N. Korea May Have Tested Missile

(AP)  North Korea apparently test fired a missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, raising new fears about Pyongyang's nuclear intentions just days after a U.S. intelligence official said the secretive Stalinist state had the ability in theory to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead.

News of the test launch first appeared in Japanese media reports, citing U.S. military officials as having informed the Japanese and South Korean governments of the test launch, which took the missile about 65 miles off the North Korean coast.

Later, the White House chief of staff said in a broadcast interview that there was an apparent test.

"It appears that there was a test of a short-range missile by the North Koreans and it landed in the Sea of Japan. We're not surprised by this," Andrew Card said. "The North Koreans have tested their missiles before. They've had some failures."

On Thursday, Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the U.S. Senate that the North Koreans knew how to arm a missile with a nuclear weapon — a potentially significant advance for the communist state.

He did not specify whether he was talking about a short-range or long-range missile, the latter believed capable of hitting the United States.

Two defense officials later said that U.S. intelligence analysts believe North Korea is several years away from being able to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile that could reach the United States from the Korean Peninsula.

Sunday's test-firing occurred on the eve of a crucial gathering at the United Nations to review global progress on curbing nuclear proliferation. North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003. The United States, however, is expected to seek a consensus for tough action against the North Koreans as well as the Iranians — both accused by Washington of having nuclear weapons or ambitions to build them — during the U.N. session.

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