North Korea Says Its Rockets Can Hit U.S. Mainland
October 9, 2012
Reuters -
North Korea has rockets that can hit the
U.S. mainland, it said on Tuesday, two days after
South Korea struck a deal with the United States to extend the range of its ballistic missiles.
North and South Korea
have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a
truce, not a peace treaty, and regional powers have for years been
trying to rein in North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Reclusive North
Korea is believed to be developing a long-range missile with a range of
6,700 km (4,160) miles) or more aimed at hitting the United States, but two recent rocket tests failed.
Its neighbors fear
North Korea is using rocket launches to perfect technology to build a
missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States.
North Korea's National Defence Commission said in a statement that the country was prepared to counter any U.S. military threats, its KCNA news agency said.
"We do not hide
(the fact) that the revolutionary armed forces ... including the
strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only
the bases of the puppet forces and the U.S. imperialist aggression
forces' bases in the inviolable land of Korea, but also Japan, Guam and the U.S. mainland," KCNA said.
The U.S. State
Department declined to discuss whether it believed North Korea's new
claims on missile range, saying this was an intelligence issue. But it
noted that North Korea is bound by U.N. Security Council resolutions to
suspend all activities related to ballistic missile programs.
"Certainly rather than bragging about its missile
capability, they ought to be feeding their own people," State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding that "threats or provocations"
by North Korea would only undermine its efforts to seek more engagement
with the international community.
South Korea on
Sunday unveiled an agreement with the United States that extends the
range of its ballistic missiles by more than twice its current limit to
800 km (497 miles) as a deterrent against North Korea.
North Korea is under heavy U.N. sanctions that have cut
off its previously lucrative arms trade and further isolated the state
after its failed 2009 missile test drew sharp rebukes, even from its one
major ally, China.
The United States has denied it has any intention to
strike North Korea. It has more than 20,000 troops stationed in South
Korea in defense of its ally against North Korea.
In April, under its
new leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea again launched a rocket that flew
just a few minutes covering a little over 100 km (60 miles) before
blowing up over the sea between South Korea and China.
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