S Korea opposes military reaction to North's launch

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SEOUL, Mar 30 (AP): President Lee Myung-bak said South Korea opposes any military response to North Korea's planned launch of a rocket, while Washington's defence chief said the US won't try to shoot it down.
The remarks by Lee and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates appear to reflect concerns that any tough reaction could send tensions spiking out of control at a time when the communist regime is warning that even UN sanctions would prompt it to quit nuclear disarmament talks.
North Korea says it will launch a communications satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8 as part of its space development programme. Regional powers, however, suspect the North is using the launch to test long-range missile technology.
South Korea, the US and Japan have warned the North that if it goes ahead with the launch it could face international sanctions under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution prohibiting ballistic activity by Pyongyang.
Pyongyang has said sanctions would violate the spirit of agreements in nuclear disarmament talks, and said it would treat the pacts as null and void if punished for exercising its right to send a satellite into space.
In an interview with the Financial Times published Monday, Lee said all countries, including China and Russia, oppose the North's plans. But Lee stressed that he is against using military means as punishment.
"What I do oppose is to militarily respond to these kind of actions," Lee said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the presidential office.
Lee also ruled out shuttering a joint industrial complex in North Korea - widely seen as a source of hard currency for the impoverished nation - as punishment. He said he does not believe "taking a harder stance" would be helpful in achieving Seoul's ultimate objective of ridding the North of nuclear programmes.
Commercial satellite imagery taken Sunday by DigitalGlobe clearly shows what appears to be a three-stage launch vehicle on the launch pad in Musudan-ni on North Korea's east coast, said Tim Brown, an analyst for globalsecurity.org.
However, it remains unclear whether the rocket is a long-range Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile or a space launch vehicle designed to carry a satellite, Brown said.
He noted that the service-level swing arms appear to be rotated away from the launch vehicle.
In addition to the long-range rocket, North Korea is preparing to launch a short- or medium-range missile, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sankei newspaper, citing several unnamed Japanese government sources, said the North is preparing to test-launch another missile from Wonsan, about 250 kilometres south of Musudan-ni. It said US, South Korean and Japanese intelligence analyses said the missile could be short or medium range.
The report said the North may conduct another missile test if the UN Security Council approves sanctions against it or if it cannot wrest concessions from the United States.
Meanwhile, two US destroyers capable of tracking and intercepting missiles were believed to be bound Monday for a mission to monitor the North's upcoming rocket launch.
The USS McCain left the South Korean port of Busan earlier Monday and the USS Chafee was set to depart later in the day, a US military spokesman said. He refused to divulge their destination, but South Korean news reports cited unnamed officials as saying the U.S. ships will monitor North Korea's rocket launch set for April 4-8.