North Korea prepares for long-range missile test

Photo: North Korea prepares for long-range missile test

Pyongyang is at the final stage before launching a Taepodong-2 type ballistic missile, the mainstream conservative Sankei newspaper reported, citing unnamed government sources. The report did not explain what those final preparations involved.

The U.S. military has dispatched a spy plane and the Japanese Defense Agency has sent a destroyer with advanced reconnaissance equipment and an attack aircraft loaded with radar-jamming electronics to gather information, the report said.

Japanese Defense Agency and Foreign Ministry said the report could not be immediately confirmed and U.S. military officials were not available for comment Thursday.

Radio communications intercepted near a missile test-site in the northeast of the country changed in early May signaling an imminent launch, the Sankei reported, without elaborating, the AP reports.

An advanced version of Taepodong-2, believed to have a range of 15,000 kilometers (9,300 miles), could reach as far as the west coast of the United States, although there are widespread doubts about its reach and accuracy.

The North's missile capability is one of the most prominent security concerns in Northeast Asia, along with the isolated nation's nuclear program.

North Korea shocked Japan in 1998 by blasting a shorter-range Taepodong-1 missile over its territory and into the Pacific Ocean. The North said it was an attempt to put a satellite in orbit.