North Korea defies U.S. with new missile launches

SANCTIONS

The U.S. envoy who coordinates sanctions against the North, was in China earlier this week to enlist Beijing's help in getting tougher with North Korea.

China is the North's biggest benefactor and trade partner whose help would be essential for an effective sanctions regime, analysts said.

Daniel Pinkston, with the International Crisis Group in Seoul, said the test helps the North's military in its missile capabilities and could also be linked to the sanctions.

"Buyers, who are taking increased risks, want to be assured about the quality and reliability of the product," he said.

North Korea fired a rocket it said put a satellite into space in April. U.S., South Korean and other officials said the launch was a disguised test of the long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which could hit U.S. territory.

The North has also threatened to fire another Taepodong-2, but there has been no indication it has started preparations for placing a rocket on a launch pad and fuelling it, a process that takes about four days and can be seen by U.S. spy satellites, South Korean officials have said.

The North has raised tension in recently by saying it has started a program to enrich uranium, which could give it a second path to a nuclear bomb, threatening to attack the South, and extracting plutonium at its aging Yongbyon nuclear plant.

Analysts said the moves may be aimed at securing internal support for leader Kim Jong-il, 67 and thought to have suffered a stroke a year ago, as he prepares for his youngest son to succeed him at the head of Asia's only communist dynasty.

(Additional reporting by Aiko Hayashi in Tokyo and Seo Eun-kyung in Seoul, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Editing by Charles Dick and Jackie Frank)