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DPRK May Launch Ballistic Missile in Mid-June-Japan Media

ITAR-TASS
05/31/2009

TOKYO -- North Korea may carry out a new launch of a long-range ballistic missile sometime
after June 10, Tokyo-based media reported on Sunday referring to sources in South Korean
governmental organizations.

The said sources assert, in particular, that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
has started preparations for the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which is
confirmed due to the revelation of a number of signs. Their opinion is that the preparations, if
speeded up, may be completed sometime after June 10.

Judging from pronouncements by South Korean officials, a train with a special facility resemling
an ICBM in shape has already left the grounds of a secret military factory located not far from
Pyongyang, heading to the area of the missile test range Musudan-ni. It was precisely from that
site, media recall, that a high-powered rocket Taephodong-2 had lifted off on April 5.

The launch of a new rocket, in the opinion of Seoul-based sources, will probably be timed to
coincide with a South Korean-American summit scheduled to be held in Washington on June 16,
and will be effected before or after the meeting between Presidents Barack Obama and Lee
Myung-bak.

A North Korean ICBM, which is being prepared for launch, experts believe, constitutes a
modified version of the Taephodong-2 and in theory can reach the western areas of the United
States.

On Saturday a number of South Korean media reported referring to the data of South Korean
intelligence services that a special facility impressive in its dimensions and outwardly
resembling a long-range ballistic missile had been brought from the military factory in the area
of Pyongyang to the Musudan-ni test range last week.

Japanese media recall that the DPRK Foreign Ministry, in its statement dated April 29, warned
that if the UN Security Council fails to apologize for its statement condemning the April 5 launch

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of a satellite-carrying booster rocket, Pyongyang would take new additional measures, including
the test of a nuclear device and an ICBM, in the interest of strengthening its self-defence.

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