Missile Tests

A test of key parts of an emerging U.S. antimissile shield was scrubbed because of bad weather in Kodiak, where a target missile was to have been launched, the Defense Department said. The $85-million test -- designed chiefly to collect data, rather than shoot down the target -- may be rescheduled for today or Saturday, said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman. The interceptor missile was to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc.

Iran said it had tested a new anti-ship missile fired by a submarine during war games, raising concern that it could disrupt vital oil tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf amid its standoff with the West over its nuclear activities. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a tough tone over the nuclear issue, saying his country's decision to pursue such technology was irreversible.

The U.S. military will test its missile defense system Thursday, the fullest demonstration since a pair of tests grounded the program 18 months ago. Military officials are seeking to lower expectations. Although a target missile will be fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, and an interceptor rocket topped with a "kill vehicle" will launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, military and industry officials say the goal isn't to actually shoot down the missile.

North Korea and Iran, two fiercely anti-American regimes, appear to be bolstering their military and diplomatic cooperation, including the possible sale of missiles to the Tehran government, intelligence sources said.

China said Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution to penalize North Korea for test-launching missiles would heighten tensions and set back efforts to resume talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. But it also issued a rare warning to North Korea to watch what it does next. "The Chinese side thinks the concerned draft is an overreaction. If approved, it will ... increase tension," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Japan and the United States agreed Monday to delay voting on a proposed Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its surprise missile tests to give Chinese diplomats visiting the North a chance to work out a solution. But Japan escalated its tough talk against Pyongyang, with top government officials suggesting that the country's pacifist constitution permits Tokyo to launch a first strike at missile bases if it faces an imminent attack.

U.S. and Asian officials are trying to use the atmosphere of crisis generated by North Korea's missile tests as the impetus for a fresh diplomatic push on the North's weapons, according to participants in meetings here this weekend. The push came as the North adopted an increasingly defiant tone, saying that U.N. sanctions would be tantamount to war.

Anyone wondering how seriously Japan treated the salvo of ballistic missiles that North Korea fired its way Wednesday should consider this: National broadcaster NHK canceled the daily installment of its wildly popular morning TV drama to make way for continuous news coverage. The last time NHK saw fit to cancel the show, which is part of the morning routine for millions of Japanese, was in 1995, when a massive earthquake devastated the port city of Kobe.

President Bush on Friday defended his administration's policies on North Korea, questioning claims that the regime in Pyongyang had grown more dangerous since he entered the White House. The North Koreans test-fired seven missiles this week, and Bush said he still did not know whether one of them, a long-range intercontinental missile, was aimed at the U.S. or even could have flown that far.

When Pyongyang casts its eyes around the neighborhood, it sees a relatively malleable South Korea and a reasonably sympathetic China and Russia that both share its hard-line communist heritage. Confident that the three neighbors may be annoyed by this week's missile tests but not threatened enough to react strongly, the North Korean regime can concentrate on its real objectives.