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the US had approached the North Koreans last weekend ''and told them that we thought the idea of a launch was a very bad idea.''
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