N.Korea seeks talks to ease missile tensions

SOUTH KOREA: North Korea wants talks with Washington over its apparent preparations for a missile test, Yonhap news agency said on Wednesday as a former South Korean president cancelled a trip to Pyongyang due to regional tension.

Yonhap quoted Han Song-ryol, North Korea's deputy chief of mission at the United Nations in New York, as saying that Pyongyang had a right to develop and test missiles but it would like to ease the situation through dialogue.

Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have said there is evidence that North Korea may test-fire its long-range Taepodong-2 missile, a move the three have said would present a grave danger to regional security.

The United States has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defence system amid concerns that the secretive North Asian state would go ahead with a launch, a U.S. defence official said on Tuesday.

Pentagon officials declined to say whether they would try to shoot down any missile, but other U.S. officials have said that is unlikely, assuming the launch is aimed at open water.

North Korea shocked the world in 1998 when it fired a missile, part of which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. Pyongyang trumpeted that as a satellite launch.

The United States has said it would be a provocation if North Korea launched the missile, which some experts have said could reach Alaska.

"We know that the U.S. is concerned about our missile test launch," Han said in a telephone conversation with Yonhap. "Our position is to solve this situation through discussions."

"The DPRK, as a sovereign state, has the right not only to develop, deploy and test missiles but also to export them.

"It is not right for others to tell us to do this or that about our sovereign right," Han said. DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung cancelled a trip to Pyongyang planned for next week because of the tensions, an official in Seoul said on Wednesday. Seoul, Wednesday, Reuters