North Korea Raises Tensions With Missile Test That Can Reach The United States

South Korean children walk by military displays in Seoul as intelligence reports claim the North are gearing up to test-fire a missile capable of reaching the U.S. (Photo from The Daily Mail)

Tensions Mount Between North and South Korea -- Washington Post

SEOUL, Feb. 3 -- Stinging insults, sudden cancellations of military agreements and dark warnings of "unavoidable" war are spilling out of North Korea almost daily. On Tuesday, media reports here and in Japan said North Korea is preparing to test-launch a long-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

The target for much of this bluster and saber-rattling is the government of South Korea, which has stopped giving its heavily armed communist neighbor unconditional aid.

Last year, the new South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, ended his predecessors' "Sunshine Policy" toward the isolated North. For nearly a decade, that policy had soothed nerves on the Korean Peninsula by giving the truculent-but-poor government of Kim Jong Il large amounts of food, fertilizer and trade concessions, all without conditions and without asking questions about nuclear weapons, missile proliferation or human-rights abuses.

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More News On North Korea

North Korea to 'Test Missile Capable of Striking U.S.' -- FOX News
Satellite images 'show North Korea preparing to test fire missile that could hit the U.S.' -- Daily Mail
North Korea Stirs Missile Worries -- New York Times
Official: NKorea gearing up to fire missile -- Yahoo News/AP
North Korea preparing for ballistic missile launch: media -- Yahoo News/Reuters
N Korea 'planning missile test' -- Press Association
North Korea 'prepares to test long range missile' -- Times Online
NKorea may be set for long-range missile launch: reports -- AFP
Obama calls S Korea's Lee on nuclear issue -- China View
North Korea vows to remain nuclear -- Press TV
Source: U.S. envoy to North Korea to get new post -- Iraq -- CNN
SCENARIOS-Will North Korea launch a war? -- Reuters
A look at North Korea's missile arsenal -- AP
Prepare for North Korean instability -- L.A. Times opinion
North Korea stirs up trouble -- Asia Times editorial