North Korea Won’t Halt Missile Test

Ignoring international objections, North Korea said Wednesday that it will continue to develop long-range missiles reportedly capable of hitting Japan or South Korea.

The statement, carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, was the government’s first official response to recent media reports that the reclusive Communist state was preparing to test-fire a long-range Scud missile.

U.S. officials plan to meet with Li Hyong Chol, director of American affairs in Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, this week in New York to try to persuade the North not to test the new missile. Going ahead would be “very disappointing,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Tuesday.

The North Korean government on Wednesday dismissed the news reports about an impending test-fire as “rumors,” but added that Washington and others should not interfere with its missile program.

“When a missile is developed and conditions are ripe, we may test-fire the missile at any time we think fit and in this or that way,” an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

“As far as the missile-firing test is concerned, it belongs to our sovereignty, and no one else is entitled or has any ground to meddle with it,” he said.

Washington hopes to push for a freeze on North Korean missile production and exports. But talks have stalled since April, when both sides opened negotiations in Berlin.