N. Korea Tests Missile Able to Reach Japan

North Korea for the first time successfully test-fired an improved Scud missile capable of reaching part of western Japan, a senior Japanese government official told reporters Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono later confirmed that he had been informed of the missile test in “an intelligence report.”

The senior official, who asked not to be identified, said an improved Scud missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) was fired into the Sea of Japan near Japan’s Noto Peninsula on the west coast of the main island of Honshu. Other government officials said North Korea also conducted three other test shots of Scud-B and Scud-C missiles with ranges of up to 312 miles on May 29 and 30.

Even though the missile, dubbed “Rodong No. 1,” traveled only half of its range, the senior official said the test showed that its development had been completed and that the North Koreans now are able to hit targets in part of western Japan.

Although North Korea’s development and export of missiles have been widely known for years, there have been no previous reports of North Korea firing a missile toward Japan. Combined with North Korea’s suspected development of nuclear weapons, the report of a missile targeted at an area off the coast of Japan was particularly alarming.

The new Rodong missile is an upgraded version of the Soviet Scud used by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. According to U.S. intelligence officials, North Korea has exported Scuds with a range of 312 miles to both Iran and Syria.

“In addition, North Korea is planning to develop missiles with a range of 1,300 kilometers (812 miles), which would bring all of western Japan within range,” the official was quoted as saying. Such a missile could not reach Tokyo, but its range would encompass Niigata on the Sea of Japan, Nagoya, Osaka and all of Honshu Island south and southwest of Osaka, and both Shikoku and Kyushu Islands.

The revelation of the missile test came shortly before North Korea, after meetings with U.S. officials at the United Nations, said Friday it would suspend its plan to withdraw today from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The senior official also was quoted as saying that Japan will join the United States in enforcing economic sanctions against North Korea if Washington decides to seek such action if North Korea does not change its mind.

“North Korean nuclear armament would pose a huge threat to Japan,” the official said. Without nuclear arms of its own, Japan depends upon the United States for protection against nuclear threats under its security treaty with Washington.

Shigeru Hatakeyama, director of the Defense Agency’s defense bureau, meanwhile, told a parliamentary committee that Japan does not have the means to destroy incoming missiles like the North Korean Scuds. Japan is now refining its U.S.-made Patriot missile defense system to cope with the new threat, he added.