N. Korea defies U.S., reportedly builds missile site near China

TOKYO -- Less than a month after the United States gave Pyongyang a clean bill of health, North Korea is reportedly close to completion of an underground missile facility near the Chinese border, a Seoul newspaper reported Wednesday.

North Korea also warned yesterday against trying to stop any missile launches. "We have already repeatedly declared that such things as missile development, production and test launch belong to our sovereignty and no one has the right to take issue with the rights of a sovereign state,'' said the Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Tokyo.

The national daily Chosun Ibo said North Korea is building a missile launching site at Yongjudong, 20 kilometers [12 miles] from the border with China to prevent a U.S. military strike. The newspaper said the site at Yongjudong is 70 percent complete and is one of three underground missile facilities under construction in North Korea.

The Yongjudong site, the newspaper said, appears planned for the launch of Pyongyang's Taepo Dong II missile, with a range of 6,000 kilometers [4,000 miles].

The newspaper, quoting an unidentified Seoul government source, said the Yongjudong facility has become a new challenge for the United States, Japan and South Korea. The three countries are coordinating efforts to persuade the communist government in Pyongyang to restrict its missile programs.

"The facility is being built on one side of a mountain facing China, so it is very difficult to strike it with [U.S.] Tomahawk cruise missiles and other precision weapons,'' the paper said.

In March, the Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbun, said North Korea has deployed several missiles at a launch site near the Chinese border.

Last week, Japanese government sources were quoted as saying that Pyongyang has completed more than 10 intermediate ballistic missiles for launch. In May, a U.S. State Department team visited a suspected nuclear weapons facility at Kumchang-ri in May and found a maze of tunnels but no evidence of arms development.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon has for the first time acknowledged that North Korea is preparing to launch the Taepo Dong "We have the same evidence last week that we have this week, which are signs of preparation," Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon said.