North Korea Tests Long-Range Missile

The Taepodong-2 was the third of at least six missiles launched beginning at 2:33 p.m. EDT and ending four hours later. They included two short-range Scud missiles and three medium-range Nodongs, another type of Scud, Hadley said. It was the first time in recent memory that North Korea had launched so many missiles at once.

All the missiles apparently landed within 400 miles of the Japanese coast, with the last landing approximately 312 miles northwest of Japan's western city of Niigata, Japanese officials said.

U.S. surveillance observed all the launches, said an official at the Pentagon, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"None posed a threat," a Pentagon spokesman said in an e-mail account of the incident, and "no action [was] required." The Taepodong-2 missile failed after about 35 seconds, he said.

There were South Korean news reports that 10 missiles had been launched, but those reports could not be immediately confirmed.

A senior State Department official said the tests were "an affront to everybody, not just us," and that they would likely have a big effect on South Korean public opinion, which is already impatient with the flow of humanitarian assistance meant to induce the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, to join the world community.

The failure of diplomacy is also likely to embarrass China. Beijing, North Korea's biggest benefactor, has called on Pyongyang to return to a new round of nuclear disarmament talks, which involve six nations and have been stalled for the past six months. China's ability to prod the North Koreans back to the table was considered a key test of Beijing's aspirations for increased diplomatic clout in the region.

There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese Foreign Ministry to the missile tests, but a North Korea specialist at People's University in Beijing said the action puts China and other nations in a difficult position. "Generally it has not changed dramatically the major elements in the game," said Shi Yin Hong. "The first casualty will be the six-sided talks. Of course it embarrasses China, but it also embarrasses the U.S. It embarrasses mostly the South Koreans."

To counter the growing missile threat from the North, the United States plans to send Japan four defensive Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile batteries to be stationed on the island of Okinawa by the end of the year.

After the tests, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's chief cabinet secretary, said: "The fact that North Korea launched these missiles despite warnings from the international community is a grave issue not only regarding Japan's security but peace and stability for the international community and non-proliferation, and we will make a stern protest and express our regret to North Korea."

The Nodong is a medium-range Scud missile. The Taepodong-2 is a multi-stage missile with a possible range of 2,175 to 2,672 miles, meaning it could hit parts of Alaska.

North Korea's 1998 test involved a three-stage missile. The first stage splashed down in the Sea of Japan, the second crossed Japan's main island of Honshu, and a third stage -- detected by U.S. intelligence only weeks later -- broke up and traveled 3,450 miles downrange, falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Many analysts agree that North Korea is years away from building a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile. Its medium- and long-range missiles also have displayed chronic problems with accuracy.

The Bush administration has increased its insistence recently that North Korea abandon its missile program, but the administration has not hinted at any form of immediate military action.

During a recent visit with Koizumi, Bush called a possible missile launch by the North "unacceptable" and said North Korean leader Kim "is just going to have to make a decision: Does he want to be isolated from the world, or is he interested in being an active participant?"

Faiola reported from Tokyo. Correspondent Maureen Fan in Beijing and researcher Meg Smith in Washington contributed to this report.