The launch will undoubtedly be a test of an intermediate-range missile, not an attack.
He later issued a terse statement pointing to the need for defences to deal with emerging long-range missile threats.
Analysts say North Korea is years away from being able to accurately deliver a nuclear weapon atop a long-range missile.
U.S. officials recently said they obtained evidence that North Korea was gearing up for a launch of a long-range missile.
U.S. and South Korean officials have said that North Korea seems to be preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2.
Most recently, the importance of America's alliance with Japan has been underlined by North Korea's preparations to test a long-range missile.
As in the previous two events, the Navy shot down an Aries rocket simulating a Scud class short to medium range missile.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Get On With It: Time To Deploy Sea-Based Missile Defenses
Military and intelligence officials in Seoul and Washington have been watching for signs that North Korea might soon test another long-range missile.
South Korean officials have also said the North is poised to test-fire a medium-range missile capable of reaching the American territory of Guam.
And a U.S. decision to postpone a long-range missile test this month could provide a pretext for the North to declare a symbolic victory.
The start of presidential campaigning in South Korea comes amid reports that North Korea could carry out a long-range missile test in coming weeks.
India has said its 2, 000-2, 500km-range Agni missile is now ready for deployment, and it may be developing an intercontinental-range missile under cover of its Russian-assisted space programme.
So I think that -- again, that was in direct response to the testing of a long-range missile in late March, early April -- I forget the exact date.
Two U.S. State Department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the long-range missile was the Taepodong-2, North Korea's most advanced missile with a range of up to 15, 000 kilometers 9, 320 miles.
Recently, the U.S. government discovered in East Germany a number of undeclared, operational launchers (reportedly 6) for the INF Treaty-limited SS-23 shorter-range missile system, together with a significant quantity of associated missiles (reportedly as many as 24).
For instance, a given long-range missile may have fewer warheads aboard it than the number it can carry but, in the interest of arms control monitoring, a larger number is automatically assigned to each missile of that type.
The latter is exceedingly unlikely to result in the widespread deployment of even its top priority (namely, effective protection against short-range missile attacks) let alone its secondary priority (a modest defense of the continental United States against limited attacks).
The US and North Korea's neighbours fear Pyongyang's ultimate goal is to put a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile that could target the west coast of the US, but it is not believed to have mastered the technology yet.
BBC: North Korea in nuclear warning after UN rocket resolution
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee in Seoul that the North has moved a medium-range missile to its East coast for an imminent test firing or military drill, according to the semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap.
After the Bush Administration's compliance report was sent to Capitol Hill, the U.S. government discovered in East Germany a number of launchers (reportedly 6) for the INF Treaty-limited SS-23 shorter-range missile system, together with a significant quantity (reportedly as many as 24) associated missiles.
On Tuesday, Yediot Aharonot reported that Israeli analysts who reviewed videotapes of North Korea's missile tests concluded that alongside the various short range Scuds it sent over the Sea of Japan, Pyongyang also launched a Taeopodong-2 multi-stage long range missile capable of reaching Alaska.
As U.S. intelligence revealed last week, the destructive intercept was performed by a kinetic-kill vehicle (KKV) launched onboard a medium-range ballistic missile.
Even more alarmingly, Israel has no medium-range or long-range conventional missile arsenals.
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Evolutionary sea-based defenses, an early version of which conducted a successful intercept of a short-range ballistic missile two months ago, meet both of these tests.
Substantial Foreign Interest in Defenses: It is these threats, and the advantages of space-based defenses to ameliorate them, that have caught the attention of the Western European Union, whose member countries are already exposed to short- as well as longer-range ballistic missile threats.
The report, which was signed by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and sent to senators and U.S. representatives on defense committees, said Iran is continuing to develop other missiles that can hit Israel and Eastern Europe, including an extended-range Shabab-3 and a medium-range ballistic missile called the Ashura that can fly more than 1, 200 miles.
Born in the northern province of Chernihiv on the border with Russia, he spent much of his career as a missile engineer, at the missile range at Baikonur in Kazakhstan and the top-secret Pivdenie missile factory near Dnipropetrovsk, where he eventually became general director.
And so there are no specific preconditions around -- or specific obstacles around the missile range issue.
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Such a land handover would place all of Israel within Palestinian and Lebanese rocket, mortar and missile range.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Grimmacing to victory, grinning to defeat
The U.S. Army dedicated its largest solar photovoltaic (PV) system to date at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico today.
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