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US deploys anti-missile ships before DPRK launch

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-30 15:51

SEOUL -- The United States plans to deploy two missile-interceptor ships from South Korea on Monday, a military spokesman said, days before Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launches a rocket widely seen as a test of its longest-range missile.

US Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) sails off a naval port in Busan, about 420 km (262 miles) southeast of Seoul, March 30, 2009, heading to the East Sea (Sea of Japan). [Agencies]

The US, however, has no plans to shoot down the rocket seen by Washington as part of Pyongyang's goal to eventually develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.

His remarks were made after Timothy Keating, who leads the US Pacific Command, said in an interview with ABC News that the US military was ready to shoot down the missile if given the order.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," Gates said on "Fox News Sunday".

"If we had an aberrant missile, one that looked like it was headed for Hawaii, we might consider it," he said, adding the Pentagon does not believe DPRK can put a warhead on the missile or reach the US West Coast.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's (JMSDF) ballistic missile defense ships Chokai (bottom) and Kongou leave from a port of JMSDF Sasebo Base in Sasebo, southwestern Japan, March 28, 2009. Japan ordered its military on Friday to prepare to intercept any dangerous debris that might fall on its territory if a missile launch planned by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) goes wrong. [Agencies]

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