North Korea appears ready for missile launch

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea appeared close Sunday to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, prompting the White House to warn of an appropriate response and Japan to threaten a "fierce" protest to the United Nations.
North Korea was silent on the issue but vowed to bolster its "military deterrent" in a burst of fiery rhetoric carried by its state news agency.
A test launch of what is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile would inflame a region already tense over the North's continuing nuclear weapons program.
"There are signs" of an imminent missile launch, Jung Tae-ho, a spokesman at the South Korean president's office, told The Associated Press. He added that security officials were "closely watching the situation."
The North last conducted such a launch in August 1998. Pyongyang imposed a moratorium on testing long-range missiles in 1999.
Response
The White House spokesman said Sunday the United States expected the North to abide by that freeze.
"We do not want to have a missile test out of North Korea," Tony Snow told "Fox News Sunday." "The North Koreans themselves decided in 1999 that they would place a moratorium on this kind of testing, and we expect them to maintain the moratorium."
The Taepodong-2 is the North's most advance missile and is capable of reaching parts of the United States with a light payload. In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said his country would take the issue to the United Nations. "We will naturally file a stern protest and it will be fierce," Aso told TV Asahi.
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