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Call for N. Korea strike dismissed

A Standard Missile-3 interceptor is launched from the USS Shiloh off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, on Thursday during a successful test of the U.S. missile defense system. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Glenn Kessler Washington Post
A Standard Missile-3 interceptor is launched from the USS Shiloh off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, on Thursday during a successful test of the U.S. missile defense system. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

WASHINGTON – Senior Bush administration officials tried to ease tensions Thursday over a possible North Korean missile launch, playing down the idea of using the nascent missile defense system and brushing aside a provocative proposal to launch a pre-emptive strike against the missile site.

The officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, said they were pressing diplomatic options to persuade North Korea not to launch a long-range missile for the first time since 1998.

“We think diplomacy is the right answer, and that is what we are pursuing,” Hadley told reporters who were with President Bush in Budapest, Hungary.

Writing in the Washington Post on Thursday, former defense secretary William Perry and former assistant secretary of defense Ashton Carter contended that diplomacy has failed and that Bush should launch a pre-emptive strike against the facility on the northeastern coast of North Korea, where Pyongyang may be preparing a missile for a test launch.

“I appreciate Bill’s advice,” Cheney said in an interview with CNN. “I think, obviously, if you’re going to launch strikes at another nation, you’d better be prepared to not just fire one shot. And, the fact of the matter is, I think the issue is being addressed appropriately.”

Cheney minimized the threat posed by North Korea to the United States, saying that its “missile capabilities are fairly rudimentary” and that “their test flights in the past haven’t been notably successful.”

U.S. analysts say that they believe North Korea is preparing to launch a missile but that the satellite evidence is not conclusive.

Hadley suggested it would be a stretch to suggest that the U.S. missile defense system could intercept and destroy a North Korean missile. “It is a research, development and testing capability that has some limited operational capability,” he said.

In the Pacific on Thursday, a Navy ship intercepted a medium-range missile warhead above the earth’s atmosphere off Hawaii in the latest test of the U.S. missile defense program, the military said.

The Missile Defense Agency said the test had been scheduled for months and was not prompted by indications that North Korea was planning to test launch a long-range missile.

The USS Shiloh detected a medium-range missile after it was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, then fired a Standard Missile-3 interceptor. The interceptor shot down the target warhead after it separated from its rocket booster.