Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, on Thursday rejected calls for a US pre-emptive strike to prevent North Korea from testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
In recent weeks, North Korea has placed a Taepodong-2 missile on a launch pad, which has ratcheted up concerns in the international community that the Stalinist regime is about to conduct its first long-range missile test.
Washington has warned North Korea not to launch the missile, and has called on Pyongyang to adhere to a self-imposed moratorium that it had announced in 1999. Japan, South Korea, Russia and China have also urged Pyongyang to back down.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Mr Cheney suggested that the US should not try to destroy the North Korean missile with a pre-emptive strike.
“At this stage, we are addressing the issue in a proper fashion,” said Mr Cheney. “Obviously, if you’re going to launch strikes at another nation, you’d better be prepared to not just fire one shot.”
Mr Cheney was responding to an opinion article in the Washington Post in which William Perry, former secretary of defence during the Clinton administration, and Ashton Carter, a former Clinton defence official, argued that the US should destroy the Taepodong-2 before launch.
Mr Cheney said the US believed the missile on the launch pad was a three-stage Taepodong-2. Last year, the then head of the Defence Intelligence Agency told Congress the three-stage version could theoretically reach most parts of the US.
While some US officials believe the missile may already be fuelled – a move that suggests the test will proceed because siphoning out the fuel is dangerous and difficult – other US and South Korean officials believe the evidence is not conclusive. The South Korean defence minister yesterday said he did not believe a test was imminent. North Korea has signalled to the US that it is willing to engage in bilateral talks to resolve the crisis, but US officials have rejected the overtures, and urged Pyongyang to return to the six-party talks aimed at resolving nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea stunned the US and Japan in 1998 when it launched an intermediate range Taepodong-1 missile, which flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean. The Pentagon has sent navy ships to the region to monitor and track any launch.
