North Korea 'moves mid-range missile' - a vexing problem for the US

North Korea has shifted a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, South Korea's foreign minister says.

Kim Kwan-jin played down concerns that the missile could target the US mainland, and said the North's intentions were not yet clear.

Pyongyang earlier renewed threats of a nuclear strike against the US, though its missiles are not believed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

The US is responding to North Korea by moving missile defence shields to Guam.

Meanwhile, Russia said Pyongyang's attempts to "violate decisions of the UN Security Council are categorically unacceptable".

"This radically complicates, if it doesn't in practice shut off, the prospects for resuming six-party talks," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement on Thursday.

The talks involving North and South Korea, the US, Russia, China and Japan were last held in late 2008.

'Worst-case scenario'

Japan said it was co-operating closely with the US and South Korea to monitor the North's next move.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that although the rhetoric was "increasingly provocative", Tokyo would "calmly" watch the situation.

Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga earlier told reporters that Japan was braced for a "worst-case scenario".

The Pentagon said the shield on its Pacific island territory would be ready within weeks, adding to warships already sent to the area.

The North has previously named Guam among a list of possible targets for attack that included Hawaii and the US mainland.

Japanese and South Korea reports had suggested the missile being moved by the North was a long-range one with a capability of hitting the US west coast.

However, experts believe the North's most powerful rocket, which it test-fired last December, has a range of 6,000km (3,700 miles) and can reach no further than Alaska.

Kim Kwan-jin told MPs in a parliamentary defence committee meeting that the missile had "considerable range".

"The missile does not seem to be aimed at the US mainland. It could be aimed at test firing or military drills," he said.

Analysts have interpreted Mr Kim's description as referring to the Musudan missile, estimated to have a range up to 4,000km. Guam would be within that range.

Declaration of war

The North is believed to have its main military research centres in the east.

It has test-fired missiles from there before, and its three nuclear weapons tests were carried out in the east.

Despite its belligerent rhetoric, North Korea has not taken direct military action since 2010, when it shelled a South Korean island and killed four people.

But in recent weeks it has threatened nuclear strikes and attacks on specific targets in the US and South Korea.

It has announced a formal declaration of war on the South, and pledged to reopen a mothballed nuclear reactor in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

In its latest statement, attributed to a military spokesman, the North appeared to refer to continuing military exercises between the US and South Korea in which the US has flown nuclear-capable bombers over the South.

The statement said the "ever-escalating US hostile policy towards the DPRK [North Korea] and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed".

It promised to use "cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means of the DPRK" and said the "merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified".

The US Department of Defense said on Wednesday it would deploy the ballistic Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (Thaad) to Guam in the coming weeks.

The Thaad system includes a truck-mounted launcher and interceptor missiles.

US officials recently also announced that the USS John McCain, a destroyer capable of intercepting missiles, had been positioned off the Korean peninsula.

Some analysts say Pyongyang's angry statements are of more concern than usual because it is unclear exactly what the North hopes to achieve.

As well as the angry statements, the North has also shut down an emergency telephone line between Seoul and Pyongyang and stopped South Koreans from working at a joint industrial complex in the North.

The Kaesong complex, one of the last remaining symbols of co-operation between the neighbours, is staffed mainly by North Koreans but funded and managed by South Korean firms.

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he US has deployed missile defence systems in response to North Korea's threats against its neighbours.

The defences, which have the capability to shoot down missiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, will be ready within weeks, the Pentagon says.

Along with the US, North Korea's neighbours Japan and South Korea also have missile defences in the area.

• Japan: Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile defence systems; warships with Aegis anti-missile capability


• South Korea: Patriot Advanced Capability-2 defence systems


• Guam: US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (Thaad) to be deployed


• Regional waters: US Aegis-equipped warship USS John McCain moved to the Western Pacific in recent days

US newspapers react

The New York Times says: "The Obama administration was prudent to bolster its forces in the region. Many experts assume Mr Kim won't attack the world's top military power or its allies, but Washington has an obligation to guarantee that if this assumption is wrong, it can defend the homeland."

From the Washington Post: "What the administration really needs, however, is a new strategy for answering the provocations. Diplomacy hasn't worked; neither has pressuring China to restrain the Kim regime. What has are financial sanctions targeted at the ruling elite."

The New Jersey Star-Ledger says: "While many buy into the old disarmament-for-food storyline, there's another camp concerned this episode might be different: that Kim, with little more than a year on the job, might actually believe his nation has become a nuclear power."

North Korea - a vexing problem for the US

Every spring, cherry trees blossom in Washington, and North Korea's bluster and rhetoric reaches a fiery pitch.

Just as predictable as the changing seasons is Pyongyang's reaction to the annual military exercise between South Korea and the US, known as Foal Eagle.

The US says it has detected no signs that North Korea is actively preparing to go on the offensive - there has been no large-scale mobilisation of forces, for example.

Pyongyang's threats are usually conditional - if there is a real danger of a US attack, there will be a response, or a pre-emptive strike.

The tension usually goes down when the exercises end - until the next round of theatre and threats. But the possibility of an accident provoking a military confrontation is always real.

No creative ideas

North Korea has been a vexing problem for Washington for years, and so far the Obama administration has also failed to successfully engage Pyongyang and break this cycle - or curb its nuclear programme.

This year, the threats emanating form North Korea have sounded even more bombastic for several reasons.

There's a new young leader sitting in Pyongyang who's still asserting himself domestically and consolidating his power.

And South Korea has just elected its new president, Park Geun-hye - the country's first female leader. So, Kim Jong-un is - no doubt - testing her too.

The US reaction has remained mostly the same - with a few variations, officials in Washington repeat the line that North Korea's actions are not helpful and only further isolate the reclusive nation. There seem to be no creative ideas on the horizon.

Different rationale

During the Clinton administration, the US repeatedly cancelled military exercises to assuage Pyongyang's fears and defuse tension.

But more recently, Washington has matched the intensity of Pyongyang's rhetoric with a display of hardware.

After a deluge of 20 threats in a just a few weeks, the Obama administration also dispatched B-2 stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula.

The move was also meant to decrease pressure on South Korea to take unilateral action to sound tough in the face of its northern brethren.

But every attempt by the US and the international community to hold Pyongyang accountable, with sanctions for example, leads to even more erratic behaviour by the North Koreans.

And every time the US ignores Pyongyang's pleas for attention, responding with a resolve to continue military exercises, the North Koreans are further infuriated - partly because their thinking is driven by a different rationale.

They perceive US-South Korean defensive military exercises as potentially offensive, and analysts say the North Koreans believe their nuclear weapons are the only thing keeping them safe from a US attack.

Secret missions

President Obama spoke at the start of his first term about his willingness to extend a hand if America's foes were willing to unclench their fist.

Efforts to restart the six-party talks, which stalled in 2009, have failed.

And Pyongyang's behaviour makes it difficult for Mr Obama to be bold and engage in open, direct talks with the North Koreans without risking being lambasted by critics for caving in to threats and legitimizing Kim Jung-un.

Administration officials did travel to North Korea on secret missions last year to engage the newly-anointed leader to moderate his foreign policy.

One of the trips took place in April 2012 and was led by Joseph DeTrani - a North Korea expert who then headed America's National Counter-Proliferation Center.

Mr DeTrani, who is now president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an industry group, would not openly confirm to the BBC that he had been on a mission to Pyongyang.

But he spoke about the need for diplomacy while indicating that the American approach had been rebuffed.

"The North Koreans know the US and China are available in the six-party talks. Their rhetoric is over the top and puts them in a difficult position."

Mr DeTrani added that the US was handling the situation well and that it was up to North Korea to break the cycle.

Willing to engage?

US policy towards North Korea is partly driven by Washington's support for Japan and South Korea and efforts to show that the US remains in lock-step with allies in the face of North Korea.

Diplomacy with North Korea takes place mostly through the six-party talks, which also involve Japan, China, South Korea and Russia.

Denuclearisation is always the stated end goal of every discussion. Because of North Korea's fears, justified or not, this often undermines the basis of the talks.

Over the past four years, the Obama administration's posture on North Korea was also dictated by former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak's hardline stance towards the North.

But Christopher Nelson, an Asia expert and vice-president of Samuels International Associates, points out that while the new South Korean leader has responded with tough words to Pyongyang's rhetoric, she has also indicated that if the North Koreans are willing to resume North-South talks, denuclearisation would not have to be the state end goal.

Mr Nelson said there are indications from the North Korean team at the UN that Pyongyang is now willing to engage.

While this still needs to be tested, what's unclear is whether the US is ready to go along with this approach.

In public, and for now, it's unlikely that the US will signal any easing of its policy towards North Korea.

But if Mrs Park persists with her offer, the US could say it respects its ally's choice and will support the approach.

There will be many opportunities to explore this and other diplomatic options in policy towards North Korea.

The South Korean foreign minister is in Washington this week.

The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be heading to Asia next week for his first trip to the region in the new job - with stops in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul.

And President Park herself will meet President Obama in Washington in May.