North Korea Moves Two Missiles To East

Two missiles have been transported by train to the coast, reports say, as the UN chief warns "the nuclear threat is not a game".North Korea has moved two missiles to its east coast and loaded them on mobile launchers, South Korea's Yonhap news agency has said.

The move fuels fears of an imminent firing, which would further ramp up tensions in the peninsula.

"It has been confirmed that North Korea, early this week, transported two Musudan mid-range missiles by train to the east coast and loaded them on vehicles equipped with launch pads," Yonhap quoted a top government official as saying, according to AFP.

The official said the mobile launchers had since been hidden in special underground facilities, according to the report.

South Korea said earlier it had been seeking urgent information on one Korean missile that had been moved.

Intelligence officials from the US, Japan and South Korea are monitoring the movement of the weapons. The Musudan missile is a mid-range weapon, meaning it is capable of reaching South Korea and Japan and perhaps also the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

"The range is between 3,000 to 4,000km (1,864 to 2,485 miles). There are major US military forces in Guam and a fixed number of troops to deal with the Korean peninsula, so I think these facts can reduce the possible danger there," said Kim Min-seok, South Korea's Defence Ministry spokesman.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said daily reports from Pyongyang were "really alarming and troubling" and urged North Korea to ease tensions.

"Nuclear threat is not a game, it is very serious," he said, adding that any misjudgement or miscalculation could have "very serious implications". Speaking to Sky News, a security adviser to the South Korean government said there is no doubt that North Korea's capability is concerning.

"The technological level of North Korean weapons has become much improved and better - especially their missile capability and their long-range artilleries," Kim Byungki said.

"It is more uncertain, it is less predictable, there are more ways for them to destabilise us and there are more ways for us to respond ... so it is more complex."

North Korea which, incensed at fresh UN sanctions and South Korea-US military drills, has issued a series of apocalyptic threats of nuclear war in recent weeks.

America says it is taking "all necessary precautions" to respond to the daily threats from the North Korean leadership.

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Comment by Ria on April 5, 2013 at 6:52am: We will cope with the U.S. nuclear threat with a merciless nuclear attack. And we will face this infiltration with a justified all-out-war. This is our military and our people's unchangeable stance. The U.S. and those followers should clearly know that everything is different in the era of respected Kim Jong-un.

Military officials in South Korea said that two warships were to be deployed on the east and west coasts of the country. Despite anxiety in the region over continuing tensions, Seoul has been keen to play down the threat - stating today that the missile moves could be tests.

A senior official was quoted by Yonhap saying: "It has been confirmed that North Korea, early this week, transported two Musudan mid-range missiles by train to the east coast and loaded them on vehicles equipped with launch pads."

Musudan missiles have an range of 4,000km, putting Japan, Guam and South Korea within its range.

The news came after a further day of tension, during which the Prime Minister David Cameron claimed that North Korea now possessed the capability to launch a nuclear strike against Britain.

The Prime Minister pointed to the escalating threats from the regime in Pyongyang as evidence of the need for the United Kingdom to retain the Trident nuclear deterrent.

Tensions were further inflamed last week when South Korea and the US carried out joint military drills in the region using nuclear-enabled B-2 stealth bombers.

Intelligence officials from the US, Japan and South Korea were said today to be monitoring the movement of the weapons.

The United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said today that daily reports from Pyongyang were "alarming and troubling". He urged North Korea to ease tensions."Nuclear threat is not a game, it is very serious," he said.

Today Asia experts speculated that North Korea's latest outburst of nuclear and military threats has given the US a rare opportunity to build bridges with China and revitalize the Obama administration's flagging policy pivot to Asia.

The architect of the administration's Asia policy described a subtle change in Chinese thinking as a result of Pyongyang's recent nuclear tests, rocket launches and abandonment of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 war with South Korea.

Pyongyang has taken similar actions in the past, prompting Washington to increase military readiness in the region to soothe allies South Korea and Japan. But in an unusual rebuke this week, Beijing called North Korea's moves "regrettable" — amounting to a slap from the country's strongest economic and diplomatic supporter.

"They, I think, recognize that the actions that North Korea has taken in recent months and years are in fact antithetical to their own national security interests," former Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told a panel Thursday at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

"There is a subtle shift in Chinese foreign policy" toward North Korea, said Campbell, who retired in February as the administration's top diplomat in East Asia and the Pacific region. "I think that they have succeeded in undermining trust and confidence in Beijing."

North Korea Missile Repositioned