Bosworth warns N. Korea against 'ill-advised' missile launch+

SEOUL, March 9 Kyodo - Stephen Bosworth, the new U.S. special representative for North Korea policy,
warned North Korea on Monday against test-firing a long-range ballistic
missile, calling it ''extremely ill-advised.''

Bosworth also said the missile launch would be a violation of a U.N. resolution
adopted after North Korea launched missiles in 2006.
''This would be extremely ill-advised for North Korea to do this,'' Bosworth
told reporters after holding a series of consultations with top-ranking South
Korean officials.
North Korea has said it plans to put a communications satellite into orbit, but
outside experts believe it is a cover for a test-firing of a longer-range
ballistic missile.
Meanwhile, Wi Sung Lac, South Korea's chief delegate to the six-party talks on
ending the North's nuclear weapons program, said related countries have not yet
reached an agreement on what concerted actions would be taken if the North were
to launch a missile.
''We are still in the process of coordinating our positions and we need to
adjust our views to work out a consensus,'' Wi told reporters after talks with
Bosworth.
Bosworth's talks with South Korean officials came at a time of heightened
tension on the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier Monday, North Korea said it shut down the only inter-Korean military
communication lines in protest of the annual joint South Korea-U.S. military
drills that kicked off earlier in the day.
North Korea also warned any move to intercept the satellite it intends of
launch -- which other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing -- would
result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it.
''Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war,''
said the North Korean statement, carried by the official Korean Central News
Agency.
Bosworth said ''whether they describe it a satellite launch or something else
makes no difference. They would be a violation of the U.N. Resolution 1718.''
As for the North's denuclearization process, Bosworth reconfirmed the U.S.
fundamental goal of achieving a ''complete and verifiable denuclearization'' of
North Korea remains unchanged.
He also called the six-party talks ''the central element of our efforts to
continue with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.''
The multilateral denuclearization talks, involving the two Koreas, the United
States, China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since December due to
differences over ways to verify North Korea's nuclear activities.
Bosworth arrived in Seoul on Saturday for a four-day visit on the final leg of
his three-nation tour of Asia that already took him to Beijing and Tokyo.
On Monday, Bosworth met with President Lee Myung Bak, foreign minister Yu Myung
Hwan, Unification Minister Hyun In Taek and South Korea's chief delegate to the
six-party talks Wi.
==Kyodo