Venezuelan vice president backs North Korean missile tests

Venezuela dug into its lonely position Thursday in support of North Korea's recent missile launches, saying the communist country had every right to conduct such tests.

Photo: Venezuelan vice president backs North Korean missile tests

"They are exercising the right that every country has to conduct tests," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said of the Asian country's pre-dawn missile launches Wednesday into the Sea of Japan.

Rangel was responding to a reporter who questioned why Venezuela which calls itself a defender of peace against the United States' massive military power hasn't condemned the missile tests that have elicited complaints even from longtime diplomatic protecters like Russia and China.

"We do not have any critical position. There was no declaration of war," Rangel said of the seven missile launches, including a long-range Taepodong-2 believed to be able to reach parts of the United States. All landed without causing any damage, reports AP.

According to Bloomberg, President George W. Bush said the threat posed by North Korea's missile tests will lessen if the U.S. and its allies "speak with one voice" to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to disarm.

"He's going to pose less of a threat the more isolated he becomes," Bush said at a news conference following a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Washington. "The best way to solve this diplomatically is for all of us to be working in concert," Bush said. "We're working with our partners to make sure we speak with one voice."