North Korean missile 'could strike US coast'

The International Atomic Energy Agency took the diplomatically dramatic step yesterday of referring the crisis over North Korea's resumed nuclear weapons programmes to the United Nations Security Council, which could lead to the imposition of sanctions.

The move came as American intelligence officials said for the first time that they believed North Korea had an untested ballistic nuclear missile capable of reaching the west coast of the US.

The two developments are certain radically to increase tensions over the Korean peninsula. North Korea has already warned it would treat any agreement in the Security Council to impose sanctions as a "act of war".

The IAEA's board of governors made the decision in an emergency meeting in Vienna. Russia and Cuba abstained, raising concerns that referring the issue to the Security Council would unnecessarily exacerbate the stand-off.

"We consider the sending of this question to the UN Security Council to be a premature and counter-productive step," Russia's representative said. China, which like Russia has veto power at the UN, urged all sides to "exercise restraint and refrain from taking any actions that could escalate the issue".

The US has been trying to cool the crisis while focusing on Iraq. But the US deputy ambassador to the UN, Richard Williamson, said Washington was "pleased" with the move, adding: "We're confident we can resolve this issue diplomatically".

Testifying before a US Senate committee, the director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacoby, said Pyongyang's ability to strike US territory rested on a three-stage version of its Taepo Dong 2 missile. But it had not been fully tested and there were doubts about whether it could be successfully launched.

The warning about the long-range missile was reiterated at the same hearing, held by the Armed Forces Committee, by the CIA director, George Tenet.

Mohamed al-Baradei, the director of the IAEA, said his organisation, which was expected to make the decision on referral to the Security Council on 6 January, had to respond to the recent resumption of North Korea's nuclear programme. "The current situation sets a dangerous precedent," he said.

The crisis erupted in October, when North Korea told the US it was reneging on a 1994 agreement under which it mothballed its nuclear weapons activity. Washington suspended oil shipments to the country. Pyongyang ejected IAEA inspectors, disabled monitoring equipment and resumed activity at its main nuclear complex. It withdrew from the non-proliferation pact in January.

There was little visible sign of the stand-off in Pyongyang yesterday, where residents were preparing for the celebration on Sunday of the 61st birthday of their leader, Kim Jong Il. Large placards praising him as well as giant floral displays were being placed around the capital.

South Korea urged the IAEA last month to hold off sending the issue to New York while it pursued urgent diplomatic contacts. But Seoul said yesterday that the decision was a "direct and inevitable consequence" of North Korea's defiance. "North Korea's actions seriously endanger the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the whole East Asian region. They also threaten to undermine the international non-proliferation regime," the South Korean government said in a statement. But it said the IAEA's vote "does not mean the end of diplomatic efforts."

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, urged caution. "I don't think it is the moment to do sanctions," he said. "I do think sanctions will contribute to the opposite of what we want to obtain, which is defusing of the crisis."

It is unclear when the Security Council will take up the issue. Diplomats noted that ambassadors are overwhelmed by wrangling over Iraq and that a debate over North Korean sanctions will take weeks if not months. Any attempt to push sanctions through the UN will face the risk of being blocked by vetoes from Russia or China.